February 2012
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Chronicle review
What if you had superpowers? That’s the question at the heart of “Chronicle,” a smart new take on the superhero origin story from newcomer Josh Trank . Andrew (Dane DeHaan) is a high school senior and social outcast who’s got a rough time at home - his dad is an alcoholic, his mom is dying of cancer - who decides to start videotaping everything. His only real friend is...
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5 More Films I’m Looking Forward To from Sundance...
I managed to catch 12 movies during my 4 days at Sundance but with hundreds of movies playing, it’s impossible not to end up missing out on some things. I think I did a pretty good job of seeing some of the most buzzed about films at the fest but didn’t have a chance to see everything I had planned on, including a few films that ended up getting squeezed out for time, sleep or...
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My Sundance '12 Wrap-Up
For the second year I attended the Sundance Film Festival, packing 12 films into 4 very full days (+1 after the fact). With hundreds of films playing I made a decision to stick mostly to the U.S. Dramatic category (since that’s where most of last year’s breakouts came from (“Like Crazy,” “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” “Take Shelter”) with a few...
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Sundance '12: Hello, I Must Be Going review
Amy Minsky (Melanie Lynskey) is recently divorced 35 year old photographer who, in a state of depression, moves back in with her parents so she can put her life back together. But living back at home proves to have more than its own share of stresses involved including what amounts to basically reverting to her teenaged self. Her parents (Blythe Danner and John Rubenstein) are supportive but not...
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Sundance '12: For Ellen review
In one of the most unusual bits of casting at the fest, 27 year old Paul Dano (“Little Miss Sunshine”) plays Joby, the struggling frontman of a hard rock band (think Buckcherry but less famous) about to lose custody of his young daughter Ellen. With long greasy dyed-black hair, a few whiskers combed into a goatee and a perpetual hangover, Joby does not look like anybody’s idea...
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Sundance '12: The Comedy review
The film with the unfortunate distinction of being the very worst film I saw at Sundance this year was “The Comedy,” a supposed satire of aging hipsters starring Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim of “Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job” and LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. Only intermittently funny apparently by design, the film is a series of loosely connected skits...
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Sundance '12: Smashed review
Kate (Mary-Elizabeth Winstead) and Charlie (Aaron Paul) are a happily married couple. They’re young, they like to have a good time and they’re blind to the fact that they are both alcoholics. Charlie is a freelance writer so his lifestyle enables him to drink with greater frequency without effecting his work but Kate is an elementary school teacher and after getting sick in front of...
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Sundance '12: Safety Not Guaranteed review
“WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.”
Based on the infamous classified ad heard round the internet, this “Safety Not Guaranteed” brings unexpected sincerity to it’s potentially one-joke premise. Aubrey Plaza...
January 2012
27 posts
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Sundance '12: Celeste & Jesse Forever review
Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg star as Celeste and Jesse, former high school sweethearts now in their 30’s. They’re still best friends who finish each others sentences, share all the same inside jokes and we imagine are probably the envy of all their friends until they decide to get divorced. Only instead of splitting up entirely, Jesse moves into the guest house and the two continue...
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Sundance '12: Robot & Frank review
Set in the near future, Frank Langella stars as Frank a retired jewel thief living out his days in his upstate NY cottage whose son buys him a caretaker robot called simply, Robot (voiced by Peter Saarsgard). Initially resistant to this strange technology, Frank eventually becomes dependent on Robot, not only as a housekeeper but also as a friend. After a hip developer comes to renovate...
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Sundance '12: Bachelorette review
Produced by Will Ferrell & Adam McKay’s Gary Sanchez Productions, Kirsten Dunst, Lizzy Caplan and Isla Fisher star as a trio of bridesmaids behaving badly during a coke and booze filled bachelorette party in this dark comedy. First-time writer/director Leslye Headland adapted from her play of the same name and while the synopsis might read like “Bridesmaids” revisited,...
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Sundance '12: Liberal Arts review
Sitcom star Josh Radnor (“How I Met Your Mother”) writes, directs and stars in his sophomore Sundance feature after 2010’s Audience Award winning “Happythankyoumoreplease” about a 35 year old college admissions counselor (Radnor) who takes a trip to visit his old alma mater only to fall for a 19 year old student (“Martha Marcy May Marlene” star Elizabeth...
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Sundance '12: Save The Date review
Starring an indie dream team of Lizzy Caplan (“Party Down”), Alison Brie (“Community”), Martin Starr (“Freaks & Geeks”) and Mark Webber (“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”), “Save The Date” is a smarter-than-your-average rom-com that mostly avoids cliches in favor of some of life’s actual messiness. Caplan stars as Sarah, an...
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Sundance '12: Nobody Walks review
Peter (John Krasinski) and Julie (Rosemary DeWitt) are a Silverlake couple whose marriage is thrown into doubt by the arrival of 23 year old NY artist Martine (Olivia Thirlby). Peter — a sound editor — agrees to help Martine complete her short film but the long hours they spend in seclusion begin to reveal the cracks in his seemingly idyllic marriage. Justin Kirk and Dylan McDermott...
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Sundance '12: Simon Killer review
One of the most divisive films at Sundance this year was undoubtedly “Simon Killer,” the latest from the Borderline films crew responsible for last year’s breakout “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” ‘Martha’ producer Antonio Campos steps back into the writer/director’s chair (for the second time after 2008’s “Afterschool”) while...
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Sundance '12: Beasts of the Southern Wild review
The first film I saw at this year’s Sundance Film Festival turned out to be perhaps the most acclaimed of the entire fest, taking home the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Dramatic, with the NY Times exclaiming it as “among the best films to play at the festival in two decades.” The film is about a 6 year old girl named Hushpuppy (an outstanding Quvenzhané Wallis) who lives with her...
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My 10 Worst Films of 2011
Whoops, I had actually forgotten I was writing this but this is the last of my 2011 wrapup pieces, promise. I think it’s a common misnomer that critics enjoy trashing bad movies. It can be painful to sit through a bad film so - with the exception of “Season of the Witch” which I saw during a Nic Cage-a-thon - it’s not something I would subject myself to intentionally. I...
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My Top 10 Films of 2011
Most critics seem to be in agreement that 2011 was not an especially great year for film but there were nevertheless gems to be found if you did a little digging. I did a lot of digging last year, more than ever in fact, surpassing my previous benchmark (by about 30 films) by viewing a record 103 films in the theatre in 2011. And that’s not including about a half dozen of those which I saw...
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My Most Anticipated Films of 2012
If 2011 was any indication, I am going to watch a lot of movies in 2012. And from the looks of it, this year has a potential to be an absolutely incredible year for cinema. It seems like nearly every one of my favorite directors has a film coming out in the next 12 months plus, like every year, there will be the surprises that come out of nowhere and become your new favorites. It’s always...
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Peep Show on Netflix Instant
Happy New Year everyone, the best comedy on TV is now available on Netflix Instant!
Watch the entire series here. It’s also available on Hulu.
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10 Films Not On My Top 10
In any given year there are bound to be a few critical darlings that you don’t quite agree with, but seemingly never more than this year. So before posting My Favorite Films of 2011, I thought I should acknowledge some movies that won’t be making an appearance on my list. These films have been so critically adored - making appearances on virtually every Top 10 except, well, my own -...
December 2011
20 posts
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My Top 10 Albums of 2011
As you get older, you get more set in your ways and it’s hard to keep up, seek out and absorb new music and much easier to just flip on Pandora (or the radio, if you’re 100), and just go with the flow. Keeping up with your favorites is easy but generally your favorites tend to disappoint just an album or two after they’re anointed with the distinction. Albums by The Strokes and...
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A Separation review
Riding a wave of acclaim from film festivals all across the world and sitting atop countless year end lists, I decided to see “A Separation” as the very last film of 2011. Well acted and competently shot, it was nevertheless not for me so I’ll keep this brief. The film opens with Nader (Peyman Maadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) applying for a divorce to an unseen Iranian judge....
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Margaret review
Team Margaret. For anyone who hasn’t been following the saga of Kenneth Lonergan’s grief drama’s long road to the screen it goes a little something like this. Lonergan’s debut film as director, “You Can Count On Me,” was a sizable indie hit (helping to launch Mark Ruffalo’s career) so inbetween the occasional writing gig (“Gangs of New York”...
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Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol review
The “Mission: Impossible” franchise has to be one of the most elastic in film history. Unlike James Bond or Harry Potter, the M:I series allows the characters to change in order to fit the vision of the director. The first (and still best entry) was a stylish Brian DePalma action thriller while the second and hardly recognizable installment was a John Woo slo-mo actioneer and worst...
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War Horse review
As someone who grew up with Steven Spielberg—from my worn VHS copy of “E.T” to the life-changing thrill of seeing dinosaurs move in “Jurassic Park”—I’m a little sad its come to this. Based on a novel by Michael Morpurgo, which was itself turned into an Award-winning play, “War Horse” is an opportunity for the filmmaker to settle back into his...
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We Need To Talk About Kevin review
Based on the novel by Lionel Shriver, “We Need To Talk About Kevin” is a chilling but frustratingly black and white portrait of motherhood and raising the ultimate bad seed. The Lynne Ramsay directed film has been on my radar since it made a splash at Cannes over the summer and I had braced myself to be more disturbed than I ultimately was. Tilda Swinton stars as Eva, a travel writer...
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The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo review
Arriving a little over a year after his last film, “The Social Network,” conquered every critics awards (only to be narrowly shut out at the Oscars), and adapted from a series of books that seemingly everyone on the planet has read by now, David Fincher’s “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” arrives with the weight of impossible expectations. It was one of my most...
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WatchProbably my favorite Digital Short this season.
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The Sitter review
Remember how “Due Date” was like a worse “Planes Trains and Automobiles”? Well “The Sitter” is the lazy, mostly unfunny “Adventures in Babysitting.” And it’s really a shame. While chasing audience approval, former indie-film director David Gordon Green (who whiffed once already this year with the ambitious but inadequate stoner comedy...