Screen
Not far enough
There’s an unexpected wistfulness, a bittersweet undercurrent to Going the Distance that could not have been in the script. This romantic comedy co-starring Drew Barrymore and longtime beau Justin Long was finished just as the real life couple was splitting up. For ...
Real guitar heroes in ‘It Might Get Loud’
What do Jack White from The White Stripes, The Edge from U2, and Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin have in common, besides the obvious? Each represents a prominent part of a musical movement that thrives around one of the most significant instruments created in the past ...
Indifference wins the day
The best romantic comedies have a blithe, take-it-or-leave-it spirit. Larry Crowne has the opposite. It’s the neediest movie of 2011, and one of the phoniest...
‘The Huntsman: Winter’s War’ is awful good
God, The Huntsman: Winter’s War should not work. Like, it should cause uncontrollable vomiting and permanent erectile dysfunction. So, sweet Jeebus, do I have...
Pop culture, popped
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is an all-you-can-eat buffet of comedic gluttony, serving humorous dishes to please every palate. Whatever your taste, you can...
Scenes from a marriage
Out in the hinterlands of Iceland, a married couple is grieving. Some time ago, they lost a child. It has created a noticeable rift...
Thank god for Mendes
Midway through one in a manic string of chase sequences in the animated Rio, the uptight macaw voiced by Jesse Eisenberg says, “I would love to go five minutes without almost getting killed.” This is the movie’s strategy: near-perpetual peril, dialogue that’s almost ...
Not a question of where, but why
Watching movies in 2019 is no longer a question of where, but why.
It could be everywhere: Multiplexes, art house theater, film societies, living rooms,...
Missed payoff
Maybe in a few years, the high-flying machinations of notorious Washington puppet-master Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon, his partner in crime, will be funny. But even with Kevin Spacey trying his carnival barker hardest in Casino Jack, it still feels too painfully...
Maid in Mexico
Luxury hotels are bizarre, magical places. They are like hermetically sealed chambers where every possible amenity has been accounted for: Food, drink, entertainment, even...
