Screen
Fast, furious fun
As adolescent male power fantasies go, Fast Five has an undeniable trashy charm...
These guys have all the fun
Somebody asked me, what would be a dream project of yours?” director Douglas Tirola recounts. “I immediately had this vision of a book on my shelf at home that I have had since I was a teenager — the 10th anniversary collection of National Lampoon...
Friendly skies ‘Up In The Air’
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) has a job that keeps him flying 200 days/ year in Up In The Air — he’s a corporate downsizer brought in to fire excess employees. It’s a tough job and Bingham has made a career out of detaching, disassociating from anything that could ...
‘Fury’ is missing fast
Inside of writer/director David Fury is “we will hold this line” war movie populated with complex characters and surprisingly good performances. Problem is, it was slipped into the carcass vAC of a dirty, confused, overly serious, inconsistently grotesque snoozer in...
‘Youth in Revolt’ part inspired, part irresponsible
"Punk" and "rebel" don't belong in the same sentence with "Michael Cera." But somehow, they connect in the few-holds-barred teen comedy "Youth in Revolt...
BIFF: Alive Inside
Alive Inside confirms what many of us already knew: The healing, soothing power of music has been underestimated by the medical community for decades. This moving documentary focuses on individuals in nursing homes who have Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and who ...
SeaWorld can suck it
Breaking news: You know those giant, majestic, ocean-dwelling creatures with the first name “killer?” Turns out if you lock them in tiny spaces, it kills them, and if you get in with them, they kill you. Nothing says “family fun” like aquatic murder and animal ...
More suspense from ‘Whiteout,’ please
Here's a really cool idea for a film: you're a U.S. Marshal working at a United States research facility in Antarctica, helping keep the peace. Like a campus cop, your primary job is dealing with drunks and minor thefts, but you're hoping that a major crime will ...
This year’s Oscar-nominated shorts are sublime
Just as the short story trembles in the footprint of the novel, the short film plays David to featurelength film Goliaths. But with the help of shiny, naked bald men, these wee bits of cinematic splendor step from the shadows and sling their short shots. And in the ...
Solid-iron fun
Iron Man 2 is not a perfect movie, but it’s sure fun and engaging. The new story twists, the health issue that Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) faces and the half-baked but disturbing archenemy Whiplash (Mickey Rourke) add up to a film that’s sure to be the first ...
Fade to blackout
The Hangover Part III is so jaw-droppingly terrible, America deserves an explanation. Not because this series has become some nation-defining work of art, but because it sure feels like writer/director Todd Phillips just told everyone who likes his films to go “make ...
From flood to film
Lyons has a new man in town and he’s starting up a film festival. That man is Jake Fink. Fink spent 15 years as a journeyman on film sets, starting out as a production assistant in New York City, before moving on to work for the NHL. A project on alien abduction got ...