Mark Palermo

“You’re a writer. You work from home,” Kale (Shia LaBeouf) tells his father when he says that fishing beats working. Because working from home sometimes feels like being under house arrest, that’s a sly exchange to begin a movie about a kid sentenced to not leave his house for three months. The set-up allows Disturbia […]

Replicating the style of the ’70s B-grade genre and exploitation films that often played as double-features, Grindhouse is an more-than-three-hour tribute to the badass appeal of schlock. The pair of movies by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino come packaged with retro-style horror and action trailers—including, in Canada, my bud Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun. […]

If you watch enough movies, grief starts looking like a temporary setback. The death of a close relation is something a character needs to overcome to discover his or her full potential—no different than the climactic boxing match in a Rocky film, or an upcoming spelling bee that’s been consuming a character with fear. This […]

German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s debut beat Pan’s Labyrinth for the foreign language Oscar in a reversal of the Academy’s usual avoidance of movies about complex world issues. The Lives of Others is an indictment of adhering morals to political-doctrine shortcuts. Until its dissolution in 1989, the Stasi secret police ensured East Germany was […]

The recently opened 300‘s effort to faithfully reproduce the visual storytelling of Frank Miller’s comic in movie form just becomes even more CG-ridden and soulless than Troy. Trying to stay on the good side of Miller’s fanbase, Snyder’s devotion to comic panels forsakes basic film grammar—one shot doesn’t follow geometrically with the next. There’s more […]

Plenty of high-profile movies are about the tormented lives of artists. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer takes it up a notch: It’s also a legitimate artwork. Thrown away at birth, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille’s childhood as an unloved ghetto urchin was saved by his one gift. Born with the best sense of smell in Paris, he […]

David Fincher sets the bar high at the beginning of Zodiac. His sepia-tinted colour photography (shot in high definition) carries an idealized view of America. Idyllic images of suburbia and fireworks for the Fourth of July are followed by a trip to a burger joint and a young couple driving into the country to “park.” […]

The advertising and opening titles of Black Snake Moan suggest a throwback to 1970s exploitation movies. That retro marketing hook defies this laidback Southern drama, which isn’t necessarily morally sound but is always unapologetically sincere. Craig Brewer’s follow-up to Hustle and Flow carries an indiscreet polemic righteousness. As blues musician Lazarus (Samuel L. Jackson) kidnaps […]

Declaring Norbit horrible isn’t unfounded, just too easy. Eddie Murphy’s comedy treads dangerous ground for anyone who hates the “it’s only a movie” defence. The first joke involves baby Norbit’s parents throwing him out a car window onto the front step of an orphanage. Before five minutes are up, Murphy has handed opponents their ammo. […]

Little Children is about shame and righteousness, members of a small-town community using their moral indignation to cover their own dark secrets. It’s a view of suburban life, inhabited by hypocritical, sexually corrupt simpletons, of which I’m tired. Remarkably, Little Children’s generalizations don’t extend to its treatment of core characters. Director Todd Field views his […]

It’s common to hear bad movies referred to as car accidents. Because I Said So is an airship disaster. There’s not a scene in it that isn’t awful. Diane Keaton is Daphne, the single mother of three adult daughters who approaches delirium when her youngest, Milly (Mandy Moore), can’t find a steady boyfriend. And so […]