From its opening images of our planet illuminated by technology, to a remarkable long take that takes the viewer through the inner operation and impact of computer processing, Blackhat hooks the viewer both emotionally and intellectually. The film delivers an enthralling rendering of both the macro and micro scale of our interconnected digital world, offering…
When a pug is named after Jack Bauer, Colin Firth shoots stun rays through an umbrella and Samuel L. Jackson talks with an ear-piercing lisp while trying to wipe out the human race with disruptive waves sent from cellphones . . . well, it’s rather obvious you are dealing with a different kind of movie….
The problem with wisdom, we are told by a voiceover the moment Poker Night begins, is that you only get it after you need it. Hindsight, similarly, is like looking into a rear view mirror, unable to see what you’re going through until you’ve already passed it. Now that we know how important those words…
There’s walking in circles and then there’s walking in circles the Paul Thomas Anderson way. Whatever that means. Not that it matters. Who cares, anyway? A flippant attitude for a flippant movie. Except that Inherent Vice, Anderson’s latest and possibly his worst, is 150 minutes of flippancy, a wacky stumble into safe, though awfully off-putting…
From its first scene of dialogue, older Italian men with permanent scowls etched into their world weary faces mumbling to each other in a Brooklyn bar, Zarra’s Law reads like a mob movie made by someone who wants to imitate the genre but doesn’t speak a word of English. For a significant portion of the…
J. C. Chandor’s New York drama, A Most Violent Year, is a misleadingly titled film, as its timeframe only covers a month and there is very little physical violence. While the title references the exceptionally high crime rate of New York in 1981, the film itself is an intriguing study of different types of violence,…
[ Atmospheric, nimble, climactic; these are a few adjectives that appropriately describe Nightcrawler. Jake Gyllenhaal as Louis “Lou” Bloom, a creepy and impatient swindler turned stringer, is pleasantly disturbing. On the whole, the film from first-time director Dan Gilroy, is a potent thriller that paints a fluent picture of urban nightlife and the creeps that…
