Screen
‘Horrible’ pretty good
You can practically hear little coils of contempt tightening inside Jason Bateman every time he’s in a pickle on screen. In the new comedy Horrible Bosses, the Bateman specialty is the are-you-trying-to-tell-me response. At one point in the film, when confronted ...
Comedians sleep standing up
A note for the admittedly small subset of folks who swoon at the storytelling magic of This American Life and tingle at the mere mention of Ira Glass’s name: Sleepwalk with Me is charming public radio entertainment channeled into cinemas. Watch out Hollywood ...
What happens when a son sets out to profile his father?
The documentary film Old Man is as much a story of a troubled, perhaps marginally dysfunctional family as it is the story of a troubled record store — and, in many ways, a dysfunctional town. The portrait of Boulder is not graceful. It’s a critique of the town’s ...
A bit plain, Jane
Since Stephanie “Twilight” Meyers is a producer on Austenland, the following question is fair game: Why are readers who fangirl out about Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice embraced or applauded while devotees of whatever-that-sparkly-vampire-dude’s-...
Sequel, heal thyself
Pretend you were excited for the big screen version of 21 Jump Street. Yeah, nobody believes you. Writers Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill teamed up with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for the most hilarious, self-aware adaptation of a Richard Greico ...
If it ain’t broke, don’t tinker with it
The Conference on World Affairs has built its share of legacies during its 64 years in existence, but one of the most popular belongs to film critic Roger Ebert...
Guilty of misdirection
Conviction should have been a good film. After a woman’s beloved ne’erdo-well brother is convicted of murder in a tiny hick town, it’s up to her to exonerate him, first through the system and then by going to law school and becoming a one-client attorney. Better yet...
These pictures of you
Hank has given up. Marooned on a deserted island in the Pacific, he has run out of food, water and reasons to live. All...
‘And the nominees are…’
The nominees for the 95th Academy Awards are in: 54 movies competing in 23 categories. The headlines already belong to the genre-smashing Everything Everywhere...
A foggy reflection
In 1998, Walt Disney Feature Animation released its 36th film, its first and only retelling of a Chinese legend: Mulan, the story of a...
Diverse-i-see
Beyond the delightful oceans of tasty, tasty tears wept by whiny dudes whenever a non-hetero, non-white, non-bruh picks up a lightsaber or kicks a...
