Screen
reel to reel | Week of Oct. 27, 2011
50/50 Though it’s a cancer film, the tender and funny 50/50 addresses its subject with a refreshing lack of melodrama. Based on the true story of Will Reiser, a comedy writer, the movie follows Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who gets diagnosed with the C-word. ...
Ferrell-in-training
The alcoholic son of an alcoholic, sales manager Nick Porter was born in a Raymond Carver short story called “Why Don’t You Dance?” published in the 1981 Carver collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The story, which takes place at a yard sale among...
Liveaction Oscar shorts a big deal
Start small. That’s the guiding dictum for everything from biological evolution to filmmaking. The live-action shorts that mark the start of most directors’ careers rarely see the light of day outside of specialized festivals; that is, except for the lucky bunch ...
‘Howl’ is arty and difficult, and exactly right for the Sundance...
PARK CITY, Utah — We were not even four hours into Sundance John Cooper-style...
reel to reel | Week of Dec. 1, 2011
Arthur Christmas Arthur Christmas is not a perfect gift, but it does feature enough holiday cheer and silly fun to make it more entertaining than 10 lords a-leaping. It helps that the film has a warm message about how tradition should never be sacrificed for ...
Remake worth watching
Most of the big laughs in 21 Jump Street arrive in the first half, but take a moment to consider that phrase “big laughs.” What was the last stupid Hollywood comedy — good-stupid, not stupid-stupid — to offer actual, audible big laughs? Heartily raunchy and rather ...
