8 years ago
The Canon (10 posts found)
Modern essentials
“Borgman” Is Your New Favorite Bogeyman
In a house in the woods, a man with a dog puts on his shoes and strides out the door. Nearby, a man with an axe joins the man with the dog. The man with the dog and the man with the axe enter a church and lock eyes with the priest, who is just exiting the rect...
Read more →
“Obvious Child”: A Different Kind Of Pregnancy Comedy
Writer-director Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child is a very funny romantic comedy that centers on the issue of an abortion. Depending on where you stand, this is the kind of subversive entertainment we are finally allowed to have in 2014— or, conversely, thi...
Read more →
“The Immigrant” Displays James Gray At His Best
The bronze color filter of The Immigrant stands apart from the romanticized sepias that typically shade period films. Its yellow-brown hue is grimy and dirty, as if shot through industrial pollution instead of an ancient lens. The skies around Ellis Island and...
Read more →
“Oculus”: Turns Out It Was Just A Reflector
Not being able to tell what's real and isn't real in movies, let alone those of the horror genre, has become such an overused, pretentious cliche when it comes to faux-profound filmmakers. So much so that when a film like Oculus comes along and does it so damn...
Read more →
“The Raid 2: Berandal”: Character Through Action, Action Through Drama
Self-congratulatory types may observe The Raid 2: Berandal in terms of its smorgasbord of cinematic influences, and pat themselves on the back for catching its touchstones: the A Better Tomorrow and Infernal Affairs trilogies, the filmography of Johnnie To, Th...
Read more →
Review: “The Missing Picture”
In the mid-1970s, the forces of Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took over Cambodia. Their vicious, autocratic reign initiated a four-year national genocide that exterminated about a quarter of the country’s entire population. In the regime's Utopia, no Cambodian ...
Read more →
“Muppets Most Wanted”: The Kid-Friendly Version of “Face/Off”
Like The Great Muppet Caper, the follow-up to The Muppet Movie, Muppets Most Wanted concerns itself with the theft of British jewels. Unlike Caper, Muppets Most Wanted is a lot of fun and a very good movie. It’s a loopy tribute to the anarchy of its titular c...
Read more →
“Le Week-End” Is A Darkly Funny, Candid Look at Love and Marriage
The baby boomers were perhaps the first generation in history where being cool was a legitimate cultural goal. Coolness, youth, and counterculture were all the rage when Nick (Jim Broadbent) met and married Meg (Lindsay Duncan). The British couple, now in thei...
Read more →
“Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons”: Another Giddily Over-the-Top Fantasy Epic from Stephen Chow
For audiences habitually hungry for visual feasts of movement and mayhem, lapping up Stephen Chow’s films can be irresistible. That unstoppable box office titan of Hong Kong cinema’s wired filmmaking flair is evident as ever in his ninth feature as director, t...
Read more →
