Steven Soderbergh has made it clear that the movie Haywire exists solely because he saw Gina Carano in one of her mixed martial arts fights on television. I’d like to think he also spent part of that particular evening hitting … Continue reading But how can I help it, if they break then they break, when my hands are untied they’re entitled to shake
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
I have no doubt that The Artist will prevail in this year’s Best Picture race at the Academy Awards. None whatsoever. Michel Hazanavicius’s tribute to the distantly bygone glamor of silent picture storytelling by making his own black-and-white, almost entirely … Continue reading Baby, baby, I’ll never let you down, I can’t stand another sound
I’ve had a similar reaction to every film adaptation of a John le Carré work that I’ve ever seen. I find it admirable and fascinating in the moment, taking special notice of the careful consideration of the plain mechanics of … Continue reading The call to arms you liken to a whisper
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
Throughout his lengthy career, Steven Spielberg has consistently been dogged by criticism that his films are overly manipulative, as if appealing to the audience’s emotions wasn’t a wholly relevant goal in making a movie. Considering he’s almost certainly the most … Continue reading Shiver and say the words of every lie you’ve heard
Though I’m far less enamored with the bulk of his filmography than most, I completely understand the logic in choosing David Fincher to preside over the American studio film adaption of Stieg Larsson’s stunningly successful novel The Girl with the … Continue reading She has eyes that men adore so, and a torso, even more so
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
Surely Michael Shannon will get the chance to play a nice, normal guy in a prominent role one of these days. He’ll get cast as someone who clearly sees reality just as it is and faces no burdensome difficulty brought … Continue reading Well all right, you gave it all up for a dream, fate proved unkind to lock the door and leave no key
I absolutely love the first and last shots of Alexander Payne’s The Descendants. Each of them encompasses everything I like about his work in their straightforwardness, their simplicity, their understatement and their quiet, careful wit. These shots don’t push an … Continue reading Almost ready, almost there, or is it already over?
Coffee for Two 