Category Archives: Reviews

REVIEW: A Dangerous Method

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A Dangerous Method
Directed by: David Cronenberg
Written by: Christopher Hampton (screenplay & play), John Kerr (book)
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen and Vincent Cassel

David Cronenberg is a director obsessed with the crossroads of violence and sex.  His films vary greatly in both tone and narrative structure.  For proof (since we are soon talking about science) lay down the science fiction horror show Videodrome next to his more recent pulpy small-town thriller A History of Violence.

It makes since, then, that a film about the birth of psychoanalysis, revolving around the violent sexual relationship between Dr. Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and his patient Sabina Spielren (Keira Knightley), would be a work best fit for someone like Cronenberg.  A Dangerous Method is not a straight-forward exercise in period filmmaking like its costumes and curiously English-speaking Europeans suggest, though.  The film begins intent on dispelling that rumor, as Spielren howls with bursts of rage and laughter in the claustrophobic confines of a horse carriage.  She is dragged out by a group of men and taken into Dr. Jung’s care in Switzerland.

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REVIEW: Immortals

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Immortals
Directed by: Tarsem Singh
Written by: Charley Parlapanides & Vince Parlapanides (screenplay)
Starring: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Freida Pinto and John Hurt

Unlike most bad movies, Immortals is quite beautiful to look at.  From the plethora of computer-generated vistas to the shimmering metal of every blood-tainted sword, director Tarsem Singh takes the lifeless screenplay and plows his way through it with a visual grandeur that dwarfs most other modern action movies.

The initial image is of the mighty Titans, who in Greek lore are the greatest threat to the Gods.  Here they are dwarfed down to human size as opposed to the mighty renditions in the Disney version of Hercules or the God of War video games.  There is a lightning-quick battle between them and Zeus’ crowd, though that King of the Gods is missing his thunderous super powers as well.

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REVIEW: Tabloid

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Tabloid
Directed by: Errol Morris
Written by: N/A
Starring: Joyce McKinney, Peter Tory, Kent Gavin and Jackson Shaw

Tabloid is what you would expect from an Errol Morris documentary, which is the unexpected.  With a career that includes films about a former Secretary of Defense, a Holocaust denier and a pet cemetery, it’s impossible to know what his lens will focus on next.

In this latest endeavor, he fixates on Joyce McKinney, a woman who was hounded by the British paparazzi in the 70s after a kidnapping scandal with her Mormon boyfriend.  Morris tells this story largely through talking head interviews with McKinney and members of the tabloids who covered her from various angles.  To simply say that it is a wildly entertaining film would ironically be to sell it short of its purpose, which is to deconstruct the entire idea of entertainment.

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REVIEW: J. Edgar

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J. Edgar
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
Written by: Dustin Lance Black (screenplay)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench and Naomi Watts

Two men are fighting over a woman.  One declares that he may in fact be ready for a wife, while the other, in a fuming rage, declares that he cannot marry that woman.  He smashes some glasses and throws the first punch.  Not to be outdone, the other man fights back with all his strength, but to no avail.  The other man has him pinned to the ground.  And then they kiss.

That is the climax of J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood’s latest directorial endeavor and the sliest genre subversion since his masterful acting/directing one-two punch in 2008’s Gran Torino.  He is of course filming the illusive FBI titan J. Edgar Hoover, who here is embodied by Leonardo DiCaprio in his finest screen performance.

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REVIEW: Attack the Block

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Attack the Block
Directed by: Joe Cornish
Written by: Joe Cornish
Starring: John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, Nick Frost and Luke Treadaway

Imagine the difficulty of trying to mug someone during an alien invasion.  You’ve just pulled a knife on an unsuspecting “Lone Woman At Night” (a stock character if ever there was one) and are about to collect your dues from her purse, when the car next to you explodes after something from the sky hits it.

If you find that a hard premise to relate to, you may have trouble with the beginning of Attack the Block, an alien invasion film set in the ghetto of South London.  Moses (John Boyega) and his gang of teenage would-be thugs fend off extraterrestrials after ruining the night of Sam (Jodie Whittaker), a new nurse who they eventually find out lives in their same apartment building.

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ARCHIVE REVIEW: V for Vendetta

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V for Vendetta
Directed by: James McTeigue
Written by: Andy & Larry Wachowski (screenplay), Alan Moore (graphic novel)
Starring: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, John Hurt, and Stephen Rea

You can’t blame Alan Moore for not wanting his name put on adaptations of his graphic novels.  It all began with the atrocious adaptation of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the tradition carried on with the below-average take on his most renowned work, Watchmen.  In between those two garbage heaps though, one of his graphic novels was given justice.  That movie was V for Vendetta (300 was just pretty.)

Though the Wachowski Brothers switch the focus of the novel to represent restrained rebellion against government rather than all-out anarchy, the movie still moves along with a purposeful pace and terrific action sequences.  Moore was still outraged at their nerve, and again, you can’t really blame him.  Unlike the other adaptations though, this one was made with more than a cash-in in mind.

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REVIEW: The Trip

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The Trip
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom
Written by: N/A
Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Claire Keelan and Margo Stilley

The Trip blends the line of fiction and reality so seamlessly that by the end you’re left uncertain of what you’ve seen.  As it unfolds it is clear that you’re watching a movie, but there’s something different about it.  It could be that there was no actual shooting script and that the actors are playing themselves (in a Curb Your Enthusiasm kind of way), but it’s not just that.

What Michael Winterbottom’s film does so brilliantly is comment on reality with a very close fictional version.  Its comedy is born out of deep personal truth.  This undertaking requires tremendous efforts from the two lead performers, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon.  Steve is asked by The Observer to travel around the UK and try the finest restaurants.  His semi-girlfriend backs out, so he asks Rob, who is happily married.

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REVIEW: Submarine

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Submarine
Directed by: Richard Ayoade
Written by: Richard Ayoade (screenplay)
Starring: Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Sally Hawkins and Noah Taylor

Richard Ayoade will probably emerge as a “unique” new voice of independent cinema after this debut feature.  Submarine is exactly the kind of movie that can be a cross-over hit in America.  It’s got everything critics and its built-in audience adore: a spunky sense of humor, an aesthetic flare and a sensitive young male protagonist.

Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) is a younger version of Harold, though this movie contains no Maude. Instead, there’s a younger Lulu out of Something Wild, bob haircut and all.  When Oliver meets Jordana (Yasmin Paige) he’s immediately drawn to her.  To win her over he must take part in the cruel bullying of a larger girl.  He does, and he feels subsequently guilty, but he views it as something he had to do for his muse.

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REVIEW: The Ides of March

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The Ides of March
Directed by: George Clooney
Written by: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
Starring: George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Evan Rachel Wood, Paul Giamatti

The fourth film by George Clooney (following Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Good Night, and Good Luck and Leatherheads) really begins to define George Clooney as a director, which is starkly similar to his reputation as an actor. Neither does Clooney the director or Clooney actor ever take brash or bold artistic risks, but instead they both seem to keep their class by maximizing their modest range.

Put more simply, he knows what he’s good at and he avoids the rest at all costs. Continue reading →

ARCHIVE REVIEW: Romeo + Juliet

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Romeo + Juliet
Directed by: Baz Luhrmann
Written by: Craig Pearce (screenplay) William Shakespeare (play)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes, John Leguizamo, Harold Perrineau

There is a wild apprehension people have towards big screen adaptations of their favorite literary works. Scratch that. There is a wild anticipation people have towards big screen adaptations of their favorite literary works, that is, until they are released. After that, they never quite seem to live up to expectations set out for them. People are always marginally disappointed when something doesn’t play out on the screen like it did in their head.

Now take something as properly defined as Shakespeare, or even better, his most iconic Romeo and Juliet. In most ways it is already perfectly visualized with no help from its theatrical medium. It’s a story everyone has read or scene— indirectly or directly if it’s fair to count the pieces it influenced— and one everyone already understands. An adaptation should be pretty straightforward, right? Continue reading →