Merrick Morton/20th Century Fox
MOVIE REVIEW
Gone Girl (2014)
After failing to inspire warm fuzzies or much Oscar gold with “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “The Social Network,” David Fincher seems to have resigned himself to familiar territory. But his ambition for recognition doesn’t seem to have subsided, as he has attached himself to genre material with a literary pedigree like “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and now “Gone Girl.”
MOVIE REVIEW
To the Wonder (2013)
Mary Cybulski/Studiocanal
Robert Delaunay described painting as being "by nature a luminous language," and "To the Wonder" continues Terrence Malick's earnest progress toward a similarly lustrous alphabet with which to communicate with a filmgoing audience. The film takes the approach tried in "The Tree of Life" and shifts to the next logical notch, leaving vocal narrative even further behind in the rearview mirror and dealing instead in poetic epigrams delivered as whispered voice-over, and magic-hour sunbeams dappling shores and fields and wildlife; all as a means to tell an ostensibly conventional real-world drama of romantic strife. Whether this actually accords with the nature of the medium in question or goes against the grain is a divisive question. Your answer will probably determine if the response to the film is to be rapture or rampage, or both.
MOVIE REVIEW
Extract (2009)
Sam Urdank/Miramax Films
“I am the Great Cornholio! I need T. P. for my bunghole!” What in the world ever happened to Mike Judge, who supplied such 1990s cultural milestones as MTV’s “Beavis and Butt-Head” and blazed the trail for the likes of Ricky Gervais with “Office Space” before dropping off the radar of popular culture? Perhaps only his most diehard fans were aware of the unceremonious release of 2006’s “Idiocracy,” which 20th Century Fox dumped onto about 100 screens without advertisements or trailers. No matter, Mr. Judge is back, and we have to settle for that sorry excuse for comedy known as bromance no longer.
MOVIE REVIEW
State of Play (2009)
Glen Wilson/Universal Studios
Even though a BBC miniseries serves as its basis, “State of Play” has a scrapbook worth of major American news items from the past decade such that it might as well tout itself as inspired by true events. The death of researcher Sonia Baker (Maria Thayer), the first domino to fall in the film, brings to mind the 2001 murder of Chandra Levy. Standing in for Rep. Gary Condit is Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), a congressman whose extramarital affair with Sonia comes to light as a result of the ensuing investigation. The film has a plethora of these familiar stories about crooked politicians, war-mongering defense contractors and journalists grappling with the quandary of everything from the “fair and balanced” slogan to gossip Web sites like the Drudge Report. When blogging colleague Della Frye (Rachel McAdams) requests some information, our hero journalist Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) responds sarcastically: “I have to read a couple of blogs before I can form an opinion.” Zing.
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