MOVIE REVIEW
Sarah's Key (2010)
Julien Bonet/The Weinstein Company
"Sarah's Key" combines two initially different topics — the mass deportation of Parisian Jews in 1942 and modern-day Parisian property values — in a forthright, direct and respectful way. The main characters are two women of fearsome intelligence and drive. One is Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas), an American expat and savvy journalist. The other is Sarah Starzynski (Mélusine Mayance), a blonde 10-year-old who learns incredibly fast what it's going to take for her to survive. But the way in which the stories are combined doesn't make it clear for whom this movie is aimed.
Continue reading “History Repossesses French Flat” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Horrible Bosses (2011)
John P. Johnson/Warner Brothers Pictures
Hollywood used to be much better about dealing with issues of class. For starters, class used to be an issue addressed in its movies. During the Great Depression, when studios took the trouble to dress up their leading actors in glamorous and ridiculous situations, they also ensured the characters were at minimum aware of their privilege. Hollywood also used to be able to differentiate between people deserving of the audience's sympathy and a bag of tools. "Horrible Bosses" proves conclusively that Hollywood nowadays can do neither.
Continue reading “Swimming With Sharks, or Sinking to Their Level” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 (2011)
Warner Brothers Pictures
The end of the “Harry Potter” saga is more than the culmination of a decade-spanning big-screen standard. For the legions of fans that have devoured J. K. Rowling’s books and their movie adaptations, most of whom are now well into their college years and beyond, this is in many ways a coda to childhood itself.
So it’s no great surprise the crowds have turned out in droves and a record-breaking opening weekend is expected. The auditoriums showing “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2” after all are serving witness to what is essentially the world’s largest wake, a final chance to toast Harry, Ron, Hermione, Voldemort, Muggles, Hogwarts, Dumbledore, Snape and the other familiars before they go gently into the proverbial good night.
Continue reading “When Harry Met His Fate . . .” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Bobby Fischer Against the World (2011)
Dogwoof
Some celebrities are born. Others are made through willpower. Rarer are celebrities who attain such status in spite of themselves due to their sheer talent. Bobby Fischer was one of these, a chess player of unusual skill who began as a child prodigy. His victory, watched by millions, over Boris Spassky in the 1972 World Chess Championship in Reykjavik was a metaphor for the Cold War. And then he dropped off the radar.
This question of what happened is not really answered by director Liz Garbus in this documentary. Originally produced by HBO, it is being screened theatrically in Britain despite coming off very much like a made-for-TV documentary. This shows the hunger people still have for information about Fischer. But it is never clear what point Ms. Garbus, who has extensive documentary production experience, wanted to make about Fischer’s life.
Continue reading “A Life in a Dead Draw” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Ward (2011)
Arc Entertainment
A full decade since “Ghosts of Mars,” John Carpenter’s long-awaited return to directing has attracted no fanfare at all. In fact, “The Ward” will be unceremoniously showing on a single screen in New York, as well as Los Angeles, in addition to video-on-demand. It’s a shame, because it’s scary good. Not that it’s anywhere near Mr. Carpenter’s classics such as “Halloween” or “Escape From New York.” And it’s not going to renew his relevancy the way “Scream” did for Wes Craven. But that doesn’t mean you won’t shiver throughout your subway ride home.
Continue reading “One Freaks Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Putty Hill (2011)
Andrew Laumann/Cinema Guild
Detroit is a city where people searching for work have abandoned whole neighborhoods. New Orleans is still in the process of rebuilding after Katrina. But it's Baltimore that has become the emblem of the problems facing America's working class. HBO's "The Wire" spent five seasons showing the nuances of the city and its war on drugs to a transfixed international audience. And now "Putty Hill," a small independent movie, shows what drugs have done to the white working-class sections of Baltimore as well.
Continue reading “In the City of Desperate Living” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Last Circus (2010)
Diego López Calvín/Tornasol Films
Staking an immediate claim as the most delirious cinematic fever of whichever year it may eventually see the light of day, "The Last Circus" is unhinged. Directed by Álex de la Iglesia in a style which knows no restraint, it sets off at a mad sprint through a borderline-tasteless allegory of the Spanish Civil War and then just barrels straight ahead. It lassos echoes of the country's subsequent history into an overheated and baroque revenge tragedy, in which a pair of disfigured amoral circus clowns blaze away at each other with automatic weapons until narrative logic is a distant memory. None of which should be taken as a complaint.
Continue reading “Laugh, Clown, Laugh” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Divide (2011)
2011 SXSW Conferences & Festivals
"The Divide" plays to its strengths and doesn't chicken out of its logical conclusion; so as post-apocalyptic sci-fi downers go, it certainly has the courage of its throat-slitting, bone-snapping convictions. It also runs straight into the inherent nihilism problem. The idea that human beings are feral embittered creeps with morals and values that crumble under stress until "Lord of the Flies" looks like a nursery rhyme is cathartic, resonant and a path that has been worn smooth. It's a closed loop of narrative from which all surprise has drained.
Continue reading “Apocalypse Again” »
MOVIE REVIEW
As If I Am Not There (2010)
2011 Seattle International Film Festival
"As If I Am Not There" is adapted from a novel by Slavenka Drakulić about a Bosnian woman during the Balkan wars of the early '90s, although no such identifying information is supplied until the end credits. Some works of art lend themselves well to adaptations; and some stories are so powerful that they deserve to be told in every possible medium. The main question this movie raises is: Why does it exist?
Continue reading “No Woman’s Land” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Love Etc. (2011)
Paladin
In the era of "Jersey Shore," "Super Size Me" and "Kate Plus 8," there is nothing particularly unique about a film that follows its subjects for a year of their lives. Moreover, to focus such a film on the idea of romance seems like well-worn territory. And yet Jill Andresevic's feature debut "Love Etc." keeps the format fresh, light and surprisingly meaningful. The documentary — which chronicles the ups and downs of five relationships — accomplishes the feat of communicating something very real and honest about love while never taking itself too seriously.
Continue reading “Love Makes the Center of the World Go Round” »