Literary cinema, civilized, conservative, a trifle fusty, from writer-director (and actor) Michael Blakemore. The project was, as stated in the printed preamble, "suggested by Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya." In fact quite strongly suggested by it. In fact quite tightly tethered to it, notwithstanding the transplant to post-WWI Australia. Louis Malle's …
Gwyneth Paltrow goes country, playing a falling star with a failing marriage (to real-life country star Tim McGraw) and a dead baby on her conscience. There’s some genuine drama to be mined here, but the film is ultimately more interested in soulful youngster Garret Hedlund and his wham-bam-no-thank-you-ma’am relationship with …
Filmed in Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany, and set in summer 1988, Coup concerns a 22-year-old bank employee and family man who embezzles millions of dollars from his bank via a newly discovered security flaw that he exploits with an ingenious technique. Fleeing to Australia, he phones his girlfriend to tell …
Fanny (Lou de Laâge) and Jean (Melvil Poupaud) look like the ideal married couple. They’re both professionally accomplished, they live in a gorgeous apartment in an exclusive neighborhood of Paris, and they seem to be in love just as much as they were when they first met. But when Fanny …
Sententious moral tale about the breakdown of civilized behavior in French colonial Africa, just before World War II. Comic-strip caricatures, in place of rounded characters, are not much use in a moral tale, however. They and their escapades are so determinedly loony that no tension can be built around them: …
New Age relationship counseling in a tropical paradise, a stale, routinized, loveless marital comedy. With Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau, Jason Bateman, Malin Akerman, Kristin Davis, Kristen Bell, Faizon Love, Kali Hawk, and Jean Reno; directed by Peter Billingsley.
Having taken on Being a Good Husband (and the importance of Jesus in such an endeavor) with Fireproof, the good people at Sherwood Pictures are quite naturally moving on to Being a Good Father (and the importance of Jesus, etc.). Law enforcement has taken the place of firefighting, for reasons …
Long overdue Hollywood solemnization of the Gulf War. The investigation of the first woman nominated (posthumously) for a combat Medal of Honor is expected to be a rubber-stamp procedure, leading posthaste to a photo-op at the White House, with the President draping the ribbon round the neck of the dead …
If you didn't like Premium Rush, then perhaps you'll fare better with this freemake.
Chaitanya Tamhane writes and directs this exploration of art, morality, and maybe justice. A Mumbai sanitation worker is found dead of apparent suicide. Was he inspired by a folk singer's lyrics? Should the singer be held responsible? Could the wheels of justice turn any more haltingly or grindingly? Subtitled.
Written and directed by Ram Jagadeesh, starring Priyadarshi, Harsh Roshan, Sridevi, Sivaji, Sai Kumar, Harsha Vardhan.
This tortuous revenge tale, the filmmaking debut of stage director Des McAnuff, is an adaptation of one of Balzac's better-known novels, but it would seem that the umbrella title of his oeuvre -- la Comédie Humaine -- has been interpreted a little lopsidedly, with the stress on literal comedy at …
Jean-Charles Tacchella's overpraised love story is a profusion of casual, cursory observations of family life; and in the abundance there are plenty of amusing moments, and many more that are smug, lazy-minded, and banal. It seems a nice idea to do a movie whose entire, large population is tied together …
American remake of a very lucrative French export by Jean-Charles Tacchella (to whom, whatever happened?). It could hardly have gotten any shallower than it already was, without complete evaporation. And indeed the roles for the secondary mates (William Petersen, Sean Young) have been considerably beefed up. At the same time, …