Hipster loathing has graduated from passive distaste to aggressive protest. The religion of rebellion, of conformity to anti-conformity, seems to every generation looking back on their bygone years in the fold to be at a fever pitch. As naive and as stylistically and ideologically clichéd as each iteration of youth culture is, it was never [...]
Two attractive twentysomethings meet for the first time in a Manhattan restaurant and engage in obligatory small talk. What was intended to be a meeting between indie film director and potential star soon promises to be the beginning of a long and complex relationship that won’t end how either had planned. So begins director Brian Ackley’s micro-budget [...]
With “Crazy Heart,” first-time writer/director, Scott Cooper, aims to capture an authentic slice of Americana and the romance of the unwieldy west. If he succeeds, it’s no thanks to his direction or adaptation of Thomas Cobb’s novel. The only reason this rough-around-the-edges work of business-as-usual corporate cinema is getting any attention at all is because [...]
Criticized ad nauseam for his perceived lack of versatility, 21-year-old comedy star Michael Cera gets a chance to stretch a little in Miguel Arteta’s adaptation of C.D. Payne’s novel, “Youth in Revolt: The Journals of Nick Twisp.” His performance as the neurotic, pretentious, socially inept virgin, Nick Twisp, isn’t by any means a departure [...]
“The Ugly Truth” is a remake. No, not officially, but does it really matter any more? Despite our best efforts in the critical and otherwise sane community to fortify our collective intellect against unnecessary and blatantly opportunistic remakes, sequels, and prequels, Hollywood not only defiantly presses on with its war against originality but ups the [...]
Pixar Animation Studios is a dazzling anomaly–a brilliant aberration on the drab and dour landscape of mainstream, commercial cinema. Creatively bankrupt Hollywood has sent originality into death throes. The auteur has given way to an army of mercenary filmmakers with little time for characterization, motivation, or plot. But John Lasseter’s Pixar, located about 350 miles [...]
Writer/Director Tony Gilroy’s followup to 2007′s law thriller, “Michael Clayton,” has all the style and flash of that picture, but none of its potency or efficacy. Maybe that’s the idea, but the film loses itself in its own labyrinth of uncertainty. Clive Owen (“Children of Men”) and Julia Roberts (“Erin Brockovich”) star opposite each other [...]
“I Love You, Man,” the latest offering from director John Hamburg (“Along Came Polly”), joins the recent string of male-oriented comedies that not only embrace love as a reality of heterosexual relationships but glorify it. Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) is a likable, straight-laced, romantic momma’s boy so in touch with his sensitive side that he [...]
The general consensus is that Englishman Danny Boyle’s (Trainspotting, Millions) venture into Bollywood results in a stirring tale of adventure, romance, and redemption. These themes are indisputably present, but represent only the base by which a much more profound and compelling story is told. Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle’s eighth feature film, delves deep into pressing modern [...]
Director David Fincher’s (Fight Club, Se7en) latest offering, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, curiously reminds me of Kevin Costner’s monumentally mediocre Waterworld (1995). Let me first make the point that Benjamin Button has almost nothing in common with, and is far superior to Costner’s bloated tale of self-aggrandizement; however, these two films do share [...]
