Joe Wright should win the award for most courageous director of the year. The majority of Anna Karenina is filmed in a theater with all of the sets built on and around a main stage including a skating rink, a grassy field, a snowy train station, and even a horse race. It is not claustrophobic,…
There’s a unique sprinkling of cinematic magic that touches the infamous shower scene in “Psycho” so memorably and effectively that watching the scene, dissecting the scene, experiencing the scene is great fun from any angle. So with this automatic reaction hardwired to my senses, I very much enjoyed seeing the scene recreated with moderate gusto…
Screwed is a surprise; the monochromatic DVD cover masking a film that is simplistic yet intelligent, gritty but also emotionally in check, a scrappy little crime drama anchored by an above-the-grade performance from James D’Arcy (turning in equally strong work in “Cloud Atlas” this year). Based on the book by Ronnie Thompson, a former prison…
Why is the Twilight series exponentially more popular than the more intriguing “Interview with the Vampire?” Anne Rice’s Louis and Lestat witness history, carry around significant emotional baggage, and speak dialogue worthy of a screenwriter. The Twilight Saga vampires are wooden caricatures, repeat the 12th grade over and over again, and carry on some of…
It seems strange to criticize a movie for its beauty, especially considering the chief architect of that beauty is a filmmaker as visually and poetically gifted as Ang Lee, but beauty is exactly what fells the beast in Lee’s glossy Life of Pi. Adapted rather faithfully from Yann Martel’s celebrated 2001 novel of the same…
Pat (Bradley Cooper) does not handle stress in a manner acceptable to society. When he unexpectedly comes home from work and discovers his wife in the shower with a co-worker, he beats the guy almost to death. His plea agreement with the courts sends him to a mental institution where they determine him to have…
Fittingly, the minuscule indie drama The Sessions, a bitsy biopic about the sexual awakening of iron lung inhabitant Mark O’Brien, is a movie of give and take. The actors give the most, while writer/director Ben Lewin, adapting the story from an article O’Brien wrote, mostly takes. It’s a bit of a dysfunctional relationship in some…
