When making a movie about major cons, it helps to have Ricky Jay‘s involvement, which bestows upon the project a tacit endorsement. And so The Brothers Bloom begins with Jay’s voice, narrating the headlong tale of the titular characters’ boyhood … Continue reading We question everything we see, when someone’s talking there’s nothing to believe
It may be telling that upon returning to Madison for the first extended visit in several years, the very first place I went was a movie theater. To be thorough and accurate, it was the Sundance Cinema, which opened two years ago. I’ve been very curious about this particular venue for a few reasons, led by the fact that it’s been gestating for an awfully long time. We included a news story about plans for a small chain of Sundance movie theaters back on the old radio movie review show, meaning there was open discussion of this at least sixteen … Continue reading I want the strong “M,” erase it and back to The Madison
It doesn’t seem that long since Sam Raimi directed a horror movie, but it has been, going back to Evil Dead 2 in 1987 (that film’s follow-up, Army of Darkness, is a lot of things–comedy, action film, warped gladiator movie–but … Continue reading But they don’t know there can be no show
Get Smart (Peter Segal, 2008). So mechanical that it quickly becomes depressing. This launch of a new film franchise based on the sixties TV spy spoof–it’s nearly impossible think of it in terms of a single film rather than the beginning of an ongoing endeavor–is assembled from repurposed parts and spectrum-spanning cast members designed to make sure there’s at least one person in the credits that appeals to any randomly selected potential moviegoer. Anne Hathaway, playing Agent 99, has one moment that she plays with admirable commitment to honest emotions. I’m assuming that her castmates consulted with her after that … Continue reading B movie, that’s all you are to me
It’s nearly fifteen years since Pixar, the little studio behind a small batch of acclaimed and Oscar-winning computer animated shorts, released the revolutionary Toy Story. It was actually viewed as somewhat risky at the time. The long, expensive process required … Continue reading And she’s learning the spaces she leaves have their own things to say
Atlantic City (Louis Malle, 1980). Malle’s film is about the ways in the which the glimmers of remaining light at the end of the day can lure the most desperate into believing it’s actually the unexpected emergence of a new dawn. Burt Lancaster plays the old-time small-timer at the heart of the film, conveying his forlorn desperation and self-deluding rejuvenation with great delicacy. You can feel the character shift as his opportunities the become the big operator he’s always fancied himself begin to come to pass. But the film is about reality rather than aspirations. Malle keeps it all grounded, … Continue reading Wasting time, dropping lines like “I could get you into movies”
In 1984, a fledgling filmmaker with one feature to his name, an inauspicious low-budget horror sequel, imparted to the world a humble little story a young woman, the time traveler who loved her, and the big, oddly accented robot who … Continue reading Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies and everyone goes
Somebody Up There Likes Me (Robert Wise, 1956). By all accounts, this is the film that made Paul Newman a star. The most intriguing thing about that is that his performance here has little of the charismatic verve that drove later work in films like Hud or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It’s a thick, meaty character piece as Newman plays boxer Rocky Graziano as his pummels his way from backstreet destitution to the heavyweight championship of the world. Newman brings integrity to his character’s brutishness, subsuming his natural sparkle in favor of a honest portrayal of simpler man. … Continue reading I dreamed i was in a hollywood movie and that I was the star of the movie, this really blew my mind
If it’s still true that familiarity breeds contempt, then there must be a lot of contemptuous people buying movie tickets these days. While I still subscribe to Manohla Dargis’s assertion, made in defense of a movie I find mediocre at … Continue reading We travel everywhere, we’re gonna take the suburbs to the stars
I didn’t finish the movie review I’m working on, so I’ll need to distract you from my negligence with this. This, according to a talented individual, is what it would look like if David Lynch directed Dirty Dancing… (Posted simultaneously to “Jelly-Town!”) Continue reading I look in the mirror and all I see is a young old man with only a dream
