MOVIE REVIEW
The Zero Theorem (2013)
Voltage Pictures
It’s one those enduring mysteries of cinema: How does Terry Gilliam continue to attract such cascades of goodwill? I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t dearly love the maverick to finally produce the masterpiece he’s been threatening his whole career. For many years now each new film has been a flawed, compromised release, but we always accept Mr. Gilliam’s word that it wasn’t his fault this time (the death of a principle actor, the Weinsteins) and eagerly come back for more, desperately hoping that this will be the one. You can imagine executives feeling the same, warming to his passion and unbridled energy and taking a chance on his perpetually roving and fearless imagination. Somehow, anyway, Mr. Gilliam managed to convince a new round of financiers to give him another shot, and from all accounts it was pretty much plain sailing this time.
Continue reading “The Meaning of Life Unraveled” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Red 2 (2013)
Jan Thijs/Summit Entertainment
In “Red 2,” Bruce Willis’s retired C.I.A. operative Frank Moses and his former unwitting hostage/ward, Sarah (Mary-Louise Parker), very briefly enjoy their domestic bliss shopping at Costco before Marvin (John Malkovich) suddenly emerges from the next aisle urging them to join him. A Cold War-era document concerning a missing nuclear weapon has surfaced online (opportunity to name-drop WikiLeaks/Reddit/2chan missed), implicating Frank and Marvin by name. Just about every major power’s intelligence agency, infiltrated by its own bloodthirsty warmonger, wants to capture the two in order to secure the weapon of mass destruction and serve its particular agenda. And Frank’s friend (Helen Mirren), foe (Lee Byung-hun) and old flame (Catherine Zeta-Jones) have each enlisted to be hot on his trail.
Continue reading “Stop Worrying and Love the Gun” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Lady (2011)
Magali Bragard/Cohen Media Group
"The Lady," directed by Luc Besson, is a biographical melodrama set against the last 30 years of tumult in Myanmar. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, here played by Michelle Yeoh, is the lady in question: the daughter of assassinated Myanmar revolutionary, Gen. Aung San. Buoyed by her British husband and thousands of supporters, she endured years of house arrest and intimidation by the military junta and in turn became a leader in the ongoing fight for democracy.
From a Westerner's perspective, the film is a fascinating look at an oppressive dictatorship and the woman who stood in its way, although it never quite escapes the trappings of a typical Hollywood-style biopic, replete with clunky acting and an overly aggressive musical score. Perhaps Mr. Besson would disagree, but audiences are sophisticated enough to appreciate the gravity of a massacre or the wistfulness of returning home without grand, sweeping music at every cue. "The Lady" is at its best when it does away with the bells and whistles and focuses on the story itself.
Continue reading “Woman of Destiny” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Anonymous (2011)
Reiner Bajo/Columbia Pictures
Roland Emmerich has never been one to let history get in the way of a good story. His 2000 film, “The Patriot,” took untold liberties with the facts of the American Revolution, idolizing Mel Gibson’s Benjamin Martin while utterly damning the actions of the British. It should come as no real surprise, then, that Mr. Emmerich luxuriates in creating a wildly and wholly inaccurate world of Elizabethan-era London for his latest picture, “Anonymous.”
Utilizing a discredited niche conspiracy theory that William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall) was a bumbling fraud and a mere front for the refined Earl of Oxford (a brooding and camp Rhys Ifans) as the basis for this alternative history, Mr. Emmerich and scribe John Orloff make the critical mistake of promoting this faction as in any way credible.
Continue reading “The Most Unkindest Cut of All” »
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
Mr. Nice (2010)
Internationales Filmfest Oldenburg
"How can you declare war on plants," muses Howard Marks, having become the biggest marijuana dealer in 1980s Britain without really trying and found himself squarely in the law's crosshair. "Ineffectually" turns out to be the answer, even when fighting someone born to be mild. Played by Rhys Ifans in full shaggy-dog mode in Bernard Rose's loose but very smart biopic "Mr. Nice," Mr. Marks appears to be as unhardened a criminal as they come, an amiable loafer who drifts into dope at Oxford University and never drifts out again.
Continue reading “Accidental Birth of an Anarchist” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 (2010)
Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros. Pictures
The beginning of the story’s end comes to life in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1,” the seventh and penultimate entry in the cinematic juggernaut. Less a conventional “H. P.” film than a road movie rocked by physical and hormonal turmoil, David Yates’s third crack at the franchise goes to a dark, interesting place, even if the whole enterprise feels rather played-out, so last decade.
Continue reading “The Fellowship of the Horcrux” »
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Angelo Valentino/British Independent Film Awards
Danny Boyle found himself in an especially cold and wet part of London on the evening of Nov. 30 but his thoughts were clearly further afield. One would have expected him to be entirely jubilant, considering he had just picked up both the “Best British Film” and “Best Director” prizes at the British Independent Film Awards for “Slumdog Millionaire.” The film was shot on location in Mumbai which had made headlines the previous week for far more tragic reasons as real life scenes of terrorist violence were played out on its streets. Mr. Boyle was mindful that his film had gained a sense of topicality that no sane man would ever have wished for.
Continue reading “‘Slumdog’ Has Its Day at British Independent Film Awards” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
David Lukacs/Miramax Films
The new British film “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” comes from a long line of films about the Holocaust, a subject that can often be used as a shorthand for gravitas and importance. As a result, there seems to be the actual Holocaust (the murder of six million Jews) and the Holocaust of the cinematic imagination. These are images we have come to be familiar with: the red flags adorned with the swastikas, the cold, cruel countenance of the archetypal blond Nazi officer, and actors with shaved heads and fake tattoos on their forearms. “Striped Pajamas” is a film in this tradition. It tugs at our heartstrings while attempting to deal with horrors beyond our comprehension. While the movie does end up confronting these issues in a surprisingly complex way, it arrives at its point almost too late in the game to be effective.
Continue reading “Kid-Gloving the Holocaust” »