 |
bright star
director: jane campion
|
|
| I knew from English Lit class and Keats' first cough how it was going to end, but watching young Fanny cry out for her dead love was such a thing of beauty that I wept right along with her. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
September 2009 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
|
|
leap year
director: arnand tucker
|
|
| Even though I could predict every single moment of this film from beginning to end, I don't think it's as awful as all the critics say. If you want to escape from the awards season prestigue picture blahs, you can go to Ireland for ninety minutes on a rom com romp with good looking leads and not get wet. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
January 2010 [link] |
recommend
|
the last station
director: michael hoffman
|
|
| Gosh, I never knew that if you point a camera up at tree branches in a forest, you can show how cool nature is. The only decent thing in this bad episode of Masterpiece Theatre about Leo Tolstoy (played with full beard by Captain Von Trapp) is Dame Helen Mirren who can still play sexy indecency better than any actress of any age. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
December 2009 [link] |
recommend
|
the taking of pelham 1 2 3
director: tony scott
|
|
| This urban action thriller about the hijacking of a 6 train in Manhattan is a lot of fun when the characters behave like assholes, but when the film becomes a valentine to New York City, the whole thing gets really lame. Travolta and Washington competently lead a cast of guy-guy character actors, but I still missed the 1974 version's Walter Matthau who could be both an asshole and a valentine at the same time. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
June 2009 [link] |
recommend
|
revanche
director: gotz spielmann
|
|
| This film from Austria, a nominee for best foreign language film, might seem at first to be a revenge thriller,but it is really an ensemble drama about four characters who are lonely even when they are together. Even though at times the film might seem like a bad Euro-art house cliche, the filmmaking and acting is so low-key that the film disappears all together and what's left on the screen are some very deep characters capable of surprising right up to the end. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
May 2009 [link] |
recommend
|
the boat that rocked
director: richard curtis
|
|
| I wanted this movie to be great but knew it was very unlikely. There is a beautiful underwater scene with records floating up through the flood waters that was worth the price of admission, or would have been if London had discount afternoon matinees and, though some performances were phoned in, the ensemble of lesser-knowns pulled this from the depths of comedy drudgery to make it an amusing and fun film about sex, drugs, and pirate radio, plus I have kind of a thing for Bill Nighy. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: Eve |
April 2009 [link] |
recommend
|
nick & norah's infinite playlist
director: peter sollett
|
|
| Basically, this movie is a documentary of any given Friday night in my life, but with much less angst. That aside, it's sweet and has its charms, you even get a glimpse of a Merge Records sticker in the opening scene, but with names like Nick & Norah, I was hoping for a little more tension, and I'm now going to add Valley Girl to my Netflix list to re-watch my better teenage version of this flick. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: john ball |
December 2008 [link] |
recommend
|
quantum of solace
director: marc forster
|
|
| This movie has shooting from cars, shooting from boats, shooting from planes, breaking glass, Italy, fires, the desert, creepy global environmental organizations, British accents, a beautiful woman seeking vengeance, a handsome man (Daniel Craig as James Bond) seeking the same, and Bolivia! The more of these things that you like, the more you will like Quantum of Solace. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: Eve |
November 2008 [link] |
recommend
|
happy-go-lucky
director: mike leigh
|
|
| Not much happens in a Mike Leigh film except these completely realized characters (after months of workshopping, they say) leap out at you and practically lick your face with trueness. What a pleasure just to watch these characters be. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: adina |
October 2008 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
|
gomorrah
director: matteo garrone
|
|
| A gritty view into the ruthlessness of Italian Camorra syndicate and the business of killing. Not exactly The Sopranos. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: Eve |
October 2008 [link] |
recommend
|
tropic thunder
director: ben stiller
|
|
| Maybe I've read too much Henry Miller, but I sooo want to put an OF into the title to make it TROPIC OF THUNDER. Maybe I've dealt with too many crazy actors, but I found myself laughing when no one else in the audience was laughing. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
August 2008 [link] |
recommend
|
elegy
director: isabel coixet
|
|
| This feeble attempt at soft core art house porn opens with Ben Kingsley's character (a critic and intellectual) being interviewed by the real Charlie Rose and goes downhill from there (with the exception of Dennis Hopper's stroke scene). After two hours of watching Kingsley's character have an affair with one of his students (how scandalous) played by Penelope Cruz, I walked out of the Harmony Gold screening room and declared quite loudly that this film is baaaaaaaaad. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
August 2008 [link] |
recommend
|
persepolis
director: vincent parannaud and marjane satrapi
|
|
| This is the first film adapted from a graphic novel that I have seen that looked and felt like a graphic novel. In saying this, I mean no offense to 'Ghost World' or "V For Vendetta,' but there was something necessary about having this film animated. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: blaine |
February 2008 [link] |
recommend
|
vince vaughn's wild west comedy show
director: ari sandel
|
|
| The complete title of this movie is: Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights Hollywood to the Heartland, and in it, Vince Vaughn and four stand up comedians go on the road for (how long?) 30 days and 30 nights. Don't worry, this combination of reality television and Spinal Tap is a lot of fun especially when the comedians are up on stage. Yeeee-hah-hah-hah. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
February 2008 [link] |
recommend
|
cloverfield
director: matt reeves
|
|
| This movie dished out enough of the creepy, eerie moments I love, that I feel compelled to forgive it's many shortcomings (folks who say the acting sucked SHOULD be saying, "Those folks did a totally fine job of playing the kind of people you generally love to hate). The ending has been creeping around in my conscience all day, and as a note to the eagle-eyed viewer, at the VERY end, keep an eye on the ocean in the background for a juicy visual hint-nugget about, um, 'stuff'. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: eric w |
January 2008 [link] |
recommend
|
atonement
director: joe wright
|
|
| I went to see this movie not really knowing what it was about but I was promised a tragic love story claiming to be "one of the year's best films." Other than the beautiful costumes and stunning scenery this movie left me totally bored and uninspired. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: kelly |
January 2008 [link] |
recommend
|
juno
director: jason reitman
|
|
| Miss Juno and her wild band are apparently in the hip Indie film of the season. At times, it felt like Indie Film 101, but I still liked it and was especially moved by the lead character's quirky and quite unlikely journey to a state that I can only describe as grace. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
January 2008 [link] |
recommend
|
i am legend
director: francis lawrence
|
|
| In this blockbuster hit version of the "last man on earth" Will Smith out acts his predecessors Charlton Heston and Vincent Price (as if that is hard?) and though the movie lacks heart, except for the final scene with the dog, it is scary/suspenseful in that horrible things jump out at you way. Those zombie things are scary as sh*t. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: Eve |
December 2007 [link] |
recommend
|
the savages
director: tamara jenkins
|
|
| Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman play grown siblings with the last name Savage (get it, Savages, punny) who must put their father with dementia in a nursing home, and their characters hit a little too close to home since Linney's character is a playwright/office temp who steals post-it notes from her job and Hoffman's character is a Brecht scholar with piles of books. Even though the film is stuffed with all sorts of fun details and quasi-theatre humor, I kept waiting for the characters to truly become savage, and they never really do. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
December 2007 [link] |
recommend
|
dan in real life
director: peter hedges
|
|
| A romantic comedy that is actually charming, witty, sad and painful- just like real life- ok, maybe not totally like real life, but it is at least worth seeing to watch Steve Carell play guitar and sing "Let My Love Open the Door". Also of note: it is set in the beautiful part of Rhode Island. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: Eve |
November 2007 [link] |
recommend
|
i'm not there
director: todd haynes
|
|
| This new film from Todd Haynes has six actors playing various aspects of a Bob Dylan character. I saw it last night and was blown away by it, and I want to see it again, please. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
November 2007 [link] |
recommend
|
ridley scott
director: american gangster
|
|
| Most of this movie is a well-acted, well-shot, well-edited typical gangster picture which really only gets interesting in the last ten minutes. Woohoo, I did it in one sentence! Wait, does my second sentence count? Now, I'm up to three sentences, no four. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
November 2007 [link] |
recommend
|
superbad
director: greg mottola
|
|
| The contrast between the sometimes dizzying graphic language and the touching relationship between the main characters make this super good (*groan*) movie stand out from the average dumb ass teen gross-out/sex/party comedy. The sex scene with "Evan"/Michael Cera is about the best thing ever. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: rich |
September 2007 [link] |
recommend 3 thumbs up
|
3:10 to yuma
director: james mangold
|
|
| This loud, gun-toting, tough guy action western (a remake of the 1957 film) is chuck-full of guy-guys who get dirty, bloody, and mangled (Peter Fonda is the baddest of them all), and it's fun to watch at times. Maybe I'm a girlie girl, but I saw the film as a love story between the charasmastic gun-toting outlaw (played with relaxed glee by Russell Crowe) and the one-legged good rancher (played by the subtle and great Christian Bale) who must get him to the prison train on time. Third sentence about a trivial observation: When Crowe's character first appears in the film, he watches a little bird fly away–-this is very similar to the beginning of Gladiator when the Gladiator watches the little bird fly away with a wistful look before unleasing heck–-fly away little Russell bird, fly, fly away. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
August 2007 [link] |
recommend 1 thumbs up
|
death at a funeral
director: frank oz
|
|
| This is a comedy about a British family at a funeral, and Uncle Alfie stool the show. I laughed out loud three different times, and one time, I was super repulsed but then proceeded to laugh even louder. |
|
|
|
reviewed by: jen |
August 2007 [link] |
recommend 2 thumbs up
|
|
|
|
|
|
