Category Archives: Movies

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an impeccable rendering of the past

Last week I attended a screening of a movie I’ve been dying to see for ages, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Hype for this film—largely of the Oscar kind—has been building steadily for a while and it is well deserved. From top to toe this is one of the best crafted, best acted, most tautly presented thrillers I’ve seen in a really long time. The story might not be your cup of tea, but you can’t complain about the technical and artistic merit of the film. This is a flawless movie, flawlessly made. Tinker Tailor is based on John Le Carre’s novel, considered to be his most autobiographical, and is a seminal Cold War-era spy story. Bond and Bourne were also born during the Cold War, but where those characters have been reinvented and reinterpreted for modern audiences, George Smiley, Tinker Tailor’s protagonist, remains firmly planted in his 1970’s roots.Continue reading “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is an impeccable rendering of the past”

The Descendants ruminates on guilt, grief and forgiveness in paradise

Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election) ends his seven-year absence from feature filmmaking with an adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings’ The Descendants, a dramedy that’s more drama than comedy. If you’re familiar with Payne’s work—and you should, at the very least, be familiar with Election—you know that the line between crying and laughing is where his movies live. Payne’s movies usually have some really funny bits but end up being kind of depressing in the end. The Descendants walks the same line and uses humor to leaven the heavy moments, but I found it to be more optimistic and hopeful than Payne usually is. Perhaps his worldview shifted sometime during his sabbatical.Continue reading “The Descendants ruminates on guilt, grief and forgiveness in paradise”

Let’s pretend like Tarsem Singh didn’t make Immortals

Because it’s kind of depressing that he did. Tarsem (I’m not being cheeky and over familiar, he’s referred to as “Tarsem”, not “Singh”) has directed two movies prior to Immortals—The Cell in 2000 and The Fall in 2006. The Fall is one of the most gloriously weird movies I’ve ever seen and I took an interest in Tarsem from that point on. I’m not one of his insane fanboys (who propelled the appalling Immortals to a $32 million opening weekend), but as a photographer his work appeals to me. His bright colors and surrealist imagery creates an incomparable palette for him to work from. However, Tarsem has never been what I would call a storyteller. He’s a visuals man, cobbling together stories from fantastical visions.Continue reading “Let’s pretend like Tarsem Singh didn’t make Immortals”

You don’t need to be in a hurry for In Time

I certainly wasn’t in a hurry to write this review. (Blame it on The Fassbender.)

I really loved Gattaca. Sci-fi is usually not my thing but I loved Gattaca because it was 1) visually stylish and 2) totally plausible (to me). It was all about genetic engineering and the quest to create perfect people and what would happen if not everyone was able to be perfect. To this day, I still love Gattaca a lot and recommend it frequently. This has bought its writer/director, Andrew Niccol, a lot of leeway with me, which he has nearly exhausted with S1m0ne and Lord of War. In Time bought him back some of my affection but not all that he once had.Continue reading “You don’t need to be in a hurry for In Time”

CIFF Triple Play: Coriolanus, Jeff Who Lives at Home and Sleeping Beauty

Time to hammer through the second half of my Chicago International Film Festival coverage with an arthouse triple feature.

Coriolanus

Shakespeare is hard. Even for professionals, Shakespeare is hard. This is the message I got from John Logan, the Tony-award winning playwright (for RED), and a two-time Oscar nominee (screenplays for Gladiator and The Aviator). Logan’s resume is impressive, so for him to admit that Coriolanus, was tough to bring to the big screen is no joke. It was a struggle at every level—adaptation, selling, filming, distributing. That this film exists at all is proof of Logan’s, and Ralph Fiennes’, devotion to the work.Continue reading “CIFF Triple Play: Coriolanus, Jeff Who Lives at Home and Sleeping Beauty”