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I Am Love (2010): C
With more than a drop of Visconti and Sirk in its veins, I Am Love fervently revels in overwrought romanticism. Luca Guadagnino’s film focuses on the wealthy Italian Recchi clan, whose lives are seemingly altered by the decision of aging patriarch Edoardo Sr. (Gabriele Ferzetti) to bequeath his industrial empire to not only son Tancredi…
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The Killer Inside Me (2010): C+
Translating a novel’s first-person narrative to the screen is a tricky task Michael Winterbottom isn’t up to with The Killer Inside Me. Based on Jim Thompson’s 1952 pulp classic about a small-town West Texas deputy sheriff named Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) with a penchant for cold-blooded brutality, Winterbottom’s adaptation does its best to approximate the…
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Splice (2010): B-
A twisted science-run-amok horror film that doubles as a cautionary tale about parental devotion (and, perhaps also, a role-reversal take on the abortion debate), Splice follows superstar geneticist couple Clive (Adrien Brody) and Elsa (Sarah Polley) as they disobey their employers’ orders and create an animal-human hybrid. The result is a being Elsa dubs Dren…
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Quick Hits
Before posting some new reviews, here are links to a few recent pieces, including my write-up of the annual Human Rights Watch Festival, for The Village Voice. Coming Soon:Cyrus (Slant magazine) Out Now:Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema (The Village Voice) Giving Voice to the Cause, the Rallying Cry of Human Rights Watch (The Village Voice)
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Winter’s Bone (2010): A-
An achingly authentic, hard-bitten portrait of survivalist determination and familial sacrifice, Winter’s Bone employs a conventional Amerindie template – cold, rural locale, parental and socio-economic tensions, plaintive soundtrack songs and evocative landscape cinematography – without ever feeling stale, forced or phony. In Missouri’s Ozarks, 17-year-old Ree (stunning newcomer Jennifer Lawrence) is informed that her crank-cooking…
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Remember Me?
This blog hasn't been updated in weeks due to an influx of work from various places, much of which can be found via the links below. Hopefully, more content will on the way shortly, including my thoughts on Michael Winterbottom's The Killer Inside Me and some retro-reviews of Minority Report and Army of Darkness. Out…
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Best Worst Movie (2009): C+
Best Worst Movie is a love letter to Troll 2, that 1990 paragon of crappy cinema. And like all love letters, the documentary – directed by Troll 2’s child star, Michael Stephenson – is a warm, jovial and decidedly uncritical look at both the film and its rabid fans. Italian director Claudio Fragasso’s pseudo horror…
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Robin Hood (2010): C-
An unwavering melding of substance and style, Robin Hood is colorless through and through. Ridley Scott’s retelling of the famed archer’s legend is (groan) an origin story that, on the basis of its conclusion, seems designed to kick-start a franchise, a repellent possibility in light of this saga’s wretched dullness. Shot in flat grays and…
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Monday Metal
Kicking the week off here with a new link collection, including my thoughts on a bunch of Tribeca Film Festival films as well as this past weekend's #1 film, Iron Man 2. Out Now:Iron Man 2 (Slant magazine)Casino Jack and the United States of Money (Slant magazine)Babies (Time Out New York)Multiple Sarcasms (Slant magazine)Mercy (Slant…
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A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010): C-
A rotten retread in the vein of Platinum Dunes’ Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th do-overs, A Nightmare on Elm Street regurgitates key visuals from Wes Craven’s iconic original but nonetheless fails to mimic or update with any competence. Helmed by Samuel Bayer (director of Nirvana’s classic “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video), the story…
