Clik here to view.
Sophisticated Lady: The Sultry Yanna Avis Is No Innocent Ingénue
Yanna Avis sings. (Stephen Sorokoff) New York used to be a swinging town after dark. Now it’s just lonely. After dessert is served, the cafes close. After the boring, obligatory standing ovations that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Picture Imperfect: Sentimental and Circuitous, 33 Postcards Misses the Mark
Zhu Lin and Guy Pearce star in 33 Postcards. The dependable Australian actor Guy Pearce is always welcome, even in a well-meaning dud like 33 Postcards. Versatile and unpredictable, he’s played to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Into Thin Air: You’ll Want to Erase This Generic Spy Movie from Your Memory
Erased This not-so-thrilling espionage thriller begins, like half the thrillers these days, with a bank robbery. The scene shifts from a safe deposit box in Belgium to the global affairs department at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In What Richard Did, Young Actor Jack Reynor Is Plunged into a Tragedy No One...
What Richard Did What Richard Did, not to be confused with What Maisie Knew, is a tender, concisely written, sensitively acted and carefully directed film from Ireland about the devastating...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Campfire Carnage: Gratuitous Violence Ensues in Slash-and-Dice Thriller Black...
Lake Bell, Katie Aselton and Kate Bosworth in Black Rock. Apparently I’m not alone in my growing disgust with movies glorifying the physical and mental abuse of people in general and the butchering of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
All’s Well That Ends Well: Julianne Moore Shows Her Lighter Side in The...
Julianne Moore in The English Teacher. Julianne Moore, the non-stop queen of the low-budget indie-prod business, is back. She’s made so many movies I’ve lost track of them. (The Internet lists 71...
View ArticleClik here to view.
In a Jam: Eco-Terrorism Thriller The East Ties Itself in Moralistic Knots
Ellen Page, center, stars in The East. A good cast and the speed-dial theme of eco-terrorism should really add up to a film of more substantial mind over matter than the dull, talky and ultimately...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Whiskey Sour: Irish Conspiracy Thriller Shadow Dancer Fails to Thrill
Clive Owen stars in Shadow Dancer. Not everything from Ireland travels as well as the whiskey. Like mud-thick porridge, Shadow Dancer, another dreary, confusing conspiracy thriller about the Irish...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Public Indecency: American Mary Is a Campy Hoot Until It Tests Your Tolerance...
American Mary. Touted as the Next Big Thing in horror, the creepy Soska sisters, Jen and Sylvia, are the writing-directing team that polluted the ozone with a numbing low-budget cult favorite called...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Far From Perfect: Fifties Period Piece Far From Heaven Is All Style and No...
Kelli O’Hara and Nancy Anderson in Far From Heaven. Turning the great 2002 film Far From Heaven, Todd Haynes’s magnificent satire of Hollywood’s “women’s pictures” from the sanitized, repressed 1950s,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Flower Power: Violet & Daisy Is Wilted On Arrival
Alexis Bledel and Saoirse Ronan in Violet and Daisy. Two years ago, when a pretentious, lunkheaded little thriller without thrills called Violet & Daisy premiered at the 2011 Toronto International...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Manhunt: The Prey Is a Bouillabaisse of Suspenseful Energy and Implausible...
The Prey The Prey is a busy French thriller that hits the ground running. With more action than one of the Jason Bourne programmers, it’s a strenuous stew of violent surprises and expeditious plot...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Superbad: Man of Steel Is Redundant, Unnecessary and a Colossal Waste of...
Henry Cavill and Amy Adams in Man of Steel. Just what we need now. Another movie about Superman. Man of Steel qualifies as one of those bloated, Byzantine summer blockbusters that is here today, gone...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Brainless Brutality: The Purge Is a Virulent Travesty of the Profanity It...
Rhys Wakefield in The Purge. As a nauseating variation on the home-invasion theme, The Purge is as sickening as it is dreary. The year is too close for comfort (2022, to be exact) but the events are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Behind the Wheel: Vehicle 19 Is an Exhilarating if Implausible Tour of South...
Vehicle 19 From South Africa, a better-than-average action thriller called Vehicle 19 pits blue-eyed, charismatic Paul Walker, star of the noisy, ridiculous Fast and Furious programmers (he’s currently...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Maniac: A Gore Fest of Nauseating Brutality
Elijah Wood in Maniac. As trashy, pointless slice-and-dicers go, a grotesque chamber of horrors called Maniac has arty production values and features a creepy but sincere central performance by Elijah...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unfinished Song: Life-Affirming Old-Age Flick Wraps You Tenderly in a...
Gemma Arterton in Unfinished Song. In the feel-good-with-a-tear-in-your-eye tradition of such polished, sentimental British films for grownups as Calendar Girls, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
World War Z: Apocalyptic Zombie Flick Towers Above Every Other Alleged Summer...
Brad Pitt in World War Z. Zombie movies are so many light-years away from everything I care about that I faced World War Z with the kind of dread usually reserved for colonoscopies and root canals. But...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Vamped Up: Byzantium Would Make Dracula Proud
Saoirse Ronan in Byzantium. It’s been almost 20 years since acclaimed Irish director Neil Jordan’s lush, atmospheric vampire epic Interview with a Vampire, but he’s forgotten nothing. Now the master of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Family Dysfunction: Petunia Epitomizes the American Dream Gone Sour
Christine Lahti and Tobias Segal. At the movies, dysfunctional families are a dime a dozen, but in the episodic, fitfully amusing comedy Petunia, you get the most offbeat family of wackos since The...
View Article