Screen
You’ve seen this film before
The mystery of Topher Grace’s film career, and why it isn’t better, continues with Take Me Home Tonight...
Jonze takes ‘Wild’ risks; succeeds
Truly, I am madly, deeply in love with the film version of Where the Wild Things Are. Not since Robert Altman took on Popeye a generation ago, and lost, has a major director addressed such a well-loved, all-ages title. This time everything works, from tip to tail, ...
Bad advice
Featuring an all-star cast of irreproachable actors ... and also Cameron Diaz, The Counselor had Ridley Scott at the helm and an original screenplay written by Cormac McCarthy. All the ingredients in this cinematic recipe are independently delicious; so why does the ...
When death misses
There was a scene, lo those many (OK, 11) years ago, in the original Final Destination. One of the characters who inadvertently “cheated death” and ruined “death’s grand design” had holed up in a cabin, which then had to be made accident-proof...
Brand Xenu man
Writer/director/demigod of modern American cinema Paul Thomas Anderson — or PTA, as his peeps call him — has a filmography so stunning that merely making a very good movie means it’s his worst one yet. So, with a heavy heart comes the news that The Master isn’t ...
Reel to reel | Week of December 12, 2013
All is Lost Robert Redford is brilliant in his role as a nameless man who must survive after his sailboat sinks leaving him lost at sea. Rated PG-13. At Colony Square. The Armstrong Lie In 2008, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (We Steal Secrets: The ...
Race scar drivers
Here in ’Murica, when we watch cars go round in circles while Kid Rock’s “Bawitaba” plays in the background, we have the decency to let the walking billboards who are driving vehicular billboards have a roof on their car. That way, they only die sometimes, as opposed...
A contraption, but it works
Call it strangeness on a train. The highly gimmicky, very entertaining new thriller Source Code takes place mostly on a passenger car, part of the fictional Chicago Commuter Rail line, speeding toward the Loop carrying a bomb planted by an unknown terrorist. Our ...