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 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
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
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
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
For many, the announcement that Ron Howard would be directing the film version of Peter Morgan’s acclaimed play Frost/Nixon caused dismay. It was another example of a Hollywood hack being handed a prestige project with ruination of the work a … Continue reading They’ll never rehabilitate that mother, no way
It’s hard to fathom an odder milieu for an Oscar-nominated film than the world of professional wrestling, particularly the seedy version of it that appears in Darren Aronofsky’s new film, The Wrestler. But then, it’s equally hard to find any … Continue reading Give your heart to somebody soon right away, right away
Some time back, I noodled around with a comparative theory about the stylistic methodologies adopted by members of the small, influential group of acclaimed British theater directors who started working in film during the nineties. These are the sorts of … Continue reading Well, it would’ve been, could’ve been worse than you would ever know
Years ago, when I started dispensing my smart aleck movie opinions across the central Wisconsin airwaves, I decided on an evaluative approach that entailed treating each film entirely as its own entity. I made no assumption that viewers would go into the average new release with a full working knowledge of the filmmakers involved, so it made sense to me to do the best to set aside my own preconceptions. Though done with the best intentions, that methodology proved to be extremely difficult, unduly limiting and, frankly, not all that much fun. It was more interesting to consider, say, Martin … Continue reading I’ll have to follow the way what I was wont to say
Sometimes, especially at this time of the year, seeing a movie is liking taking a big spoonful of medicine. Studios notably and notoriously stockpile most of their product that has merit beyond its expected appeal to narrow demographic groups like … Continue reading My eyes fall from my head with all the pages read
Coffee for Two 