I’m having one of those “I think I saw a different movie” experiences with Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. I was watching TV last night and a commercial for the movie came on and it was loaded with pull quotes from various critics, which included words like brilliant and masterpiece. I don’t trust pull quotes in general (and this is why) but I have been discussing Lincoln with others who have seen it and I find myself in the minority that do not think this movie is either brilliant or a masterpiece. It’s an okay movie, don’t get me wrong, it’s just didn’t blow me away with amazingness. While Daniel Day-Lewis does give a masterful performance as Abraham Lincoln, and the film does feature a stellar supporting ensemble, Lincoln is a fairly paint-by-numbers biopic of the closest thing we have to a national saint. Which is a shame, because Lincoln The Man is infinitely more interesting than Lincoln The Myth.Continue reading “Lincoln: More myth than man, and poorer for it”
Category Archives: Movies
Skyfall: Not your grandpa’s Bond
Mildly spoilery.
There’s a lot of talk in the latest Bond film, the Sam Mendes-directed Skyfall, about Bond being from another time and the relevancy of an old-school cloak-and-dagger espionage agent in a world of computers and cybercrime. It’s a question that works both for the character and the franchise, which turns fifty this year. It’s also a question that Skyfall answers with a resounding YES. Bond is still relevant and interesting as a protagonist and yes, you still believe he plays a vital role in covert intelligence.Continue reading “Skyfall: Not your grandpa’s Bond”
Cloud Atlas is an exercise in your movie-going patience
I liked Cloud Atlas, but I also didn’t like Cloud Atlas. Co-directed by Andy and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix trilogy) and Tom Tkywer (Run Lola Run), there’s a lot to enjoy—its visually rich, complex settings, the interlocking stories that stack and collapse together like a Jenga tower, the truly fine performances from a dream team cast, the technical contributions such as the score, the cinematography, and the brilliant editing done by Alexander Berner (The Debt, The Three Musketeers), who ought to go from jobbing editor to one of the most in-demand talents in his field with this work. But there are some major sticking points, namely that the actors each portray multiple characters with varying levels of success and that of the six stories presented, only three are actually entertaining.Continue reading “Cloud Atlas is an exercise in your movie-going patience”
Straight to Video Steve Presents: The Top 10 horror flicks you probably haven’t seen, but should
I don’t watch a lot of horror. It’s really nothing against the genre, it’s just that it is entirely impossible to watch horror movies and nothing else. There’s not enough time in the day. So I really only see horror movies if they cross over into the mainstream, like Cabin in the Woods, or if something about the movie distinguishes it, such as marking a new directorial talent (like Dead Snow, which appears on this list).
But it’s October, and with Halloween approaching there are horror movie marathons, DVD deals, and On Demand offers out the wazoo. So I asked my brother Steve—who is a horror aficionado—to come up with ten horror movies from the last decade that are worth watching, but that might have slid under the radar for general audiences (so no Let the Right One In or Cabin in the Woods or Paranormal Activity, because they made the mainstream. Also no Last Exorcism because that movie is ri-goddamn-diculous).
So here it is, from my resident horror expert, Steve, the ten little-seen horror flicks worth your time this Halloween.
10. The Divide (2011)
Post-Apocalyptic Cabin Fever
As their city is being leveled by bombs from an unknown enemy, the tenants of an apartment building descend to their basement for shelter. They represent a set of different (and conflicting) personality types that, through a slow progression to insanity, turn this basement into a nightmare on par with the destruction outside. There is plenty of blood and intensity to keep the audience entertained and the acting (especially that of Michael Biehn of The Terminator and horror classic The Abyss) is stellar for this genre. This is a good film for people who don’t necessarily like horror, but are intrigued by human drama. It’s like The Real World with casualties.Continue reading “Straight to Video Steve Presents: The Top 10 horror flicks you probably haven’t seen, but should”
Argo is Ben Affleck’s best film yet
Ben Affleck’s career rejuvenation over the last five years, since he made his feature film debut as a director with Gone Baby Gone, is nothing short of remarkable. He went from a punchline, the should-be A-lister who blew all his good will on a cheesy too-public relationship with Jennifer Lopez and a string of shitty movies (although Reindeer Games did yield one of the best lines in The Avengers), to one of the most reliable and entertaining American filmmakers. Case in point: I HATED Affleck even just a couple years ago (I wasn’t convinced Baby wasn’t a fluke) and picked on him constantly. But now I can’t wait to see his movies and freely admit he’s totally won me over against my will. Now there’s a “how did he DO that” for you.Continue reading “Argo is Ben Affleck’s best film yet”
Looper is a striking film, flawless story
Rian Johnson is one of the emerging American filmmakers leading a not-particularly-quiet and yet still somehow wholly disregarded renaissance in American film. Every year, as the number of sequels and Kevin James movies produced grows and people lament that film is dead, dying, over, directors like Johnson turn out well crafted, attentive films peopled with interesting characters that walk and talk in ways that actual people walk and talk, and not like walking exposition dumps or the archetypical beings that fill the lesser, more populous films dominating the landscape. It’s happening on a big-budget studio scale, too, this creeping Kudzu takeover of storytelling, but it’s more easily spotted in the indie landscape. For now.Continue reading “Looper is a striking film, flawless story”
Sleepwalk with Me is a comedy about comedy about life
Do you know Mike Birbiglia? Fans of stand-up comedy should know him from his shows such as What I Should Have Said Was Nothing and Two Drink Mike. NPR listeners might recognize him from This American Life, where he contributes bits culled from his “Secret Public Journal” blog. And cinemaphiles ought to learn his name because Birbiglia is emerging as not only a top-notch writer and performer but he’s not half bad behind the camera, too. His first feature film, co-directed with Seth Barrish, also a first-timer, Sleepwalk with Me, has been a hit with audiences and critics at film festivals ever since Sundance back in January, and it’s now in theaters, cleaning up even amid otherwise dismal box office returns (we’re in for an indie renaissance not unlike what happened in the 1970’s, but that’s for later).Continue reading “Sleepwalk with Me is a comedy about comedy about life”
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