To prepare for this film, I read Alice Sebold’s dreamy novel, written from the perspective of Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) after she has already died. The novel wastes no time getting to the point of how she died, either. The rest is her watching Earth, trying to point her parents in the direction [...]
Occasionally I will mitigate opinions in this forum that I know will be unpopular when I am specifically writing a review of a film that I know carries a lot of emotional charge for people. In trying to be politic I try and soften the subjective emotions I felt to impart a sense of [...]
In the continuing tradition of post-apocalyptic adventures, 9 posits a world where humanity, indeed all organic life, is gone, obviously our fault. Let’s say that 9 takes place about 10 years after The Road and 75 years before Wall-E; or else right after the spaceships left to mine Pandora. It’s actually shocking how many [...]
Billed as a real film from 1957 (with excellent lobby cards and generally good print advertising), one that was lost to studio politics and the vagaries of time, Alien Trespass is a love letter to the ’50’s sci-fi films of yesteryear. They even go so far as to justify their recognizable lead actor as [...]
We’re not here to discuss what a watershed the 1986 Alan Moore graphic novel is/was. They said a movie of it couldn’t be done, but no one dared to suggest it shouldn’t be done (unless you count Alan Moore taking his name off this film). As a movie, as a flickering visual narrative, [...]
Push suffers from a combination of a lack of ambition and repressed ambition. Unlike the two million superpower movies & TV series we have already seen or are waiting to see, Push’s special folk are just normal people who happen to possess one of a limited range of special abilities. Basically, these folks [...]
Catch it on HBO with Snacks
I know I am the only person who can’t stand watching the Nightmare Before Christmas. It puts me to sleep within 30 minutes (I have tried multiple times) despite its incredibly detailed and beautiful characters and sets. Corpse Bride has the same aesthetic but kept my interest with [...]
Hollywood loves making movies about Hollywood. To be fair, this business we call show is packed to the rafters with drama, sex, absurdity, double dealing, divas, and sordid glamour – who wouldn’t be tempted? Often as not, the movie is either too inside to be comprehended by the audience at large (Burn, Hollywood, Burn) or [...]
I went to see House Bunny against my usual judgment for two reasons: 1. Anna Faris is always better than her materials, and brings a commitment to her choices that rivals big-money comic actors, and 2. Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody told me to (via Entertainment Weekly). Cody views the Playboy phenomenon in much [...]
M. Night Shyamalan’s greatest talent, I think, is taking a brilliant cinematographer’s camera and pointing at something which is comprehensible but just off kilter, and doing it just so, in a way that makes the image and the content gel into an iconic Moment. In the preview of The Happening, we have a shot [...]
