You can say this about Life After Beth, the indie zombie romantic comedy (zom-rom-com?) by first time director, Jeff Baena: Aubrey Plaza (2012’s “Safety Not Guaranteed”) makes for a great zombie. With her deadpan delivery and soulless eyes, she doesn’t have to do much to look and act like the dead reawakened. Don’t get me…
When it comes to films about relationships, whether they are platonic or romantic, we’re all going to have different takes on them. Naturally, how we view any film has a lot to do with our own experiences, but with such a personal topic, the influence of our feelings on the issues at hand are bound…
For kids and monsters and kids who love monsters (and for adults, too!) comes a movie about kids and monsters and kids who love monsters (and it’s about adults, too!). Far from normal, ParaNorman is sweet little stop-motion confection that bleeds love for horror cinema and channels that passion into a concentrated celebration of odd…
What normally happens to weird kids who proclaim to see and talk to ghosts? They get ignored, ostracized and/or bullied. Which is exactly what happens to little Norman in Focus Features’ claymation pic ParaNorman, that is until the town needs his peculiar gift. For reasons unknown (the trailer hints to a 300th anniversary of a…
It’s a curious situation when so many people get a kick at the same cinematic can and none of them can get it right. Is the material to blame? The filmmakers? The whole bloody idea? Let’s call it a three-way tie. Following in the footsteps of occasionally decent (but you wouldn’t know it from this…
As a somewhat successful writer, I’ve become a firm believer that all work should be from the heart. Unfortunately, as a film critic, I’m stuck watching and reviewing movies where it’s painfully obvious that the filmmakers had an ambitious idea in mind, but not the slightest idea about the subject matter. What results is a…
The second trailer for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 was dropped late last night, causing kids to stay up past their bedtime and make a mad dash to pc screens around the world (I was sleeping peacefully). This trailer delves deeper into Bella’s pregnancy — she can’t safely carry the rapidly growing…
