Tag: 2011 movies

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Allen, Coppola, Cukor, Gunn, Mills, Scorsese, Winterbottom

Dan Seeger

New York Stories (Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen, 1989). I remember reading Roger Ebert’s review of this anthology film and thinking he cheated by giving individual star ratings to each of its three segments. After all, no one going to movie theater had the option of just paying for a third of a ticket to see the one part of the film he recommended. Now that I’ve seen it, however, I completely get why he chose to take that approach: one part of the film is significantly better than the others. Woody Allen’s segment is amusing but … Continue reading Allen, Coppola, Cukor, Gunn, Mills, Scorsese, Winterbottom

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Like a drug that threatens to take my life, lust is a cancer, love is a vice

Dan Seeger

I can’t think of another director that successfully mixes the tactile and the intellectual more often than David Cronenberg. In his very best films–for me, that means Dead Ringers, eXistenZ and The History of Violence–there’s a remarkable thematic balance between … Continue reading Like a drug that threatens to take my life, lust is a cancer, love is a vice

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Spectrum Check

Dan Seeger

Spectrum Culture was back in full wing this week, which meant that my words were all over the place as well. I was especially busy on the movie review front. First I weighed in on a highly problematic drama built around grief and guilt and contrived tension. We’re in that weird stasis zone in between the end of year Oscar fodder (much of which I can’t get screeners of because they’re being highly protective of pirating, even though they send them out as freely as Bed Bath and Beyond coupons to major critics and guild members) and the launch of … Continue reading Spectrum Check

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So far from the ordinary things I once knew while I wait for the chance to tell you what is true

Dan Seeger

It’s always a unique disappointment to see an excellent performance shellacked into the misery of a bad movie. In the new film My Week with Marilyn, Michelle Williams is consistently sensational as Marilyn Monroe. She’s charged with not only playing … Continue reading So far from the ordinary things I once knew while I wait for the chance to tell you what is true

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I never thought I would come of age, let alone on a moldy page

Dan Seeger

Young Adult reunites director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody four years after their shared breakthrough with Juno. In different ways, to different degrees, both creators come into the movie with a little something to prove. Despite an even better follow-up film, Reitman still has his vocal detractors, those who find his efforts a little too slick and glib. Cody, though an enthusiastic Oscar winner for her Juno efforts, faced an even sterner backlash, largely on the basis of another produced screenplay that was smothered into lifelessness by the same sort of dialogue of inventive slang that gained her attention … Continue reading I never thought I would come of age, let alone on a moldy page