There are a few bright moments punctuating HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOPLE based the memoir of the same name by Toby Young. Very few. And all of them courtesy of its star, Simon Pegg, a man of great comedic gifts who finds himself in a vehicle greatly unworthy of them. Pegg plays Sydney… Read More »
INFORMANT!, THE
There is something poignantly human in the way that everyone in Steven Soderberghs INFORMANT!, comedy of corporate greed and earnest FBI investigation, so completely believes in what they want to see going right in front of their eyes. The kicker is that the prime mover in all of this, Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), is so… Read More »
EXTRACT
There is a poetic, if not necessarily gentle, justice to Mike Judges paean to the working man and woman, EXTRACT. Not all of them are smart, but they all have an affinity for their chosen field, and a willingness to go all the way to achieve their respective dreams. Its bedrock American values skewed through… Read More »
MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS, THE
Two men, each determined to cross the border from Kuwait into Iraq for reasons they find compelling to themselves, wait with some impatience to get going. One is a man whose consciousness has been expanded beyond the quotidienne, and the other, a man whose consciousness has been contracted to the confines of his own psyche… Read More »
PIRATE RADIO
What PIRATE RADIO does that is so remarkable is to capture as closely as a film can what it was like to be a fan of rock & roll at a time when it was considered not just noise, but actual subversion. Of course, in a way it was. This music was the anthem of… Read More »
MOON
Duncan Jones’ debut feature, MOON, is a sharp and intelligent consideration of reality itself. An engrossing tale set in the near future on the dark side of our planet’s satellite, it probes the equally dark side of the human condition and in the process does what the best science fiction ought to do, which is… Read More »
MOTHER (MADEO)
After setting a monster loose on Seoul, director Bong Joon-ho has come up with something even more ferocious for his next film, MOTHER, a tale that explores the ferocity of the maternal instinct. Funny, tragic, disquieting, and absurd, it’s also nothing less than terrifying on a primal level. The film begins with the title character… Read More »
THE JONESES
THE JONESES makes its point very early on and with all the savage compassion with which the film is rife. The titular character’s hapless neighbor (Glenne Headly) is repeating self-help mantras that she desperately hopes will make her a superstar salesperson. It’s patently hopeless to everyone but her. She is oblivious to the new age… Read More »
OPPORTUNISTS, THE
Here we have a bittersweet little character study masquerading as a caper flick. There are, as you would expect, a few plot twists, none terribly surprising, but handled with a surprising, unaffected charm considering the downbeat nature of the story. Our hero is one Victor Kelly, played by an astonishingly low key Christopher Walken. Hes… Read More »
DUE DATE
Nitpickers may have a qualm or two about DUE DATE. There are certainly loose ends abounding by the time the film comes to a close. Even for those pickers of nits, though, this anti-buddy picture that pits the intractable against the inane works so well, thanks to co-stars Robert Downey, Jr. and Zack Galifianakis, that… Read More »
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