-
Published Film Reviews – 2008
12/26/08 – Bedtime Stories (Slant magazine) 12/26/08 – Marley & Me (Slant magazine) 12/20/08 – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Slant magazine) 12/20/08 – Revolutionary Road (Slant magazine) 12/20/08 – Valkyrie (Slant magazine) 12/18/08 – Seven Pounds (Cinematical) 12/18/08 – Yes Man (Slant magazine) 12/18/08 – The Tale of Despereaux (Slant magazine) 12/12/08 –…
-
Martin (1977): A-
Zombie movies made him a legend, but George A. Romero’s finest achievement may have been Martin, his 1977 character study about a young, lonely man living in Pittsburgh who may or may not be a vampire. Martin (John Amplas) is certainly convinced of this, claiming to be 84 years old and drinking the blood of…
-
The Simpsons Movie (2007): B
Homer Simpson’s love affair with an oinker he dubs, during one particularly absurd prank, “Spider-Pig,” is the type of purely dumb-bizarre-ridiculous-hilarious moment that has helped make The Simpsons a cultural treasure. Woe, then, that there aren’t more such moments sprinkled throughout The Simpsons Movie, the iconic clan’s first trip to the big-screen after 18 revolutionary…
-
2007 LA Weekly/Village Voice Film Poll
2007’s last (list) hurrah arrives in the form of the LA Weekly/Village Voice Film Poll, which returns after a one-year hiatus and, like so many other critics lists, is topped by There Will Be Blood. My ballot, which differs only slightly from the one I submitted for indieWIRE‘s poll, can be found at the below…
-
Awake (2007): C-
Jake Lloyd may have suffered vitriolic slings and arrows for his stilted performance as young Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace, but his successor in the role, Hayden Christensen, wasn’t any less nondescript a screen presence. Further confirmation of that assessment arrives in the form of Awake, in which Christensen sleepwalks through a ludicrous thriller…
-
La Vie En Rose (2007): C+
Marion Cotillard is the only reason to sit through La Vie En Rose, a biopic that compounds its basic tediousness by fracturing its narrative in a vain effort to mask a stale rise-and-fall arc. The subject of Olivier Dahan’s film is legendary singer Edith Piaf, the “Little Sparrow,” who was born into poverty but nonetheless…
-
Exiled (2007): B+
Ingeniously orchestrated action is Exiled’s prime pleasure, though Johnny To (Election, Triad Election) also surrounds his gleefully extravagant, expertly choreographed gunfights with beguiling, contemplative drama. Wo (Nick Cheung) is marked for death by the former employer, Boss Fay (Simon Yam), whom he tried to assassinate. His demise, however, is delayed when the childhood friends/gangster comrades…
-
Terrible Twofer
The year’s last link dump only features two reviews. And neither is very nice . Nonetheless, a few more blog reviews will be posted between now and New Year’s, as will a link to my ballot for the Village Voice/LA Weekly film critics poll. Out Now: National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Slant magazine) P.S. I…
-
indieWIRE: Critics’ Poll ’07
For the second straight year, I was invited to participate in indieWIRE‘s annual film critics’ poll. And, as the final tally reveals, it turns out that my own choices for best of the year were surprisingly similar to those of my fellow critics. A link to my personal ballot can be found below. My indieWIRE…
-
Margot at the Wedding (2007): C+
There isn’t a single truly likeable character in Noah Baumbach’s Margot at the Wedding, and there are quite a few that are downright intolerable. It’s an issue that Baumbach, in his follow-up to 2005’s The Squid and the Whale, never completely finds a way to overcome, as the wholesale unpleasantness of most every self-absorbed East…
