A skit comedian who works best in five-minute spurts produces and stars in a feature length film based on a short story. It’s The Children’s Minute when a pair of spiteful teenage girls play matchmaker for one of their fathers (Guy Pearce, as a nowhere-near recovering alcoholic) and an invisible, …
Upon moving into the title abode, Damon Wayans purchases a video camera and promises girlfriend Essence Atkins that he’s going to “film everything: Christmas, New Year’s, vagina.” One of the first images Wayans's camcorder captures is the imprint of Atkins’ rear tire just moments after it ran over his pooch’s …
Parents who follow their pushy kid around with a camcorder his entire life, hoping to find the right stunt that will thrust their baby into the spotlight, form the basis of this insignificant documentary. The Cuban government gave Mica’s zayde refuge from the Nazis, and decades later the 17-year-old decides …
At last, an answer to the burning question, “Why the big magila over Hava Nagila?” The infectious wedding and bar mitzvah dance standard is given the talking head (kibitzing kop?) treatment in this enjoyable, if not rigorously fluffy documentary. From the shtetls of Ukraine to Canter’s Deli in L.A., director …
Steven Soderbergh’s latest attempt to subvert popular genre expectations results in an adequate 007 action/adventure picture. Mixed martial arts champion Gina Carano has the tough, tight look and smoldering dispassion the genre demands, but not even Meryl Streep could add depth to this. It’s easier to swallow than the average …
It’s snob vs. slob as a tenacious Sandra Bullock stars alongside Melissa “What the fuck’s your problem?” McCarthy to form an unlikely pair of detectives (Laurel & Sharty?) forced to partner on cracking a dope ring. Set up, punchline, setup, punchline: Ms. Bullock puts the gags on a tee for …
From its bold opening long take – one of the most audaciously disconcerting and seductively executed lead-ins in many a moon — director Amat Escalante sends viewers hurtling downward on a topsy-turvy journey through his hellish depiction of Mexico’s war on drugs. Same familiar terrain, different cartel, you ask? Guess …
Angry co-titular adolescent, check. Dead mother, check. Widowed, alcoholic/negligent co-titular father, check. Rural Southern milieu, check. Custody battle with CPS, check. Sports (in this case, Motocross) as a means of redemption/escape, check. Gun in Act II, check. Trendy, tripod-free presentation, check, check. It’s a network pilot minus profanity! Dad (Aaron …
Let’s open with trivia: what was the first film to be released on VHS? In actuality, there were 50, all 20th Century Fox titles licensed by Magnetic Video, and Hello, Dolly! was among them. Barbra Streisand and Walter Matthau star, and it’s fun to try to spot signs of their …
The young white ladies of Jackson, Mississippi (circa 1960) install additional bathrooms to avoid sharing a seat with the colored waitstaff. As a result, crusading young writer Emma Stone pens a tell-all, blasting the lid off bigotry. Working from a best-selling novel, writer/director Tate Taylor reduces all blacks to angels, …
Filmed over 24 hours in 25 locations around the world and with the participation of over 12 surfers, Here and Now aspires to be the Life in a Day of surf movies. Shots taken from shore offer fairly standard glimpses. Only when the camera gets wet does the audience feel …
Thought experiment, possibly entertaining: view this film as if it were titled The Passion of the Kevin James. It's as much a Christ parable as Raging Bull, only "director" Frank Coraci doesn't know it. In order to raise the funds needed to save his school's music program, the nutty redeemer …
Set course for schmaltz when Billy Crystal puts his mind to dementia. They say inside every comedian is a serious dramatic performance bursting to get out. Lucille Ball (Stone Pillow), Jerry Lewis (The Jazz Singer), and Kevin James (Becky) all set out to prove their dramatic skill and instead rewarded …
It is quite understandable when a performer signs on to star as the self-destructive, hot mess in a fictionalized biopic of an arrogant frontwoman for an out in front punk band. Think of all the center-of-attention scene-chewing it affords. To that extent, few have been pulled through the rock ‘n’ …
Before today, this sheltered Yiddisher kop cinephile from Chicago’s far north side didn’t know a Hesburgh from a Hesher. Thank you, Father, for every now and then favoring us with an enlightening, meticulously deliberated (and well-tooled) documentary. Return with me now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when the biggest …