7 years ago
Reviews (10 posts found)
‘Aftershock’
With Aftershock, Eli Roth is attached to yet another cautionary tale for oblivious tourists yukking it up in a foreign country, only to wind up in the most grisly circumstances made even more horrifying by their total lack of autonomy. The fact that Roth is pr...
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‘Peeples’
B
I saw Peeples in the least ideal situation imaginable. The movie started nearly 45 minutes late due to projector issues, and I was alone in the theater with one other person, never the right scenario for a comedy. My mood, thankfully, changed during the c...
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‘Stories We Tell’
Narrative is the way we relate to the world and to each other. We tell stories to communicate ideas, and to relate the events and emotions we experience. We tell stories to hold on to our memories. Sarah Polley’s new film, Stories We Tell, is an exploration of...
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‘The Great Gatsby’
Baz Luhrmann’s fast and loose cinematic adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterful 1925 novel, The Great Gatsby, is, in the words of fellow Golden Age writer Ernest Hemingway, “a visual feast” to be marveled.
Reimagining The Great Gatsby, one of the most...
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‘Sightseers’
B-
I still don't know what to make of Ben Wheatley, and I especially don't know what to make of his latest film Sightseers. I haven't seen his debut film Down Terrace, but while his growing cult-favorite Kill List has plenty of champions, I wasn't much wowe...
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Review of Something in the Air
B+
The U.S. title of Olivier Assayas’ new film, Something in the Air, misleads from the direct implications of the original Apès Mai, translated literally as “After May”. The former gives the impression of trouble stirring, of planets aligning to generate a...
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Narcissism, Combat, and a Man in a Can in Iron Man 3
B+
There’s a scene early on in Iron Man 3 where Tony Stark is having a casual lunch with long-time buddy James Rhodes, aka the “Iron Patriot," about a terrorist that has been launching attacks on US properties and soil. Tony is prodding Rhodes for informati...
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‘The Iceman’: A Bloody Portrait of a Father and a Killer
This review has been reworked and republished after originally appearing at Duke & the Movies during the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.
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In the vein of something like Kill the Irishman, The Iceman is yet another cheap-trick conventional gan...
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Dueling Takes on The Big Wedding: Color-By-Numbers Rom-Com With Surprisingly Dark Shading
B/D+
With the romantic comedy getting increasingly tedious, recent entries seem to respond by either going back to basics or pushing the limits of the formulaic story into an almost meta commentary. The former describes Save the Date, one of my favorite mov...
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Tribeca Review: Michael H. Profession: Director
B+
It's not until Michael H. Profession: Director is almost over that it becomes apparent exactly how well its approach is suited to its subject. Yves Montmayeur's documentary on the career and creative process of the celebrated Austrian filmmaker Michael Han...
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