Assigning some meaning to the 2008 movie year is difficult, because it didn’t have much meaning. In basic terms, 2008 was an exhausted climax. The year before was full of trilogy cappers (Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Shrek the Third, Ocean’s 13). Indiewood had a crossover blockbuster with Juno, which came […]
Mark Palermo
Posted inArts + Music
Punisher: War Zone
Punisher: War Zone is the most gruesome mainstream movie ever helmed by a female director. It’s hard to see anyone taking Lexi Alexander’s blood-soaked, live-action cartoon seriously enough to be offended. This is a movie populated on all sides by sociopaths. It doesn’t try to make you care about anyone or anything in it, and […]
Posted inArts + Music
Milk
It’s to Milk’s advantage that it has a gay director. Unlike previous homophilic Oscar-hopeful Brokeback Mountain, this movie doesn’t shroud its subject in mystery. Instead, Gus Van Sant tells the story of Harvey Milk’s gay rights campaign from the already liberated perspective that the rest of the world better get used to it. In his […]
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Transporter 3
What defines Transporter’s Frank Martin, played by Jason Statham, is he’ll fight if he has to, but mainly he doesn’t want to mess up his suit. Statham is awesome, of course. And Transporter 3 has the chance to prove that third time’s the charm. Frank’s patience is tested comically as he finds himself in a […]
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Australia
Granted, Moulin Rouge! had novelty going for it on the initial viewing. But it’s now clear to me that Baz Luhrmann’s trick is to create movies that insist upon their own wonderfulness. This is where the patience-testing Australia tries to pressure us: Either you resist it and you’re a hopeless cynic, or you embrace it […]
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The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas & Bolt
The link between the WWII drama The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and the Disney flick Bolt is that their lead characters defy the worlds they’re born into. That sense of exploration is why both of these movies are open-minded and open-hearted. If you’ve seen ads for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, you may […]
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Quantum of Solace
Quantum of Solace is fancy James Bond title-speak for “a little peace of mind.” This Bond is scuffed up. And Angry. This is what propels Agent 007’s drive for vengeance. Seeking answers about why he was deceived by Vesper, his now-dead love interest from Casino Royale, Bond turns to violence to quench his pain. It’s […]
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Happy-Go-Lucky
Happy-Go-Lucky is being mis-sold as a comedy. This is because its main character, a young London primary teacher who goes by the nickname Poppy (Sally Hawkins), is an unbreakable optimist. In reality, Happy-Go-Lucky operates, like all Mike Leigh films, observing behaviour without judgment. Calling a Leigh film positive is as simplistic as calling his other […]
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Role Models
The reason Role Models is unfulfilling is that it’s sometimes good. Enough of it is better than it needed to be, that it’s disappointing that the rest of it plays as expected. But give points where due, because it’s half well-written enough to bring the scenario somewhere imaginative. Wheeler (Seann William Scott) and Danny (Paul […]
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Soul Men
The final film of the great comic actor Bernie Mac provides enough interest to keep Soul Men watchable. But beyond his love/hate camaraderie with co-star Samuel L. Jackson, Soul Men doesn’t ignite. This is a letdown because director Malcolm D. Lee (Roll Bounce) has previously channelled the ethos and soul of ’70s funk. In Soul […]
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RocknRolla
“It’s not like the Old Country. It’s Cowboys and Indians out here.” In the London of RocknRolla, that means Crime Lords and RocknRollas. RocknRollas are the young thugs who want sex, drugs, wealth, “the whole lot.” Just when one feels done with Guy Ritchie’s brand of fast-talking capers, his new comedy about criminal-power-struggle turns into […]
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Rachel Getting Married
The friction of sisterhood centres Rachel Getting Married. One girl’s dream-life is coming together. The other sees herself as an object of family judgment—after all these years, she’s still a mess. But it’s a nonjudgemental approach that makes Jonathan Demme’s realist drama profound. In a career benchmark, Anne Hathaway plays Kym, the black sheep of […]
