Let us praise the genius of Sandra Bullock’s gift for physical comedy. It makes even the small business of teetering on a stool in a fuchsia-sequined jumpsuit an epic of determination, embarrassment, grit, and uncertainty. It is in no small part that THE LOST CITY, on which she was also an executive producer, is such… Read More »
LOGAN LUCKY
Transposing the milieu from glitz to grits, Steven Soderbergh’s LOGAN LUCKY does more set an intricate heist flick in the backroads of Appalachia, it also makes a sly statement about class, culture, and our preconceived notions about those two things. It also has something that most Soderbergh films lack for all their visual impact: heart.… Read More »
HAIL, CAESAR!
If Douglas Sirk had directed a film noir written by Billy Wilder, it might have looked something like HAIL, CAESAR!, the latest thoughtful tangle of philosophy and whimsy from the Coen Brothers. Taking place in a 1951 Hollywood not entirely unlike the one that actually existed, it mixes Cold War paranoia, carefully managed studio PR… Read More »
THE HATEFUL EIGHT
THE HATEFUL EIGHT is an impudent, pugnacious comedy that uses the synthetic nature of its stylized homage idiom to be a whip-smart consideration of race, gender, politics, situational ethics, and very, very bad teeth. The genre is the western, but the tone is thoroughly modern as a group of the damned journey through the desolate… Read More »
MAGIC MIKE XXL: Flash and Dazzle
Steven Soderbergh is an executive producer of MAGIC MIKE XXL, but that is the only trace of that director to be found in this sequel that is more about joy than angst. Channing Tatum, returning as the eponymous male stripper, has taken the fun and dazzle from the original and eschewed most of the cerebral… Read More »
JUPITER ASCENDING. Not.
The Wachowskis know how to produce a spectacle. In that, they may very well be the cinematic heirs of Cecil B. DeMille, whose films featured showmanship of the highest caliber, but some of whose films could charitably be described as insubstantial. And such is the case with the space saga, JUPITER ASCENDING, a film chock-a-block… Read More »
GI JOE
Breaking up is hard to do, and sometimes the fate of the whole world hangs in the balance of how it plays out. Thats the theme driving G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, an action film that is not quite as plastic as its namesake and certainly has higher production values. Its cheerfully cheesy with… Read More »
DEAR JOHN
DEAR JOHN continues the translation from page to screen of wholesome romances devised by genre juggernaut Nicholas Sparks. This one weaves 9/11 into a story about the distances between people and the difficulties in bridging them, whether those distances are spatial or emotional. Our lovely couple are Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) and John (Channing Tatum), two… Read More »
THE EAGLE
THE EAGLE is a literate slog through Roman-occupied Britain. It’s a gritty, atmospheric experience where honor is the goal, and finding it takes some unexpected turns. Based on the novel of the same name by Rosemary Sutcliff, it starts with actual historical incidents, adds artistic license, and comes up with a metaphorical tale that speaks… Read More »
21 JUMP STREET
There is a palpable love for the original television series in 21 JUMP STREET. A love that encompasses both the premise and that premises lack of credibility. As in, a group of police officers going undercover in various high schools in to infiltrate the illegal doings there, and bring the perps to justice. It was… Read More »