Movie Reviews
Into commercial territory, then on to higher ground and a fast, hot track: Sometimes a movie needs lines such as “Not in front of the chickens” and “He does pottery at the U.N.” The pleasing …
The summer harvest, mid-August — we reap what we can: Rachel Weisz was excellent in Agora, one of the few movies to deal smartly with the cultural collapse of classical antiquity. Not many Americans paid …
The Tree Sometimes a “small” film eclipses a big one that wins the limelight. As a life statement, The Tree of Life implodes from its cosmic Texan gas. Far more modestly, The Tree sends out …
In 1991, director Joe Johnston brought us The Rocketeer, in which a decent All-American guy chances upon the means to become a superhero. This enables him to take on the Nazi menace and its plan …
I regret missing A Little Help, which last fall won Best Narrative Feature at downtown’s San Diego Film Festival. Still, a pleasure deferred is not always lost, and the revelation of the picture is Jenna …
The great deed is done. Seven novels published, selling 450 million copies. Eight movies made for over $1 billion, their income over $6 billion and soon rising to over $7 billion as the last film …
Tom Hanks cowrote, directed, and stars in this novel pleasantry about a 50-something, all-too-amiable employee of the month. He works at a Walmart-style retailer called UMart (their slogan is “I Love U”). Hanks’s title character …
Piping from countless multiplexes, the siren of summer buzz calls us to mull Green Lantern’s grosses, to decipher the Jim Carrey–comeback potential of Mr. Popper’s Penguins, to dwell on the Comic-Con dimensions of Transformers: Dark …
I see no point in holding back good news, so let’s get right to: Buck There are precious few real heroes in movies. John Wayne was not a hero, he was more a stellar commodity …
Clutching a chainsaw, we visit a big, beautiful tree: The Tree of Life In 38 years, Terrence Malick has directed only five feature films. Even Stanley Kubrick, the Great Oz of take-it-slow cinema, achieved eight …
The Hangover Part II At one point in The Hangover Part II , Zach Galifianakis puts a bottle beneath the robes of an elderly Buddhist monk as they ride together on a bus through the …
We sail into the Sargasso Sea of summer, where movie sequels trawl for box-office kelp. But then, off to Paris! Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Having taken in way over two billion, even …
Partly from choice, more because of preview timing, we leave Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides to cruise at sea until next week. But we hurry over to the pond for: The Beaver Jodie …
Everything Must Go As authors go, Raymond Carver is not a golden boy of Hollywood — more a precious gem popping up here and there in the work of directors with a particular itch to …
Sometimes a little movie is a big movie. Sometimes a little movie offers riches, and I am happy to spill the news one week early for: Circo The Ken Cinema, a one-screen theater, will rightly …
We cull, we mull, we ponder what the god of cinema, better known as Popcorn Boy, provides us each week. Fresh from the popper: Kill the Irishman After the violent cinematic primes of Francis Coppola …