-
3 (2010): C
Tom Tykwer dazzles the eye and dulls the mind with 3, the Run Lola Run director’s tedious promotion of a new identity-definition paradigm. In modern-day Berlin, long-time couple Hanna (Sophie Rois) and Simon (Sebastian Schipper) are struggling with a loss of sexual excitement, a problem that leads first Hanna, and then Simon, into the inviting…
-
Contagion (2011): B+
Everything goes viral in Contagion – most critically a rampant new disease that threatens to wipe the globe clean, but also fear, rumor, panic and information. Sharing with his Oscar-winning Traffic a multi-character, multi-focus structure, Steven Soderbergh’s pandemic thriller fixates on hands and mouths as they silently pass germs, and potential apocalypse, from public bus…
-
Our Idiot Brother (2011): C+
Paul Rudd is a divine moron who brings peace and harmony to his secretly miserable sisters in Our Idiot Brother, a pleasant-enough trifle that ensnares itself in the uneasy middle ground between indie drama and dumb-guy comedy. The titular doofus is Ned (Paul Rudd), a hippie who gets himself incarcerated for selling pot to a…
-
Attack the Block (2011): B-
Hoodlums get to be heroes for a night in Attack the Block, an alien invasion saga that evokes far more childlike Spielbergian wonder than this summer’s similar Super 8, yet nonetheless somewhat stumbles in attempting to generate an unnerving sense of terror, raucous humor, or consistent empathy for its teenage protagonists. Writer/director Joe Cornish’s debut…
-
Tabloid (2010): B+
Errol Morris’ lightest, most amusing film since 1997’s Fast, Cheap & Out of Control, and yet nonetheless a companion piece to 2008’s Standard Operating Procedure in its investigation of media-filtered truth, Tabloid tells the truly outrageous tale of Joyce McKinney, a wannabe model and former Wyoming beauty queen who in 1977 became a UK gossip-rag…
-
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011): B-
Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a stunning apotheosis of many sorts – of supersized CG spectacle, of cruel and cavalier carnage, of sexist T&A and militaristic fetishism, of narrative inconsequentiality and crass stereotypes, and of size, scale and over-over-over-the-top juvenile orgiastic cartoon mayhem. It’s a 157-minute pinnacle of contemporary mega-budgeted blockbusters that’s simultaneously atrocious…
-
The Ward (2010): C
Back behind the camera for his first feature since 2001’s Ghosts of Mars, John Carpenter serves up some sluggish and silly shock-scary horror with The Ward, a tale about the supernatural mysteries that engulf Kristen (Amber Heard) after she burns down a farmhouse and is institutionalized in a spooky mental ward. This story, penned with…
-
Cedar Rapids (2011): B-
Hopelessly benign but still boisterous enough to deliver a mild buzz, Cedar Rapids details the efforts of goodie-two-shoes insurance salesman Tim (Ed Helms) to win his firm a coveted award – nabbed the past three years by his revered and now-deceased predecessor – at an Iowa convention. That goal is complicated by his budding friendship…
-
Green Lantern (2011): C
A second-rate superhero receives a second-rate summer extravaganza in Green Lantern, the first big-screen adventure for DC Comics’ intergalactic do-gooder. Director Martin Campbell’s saga is one of creation, destruction and daddy issues, all revolving around a daredevil fighter pilot named Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) who is chosen by an alien ring – fueled by the…
-
Submarine (2010): C
A Welsh variation on Rushmore’s Max Fisher, 15-year-old Oliver Tate comes of age through a budding romance with classmate Jordana (Yasmin Paige) and his quest to save his parents’ (Noah Taylor and Sally Hawkins) marriage in Submarine, Richard Ayoade’s off-putting ode to quirky teen desire and self-discovery. From knowing narration and addresses to the camera,…
