“The cinema is an invention without any future.” ― Louis Lumière
Aftershock Director: Feng Xiaogang Personal Interest Factor: 5 Opening today at Piper’s Alley, a drama about the Tangshan earthquake in China in 1976. Apparently the Chinese submission for the Foreign Film Oscar this year. Metacritic: not listed The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (trailer) Director: Daniel Alfredson (The Girl Who Played with Fire) Personal […]
Read More Opening in Chicago, 10/29Hereafter is a tough film to review. It’s not a bad film, by any means. There’s nothing about it to make one angry, or compel eye-rolling or an inclination to walk out of the theater. I was never bored by it, but I wasn’t engaged by it, either. I watched it in a state of […]
Read More Review: HereafterIt was during this week 55 years ago that Rebel Without a Cause, one of the most iconic films of the period, was released, just about thirty days after its star, James Dean, perished in an automobile accident. I’ve seen the film a few times, but watched it again this weekend. The first thing that […]
Read More Rebel Without a CauseI suppose the big movie news this week is that the Music Box is starting a big Chaplin retrospective. The Circus starts off today, with The Kid, The Great Dictator, and City Lights also playing this week. Several films in the series will show with early Chaplin short films, so that’s cool, too. I’m not […]
Read More Opening in Chicago, 10/22There have been no shortage of films about the proto-Beatles. There was the 1994 film Backbeat, and a 1979 TV film called Birth of the Beatles. Both of those films dealt with the interpersonal squabbles of the nascent group, with much of the focus on men who would not become “Beatles” (Stu Sutcliffe and Pete […]
Read More Review: Nowhere BoyWhen looking at this year’s race for Best Actor, the pieces have fallen into place quite nicely, and it seems fairly easy to imagine that three or four candidates are close to being locks, and that there isn’t a big pool to choose from beyond that. It’s very much like a few years ago, when […]
Read More Oscar 2010 Forecast: Best ActorI need to apologize for having this up late, because I don’t actually have any kind of excuse. I simply forgot to tap this out this morning, as if I should be surprised to have some sort of blogging to do on a Friday morning. It’s not like I’ve been doing it for something like […]
Read More Opening in Chicago, 10/15Consider the lowly 1979 film Parts: The Clonus Horror, a movie so bad that it not only starred Dick Sargent (Darren number two from Bewitched), but was mocked by Mystery Science Theater 3000. Yet this repellent little film seems to have spawned two high profile films that have lifted its central premise: clones are raised […]
Read More Review: Never Let Me GoNow that MGM is being run by Spyglass’ Gary Barber and Roger Birnbaum, most assumed that the studio would be getting back into the business of making real movies rather than just picking the bones of ancient hits in a desperate attempt to stay afloat (ala Hannibal Rising, Red Dawn, The Pink Panther, etc). The […]
Read More New MGM makes sad announcement befitting old MGMWoody Allen begins his latest film, the charming souffle You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, with a juxtaposing pair of themes–the optimistic “When You Wish Upon a Star,” and then the nihilistic quote from MacBeth–“a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, and signifying nothing.” Allen’s career is marked by the […]
Read More Review: You Will Meet a Tall Dark StrangerI’m actually glad for a slower week, as I still have some catch-up to do. Still haven’t seen The Social Network. Still haven’t seen Let Me In, which I was planning to get to. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Director: Howard Hawks (Only Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday, The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo) Personal Interest Factor: […]
Read More Opening in Chicago, 10/08David Fincher’s The Social Network, a depiction of how Facebook was created, is setting all sorts of media tongues wagging. I’ll say this at the outset–I have no earthly idea if any of this is true, or if this is remotely close to being an accurate portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg. I’ll leave that argument to […]
Read More Review: The Social NetworkI’m reading a biography of Robert Altman, which inspired me to pop in my DVD of his best and most popular film (and the only Altman film I own), M*A*S*H. I’ve seen it perhaps a dozen times over the years, and it still gives me great pleasure. This year marks its fortieth anniversary. I came […]
Read More M*A*S*HCase 39 (trailer) Director: Christian Alvert (Pandorum) Personal Interest Factor: 2 Looks like Renée Zellweger has finally found her proper level, by which I mean near-direct-to-DVD crap that I feel free to skip without worrying the slighest bit about it. For too long she’s been in stuff that I otherwise want to see. Metacritic: no […]
Read More Opening in Chicago, 10/01
Gone Elsewhere 