Around the time that The Darjeeling Limited was released, a good friend of mine, who knows a thing or two about movies himself, asked me if I was going to go see the “new dollhouse” from Wes Anderson. That struck … Continue reading Take a run and hide yourself away
The Agronomist (Jonathan Demme, 2003). I greatly admire Demme’s commitment to interspersing documentaries and other non-fiction offerings throughout his filmography, but I also need to sadly concede that this is not a strong effort. The film examine the life and contentious career of Jean Dominique, who operated a Haitian radio station committed to bringing information to the citizenry and speaking truth to power, especially during times when the country was being crushed by oppressive regimes. It’s easy to root for him, but Demme’s approach is too sedate, too withdrawn. This impassive approach prevents the film from becoming anything beyond a … Continue reading Demme, Gibney, Macdonald, Redford, Siegel
It is not a love story. Well, in a way it is, and it certainly has all of the trappings of one. An Education follows a schoolgirl named Jenny in nineteen-sixties London who encounters a charming older man, and begins … Continue reading Do you see her face when she’s gone, sometimes so bright your heart just stops
So this is what Jewish fatalism looks like stretched out to feature length. The new film from Ethan and Joel Coen, A Serious Man, focuses on a college professor at the dawn of the nineteen-seventies, facing a tenure hearing and … Continue reading Here it comes, here it comes, here comes the serious bit
Snow Angels (David Gordon Green, 2008). A grim, atmospheric drama about people living small, desolate lives and the way a family tragedy accentuates the levels of their dismay to such a point that bad choices begin to take over. Green handles the film with an elegant restraint that sometimes veers close to bloodlessness, but overall gives it a hard, tense sheen. Adapted from a novel, the film sometimes feels as though it’s missing out on the deeper psychological understanding that’s far easier to realize on the page than on the screen. It offers up nice actorly moments for Sam Rockwell … Continue reading Apted, Ashby, Cammisa, Green, Soderbergh
If Ricky Gervais had only created The Office, he would deserve a place on the upper tier of comic creators, just as John Cleese would merit veneration if he had only signed his name to Fawlty Towers. As Gervais moves … Continue reading I’m tired of the stories that you always tell, Shakespeare couldn’t tell a story that well
Making a film adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s revered children’s book Where the Wild Things Are seems like the height of doomed folly. As has been noted often in the long run-up to the film’s release, this is a book that … Continue reading I think you move me
There is perhaps nothing more endearing about Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, the roller derby film Whip It, than its delighted conviction in the value of sisterhood. More specifically, it is Barrymore’s complete immersion in the concept without any hint whatsoever … Continue reading Shape it up, get straight, go forward, move ahead
Zombieland has everything you expect from a movie called Zombieland. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, but one constructed with a certain sense of humor, a sly awareness of the inherent ridiculousness of its colorfully devastated landscape. And of … Continue reading All you sittin’ in high places, the pieces gonna fall on you
It is perhaps fitting that Jane Campion has made her finest film since The Piano by turning to a poet. Much of what makes the film that won her a best screenplay Oscar and only the second woman in Academy … Continue reading Take me to the dance and hold me tight
Coffee for Two 