Screen
Who watches ‘The Watch,’ man?
Seeing as how it has an extraterrestrial plot, let’s describe The Watch using an astronomical metaphor. Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade are like comedic planets that orbit a central, burning sun. And that sun is made entirely of penis jokes. ...
‘Bright Star’ pretty, but lacking substance
Certain images in Jane Campion's Bright Star are beautiful, as opposed to merely attractive, and only a major talent could've produced them. My favorite is a sundrenched shot of Abbie Cornish's Fanny Brawne, her head and heart newly opened to the intoxication of love...
Holy Frenchman, Batman
There’s a moment in Holy Motors when Monsieur Merde, a dirty leprechaun-looking man in a tattered green suit with scraggly red hair, approaches the fringes of a high-fashion photo shoot. The photographer is grunting, “Beauty, beauty!” with perverse glee at his model...
Cinema 101
I guess you could say the low point arrived on March 27, 2022, with the broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards. No, the “slap...
To see a man about a demon
Offering moderately scary Roman Catholic “gotchas!” to a global film audience of all creeds, The Rite comes from director Mikael Hafstrom, whose previous film was the stylish supernatural thriller 1408...
Smurfed up
The good news about the big-screen 3-D version of The Smurfs is that it’s not the insipid — and some say “socialist” — Smurfs you remember from 1980s TV...
Reel to reel | Week of July 4, 2013
20 Feet From StardomIn his compelling new film, director Morgan Neville shines a spotlight on the untold true story of the backup singers behind some of the greatest musical legends of the 21st century. At Mayan...
Focker off
The strangely marginalized little Fockers in Little Fockers are played by Daisy Tahan, of Nurse Jackie, and Colin Baiocchi, who appeared in Couples Retreat and who clearly can’t get a break when it comes to big-screen ensemble work with anything like a shelf life. I’...
Zac Efron cries a lot
The Motion Picture Association of America has given Charlie St. Cloud a PG-13 rating for, among other things, “an intense accident scene,” which is the best way to describe the film itself. With some supernatural melodramas, you may buy what’s on the page, as with...
Being near Emma Watson
Reconciling the public’s fascination with Emma Watson’s blossoming sexuality with realizing that the first time she was on screen she was 11 years old is really difficult. Doing so in a movie where her character’s sexuality is fundamentally warped because of an ...
