I’m a horror fan who teaches high school English, so a side effect of those combined characteristics is my knowledge of young adult (YA) fiction, and usually the darker stuff at that. I’ve read all of the Harry Potter, Twilight, and Hunger Games books like most people, and I’ve come away with mixed reactions (typically,…
Cold and distant meets warm and fuzzy in the little Brit pic Philomena and while the odd coupling clearly adheres to the philosophy that opposites attract, the movie is really all about sentimentality with just a side of snark. That snark comes courtesy of recently fired journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan, also the script’s co-writer…
Poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman said, “The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred, climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun struck hills every day.” One such high-spirited thoroughbred is Australian naturalist Robyn Davidson who, at the age of…
Most famous and renowned for his passionate tales of romance, Kar Wai Wong still seems like an inspired fit for Chinese martial arts moviemaking. The beloved director has a lyrical control of tone and atmosphere, can precisely pace a picture, and has exhibited careful control of the camera. The challenge of melding artful storytelling with…
While I am not crazy about a director including his own name in the title of a film (after all, we never saw a movie called “Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane” or “David Lean’s Great Expectations” or “Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver”), I can sort of forgive Lee Daniels (who directed the equally obscurely titled “Precious: Based…
I’m told Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters is not the new “Twilight,” although I’m very skeptical of that — the trailer released today by The Weinstein Company to the roar of teenaged girls everywhere tells me I am right. Based on the Richelle Mead novel series, it features young, attractive high school girls (who happen to…
Second-time director Jim Field Smith offers more than the recommended daily allowance with Butter, a comedy that lets political satire slip straight through its fingers, if you’ll excuse the puns. In truth, the film, centered around an elaborate butter-carving competition, is an admirable attempt at parody, but while it offers a lot by way of…
