Narratively, DANNY COLLINS commits more than a few faux pas, but there is such warmth to the melancholy of a life discovered to have been wasted, that the winces they produce are worth enduring. Writer/director Dan Fogelman (CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE) may be too quick the play the melodrama card, but I prefer to focus on… Read More »
Al Pacino Exalts THE HUMBLING
THE HUMBLING is a throwback to a time when attention spans were longer, characters were created out of complex and even contradictory behaviors, and the story was an extension of the characters, not a glib contrivance. Based on the 2008 novel of the same name by Philip Roth, it is a study of Simon Axler, an actor crumbling as he feels his craft drifting away leaving him in limbo between reality and delusion, comedy and tragedy, meaning and nothingness.
RIGHTEOUS KILL
The best performance in RIGHTEOUS KILL is not given by either of its storied leads, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. It’s not given by the solid supporting cast of Donnie Wahlberg, John Leguizamo, Carla Gugino, and Brian Dennehey, who all add a raffish interest while still seeming to pull their punches in an attempt… Read More »
RECRUIT, THE
Its such a neat idea for a flick — an intricately plotted tale of spies playing both sides against the middle with a gazillion twists and turns and no one, especially the audience, quite knowing where the middle is until the end. And one day, if were good, well get a flick like that. For… Read More »
TWO FOR THE MONEY
The human mind is an amazing thing. Over the course of evolution, it has developed a host of fascinating mechanisms geared towards its survival in any number of harsh environments, be it the plains of Africa a million years ago, or the terrors of bad cinema at today’s local multiplex. It’s the latter that stirred… Read More »
88 MINUTES
I wonder if any one has done a study to pinpoint the exact moment when Al Pacino gave up any attempt to continue being a serious actor and began regularly phoning it in. His latest, 88 MINUTES, is another in a series of roles in which he is genially disengaged, giving only the most perfunctory… Read More »