9 years ago
Reviews (10 posts found)
“The Skeleton Twins” An Uncannily Convincing Portrait of Dysfunctional Siblings
I recall reading an interview with Bill Murray a couple years back in which he praised the then-current cast of Saturday Night Live. (Of course I can’t find it right now for reference purposes, because searching for anything on the Internet related to Bill Mur...
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“I Am Eleven” An Inoffensive, Lazy New Documentary Six Years in the Making
Far be it from me to claim being the ultimate authority on the subject, but when distinguishing between good and bad documentaries, so much popular consensus falls short. The subject matter and engaging “performances” by its subjects can do much to uphold othe...
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“The Green Prince” A Slickly Made But Simplistic Israel/Palestine Documentary
The Green Prince has arrived in theaters at a spectacularly bad time. Israeli/Palestinian relations are always a touchy subject, but this documentary is coming out just a few weeks after the latest Israeli bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip wrapped up. More th...
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“My Old Lady” A Largely Forgettable Endeavor In Spite of Its Cast
Dame Maggie Smith does the courtesy of giving us fair warning in the opening minutes of My Old Lady of her character’s introduction: “I’m 90,” she portents. “Subtlety is no longer something that interests me.” Nor too does it appear to interest Israel Horovitz...
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TIFF Dispatch #1: “Foxcatcher”, “Clouds of Sils Maria”, and “Maps to the Stars”
So many films—regardless of their genre or origin—deal with the psychology of interpersonal discord that it’s scarcely worth mentioning them as some kind of classifiable phenomenon. But when you watch a variety of films that have little to do with each other—f...
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“Forrest Gump” Keeps Running Away
Forrest Gump is never sure of what it is or what it wants to be. Directed by Robert Zemeckis from a script by Eric Roth (reshaping Winston Groom’s novel), the film is an ungainly mix of cheap drama, unearned sentimentality, and questionable humor that asks the...
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“Last Days in Vietnam” Flattens the Fall of Saigon into Bland Apologia
A riveting tale told in the most pedestrian and unimaginative fashion possible, director Rory Kennedy’s Last Days in Vietnam squanders some stunning archival footage and a few heartbreaking interviews, flattening the Fall of Saigon into an oatmeal-bland apolog...
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“Rocks in My Pockets” An Encouraging, Delightfully Morbid Animated Memoir
Since the turn of the millennium, cartooning has exploded as a medium for autobiography. The acceptance of comic books as an art form and the possibilities offered by the Internet have made it possible for anyone halfway decent with a drawing tablet to become ...
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In “Frontera,” Border Crisis Blends With Melodrama
It's 2014, and there's still an immigration crisis brewing on America's borders. Considering that ours is a nation of immigrants, the ongoing dispute over illegal immigration and paths to citizenship is sort of mind-boggling. So kudos to Michael Berry for havi...
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“God Help The Girl” An Earnest, Trilling Songbird of a Movie
I’ll give God Help the Girl this much: while I can’t give it any love, it was at least able to make me feel bad for feeling that way. This is an adorable little trilling songbird of a movie, pretty and sweet. And it’s so, so earnest, sincerity radiating in wav...
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