The next time somebody complains that a supposedly ‘real’ movie takes liberties with the truth (like, say, The Social Network), I want to show them The Bling Ring. This is what happens when you don’t dramatize your movie. For all I know, the events portrayed here may well be accurate representations of the actions of…
A painfully inept film, full of dialogue and plot points that any professional writer should have rejected without hesitation Seven years ago, I felt like the only person in the world who liked Superman Returns. Over time, my feelings have softened considerably, but my childlike affection for the idea of Superman was enough to blind me…
I wanted to love the Great Gatsby adaptation so much. I tried, I really did. But when a studio moves a prominent release from prime Oscar season to the following summer, that’s usually a bad sign for the movie’s prospects. And in this case, smoke meant fire. Fitzgerald’s Great American Novel is set in the…
The Descendants won the top honor tonight at the Golden Globes, and it’s threatening to make a legitimate Oscar splash. Even in a truly horrendous year for mainstream American movies, the potential of this winning Best Picture concerns me as much as The Social Network losing last year did. I’ll preface this review by saying…
This is part of my 2011 wrap-up series, A Few of My Favorite Things, in which I discuss what I enjoyed the past year, regardless of when it was released. #8 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 At the end of last year, I wrote about the first half of Harry Potter and the…
This is part of my 2011 wrap-up series, A Few of My Favorite Things, in which I discuss what I enjoyed the past year, regardless of when it was released. #10 Adventureland Movie, 2009 That Thing You Do is one of my favorite movies of all time. Maybe even my favorite. And it kept popping in…
Some Earnthis writers don’t quite have the time to devote to lengthy reviews that we used to, but I’d like to offer some brief thoughts (and not-so-brief thoughts, in Moneyball‘s case) on recent flicks that have been in theaters and may get Oscar play. A couple thoughts on 2011: it feels like a weak year; and who…
Rating: 4 stars (out of 4) The Social Network’s top comparison among critics has been the beloved Citizen Kane, as both chronicle the rise and fall of a young, ambitious individual who shapes a new technological medium to his advantage. After 4 viewings of the former (plus many more of certain scenes), endless reading of…
Rating: two stars (out of 4) The Invention of Lying just doesn’t know what it wants to be. It spends its first third belaboring its premise — a world where people are incapable of lying — with the same joke over and over. Then it shifts to a Yes Man-type attempt at an inspiring tale.…
Rating: 3 stars (out of 4) There was a point about halfway into It’s Kind of a Funny Story when I was confident the film was headed into four-star territory. The set-up in this movie is phenomenal in three ways: the way it establishes its conflict, the way it introduces its colorful cast of characters,…