Each time that screenwriter Diablo Cody and director Jason Reitman team up, they create a singular female character that walks onscreen feeling fully formed and armed with lots to say. First it was Ellen Page’s precocious pregnant teen in “Juno,” then it was Charlize Theron’s perpetually perturbed author Mavis Gary in “Young Adult,” and now…
If you are thinking about engaging in some other activity after watching Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, be sure to leave some time for decompression. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, the semi-autobiographical Whiplash is a visceral, adrenaline-pumping musical drama that raises — but does not resolve —…
Finally, it’s here, the film not a single person has been waiting for, Men, Women & Children, essentially Jason Reitman’s “Reefer Madness” for the digital age, is a decade late tonally conflicted mess that completely misses its mark. The first comparison that comes to mind for this film, honestly, is the beginning of “Troll 2;”…
