The lights dim as the pre-show comes to an end. I settle into my usual slouch, folding into my padded chair like an accordion. I don’t have especially high hopes for Season of the Witch, but as the film starts I notice what, to me, is a rare and precious phenomenon: a quiet theatre. At […]
Matt Semansky
Posted inArts + Music
A serious Dilemma
The misleading marketing campaign for Ron Howard’s latest film suggests an irreverent jokefest, when in fact it comes closer—though not close enough—to working as a relationship drama. Vince Vaughn and Kevin James are best friends whose car-design company is on the verge of a breakthrough when Vaughn’s Ronnie catches his buddy’s wife (Winona Ryder) with […]
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Silence speaks loud in Rabbit Hole
John Cameron Mitchell’s directorial resume, which includes the sexually explicit Shortbus and the transsexual rock star romp Hedwig and the Angry Inch, hardly identifies him as a candidate to helm a delicately measured and deeply resonant film about loss. But here it is all the same. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart play a couple mourning […]
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Even 3D can’t save The Green Hornet
Cinematic artiste Michel Gondry brings together four of the most commercial forms in American movies—the ’60s television show revamp, the superhero story, 3D photography and Seth Rogen—in this lightly amusing midwinter time-waster. Rogen is Britt Reid, a party boy who inherits a newspaper business from his father (Tom Wilkinson) and, for vaguely explained reasons, simultaneously […]
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No Strings Attached keeps it light
Pleasant surprises abound in Ivan Reitman’s romcom about an aspiring TV writer (Ashton Kutcher) and a med student (Natalie Portman) who try to carry on a sexual relationship without getting their emotions involved. Portman, clearly enjoying a break from Serious Movies, shows real comic chops, while Kutcher’s lack of electricity comes across here as laid-back […]
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Barney’s Version doesn’t travel well
A string of stellar performances can’t save Barney’s Version from the fact that it fails to distill Mordecai Richler’s final novel into something cinematically digestible. Paul Giamatti fully inhabits the character of Barney Panofsky, a prickly television producer with a taste for scotch and cigars and a knack for seducing beautiful women through sheer determination. […]
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Nicolas Cage has been cursed
The battle against the Black Plague wasn’t fought by a ragtag crew of American-accented knights, priests and criminals led by Nicolas Cage. But such an alternate history, the one posited in this absurd period thriller, would probably have been way more fun than the real thing. After a dozen or so years of slaughtering infidels, […]
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You booze, you lose with Country Strong
Like a pop-country ballad that’s more Twain than twang, Shana Feste’s Country Strong is a glossy, superficial, manipulative melodrama powered by counterfeit emotions. Gwyneth Paltrow stars as alcoholic singer Kelly Canter, who’s sprung early from rehab by her husband-manager (Tim McGraw) for a comeback tour. This displeases the noble country crooner (Garrett Hedlund) with whom […]
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Enough Focking around already
Is it tempting fate to say that the second sequel to the passable 2000 comedy Meet the Parents represents the franchise’s nadir? Although the title refers to the young twins now being raised by Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) and his wife Pam (Teri Polo), the series still revolves around Greg’s uneasy relationship with father-in-law Jack […]
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True entertainment
The Coen brothers remake the 1969 film that netted John Wayne his only Academy Award, with Jeff Bridges in the Duke’s role as a crusty US Marshall hired by a teenage girl (Hailee Steinfeld) to bring her father’s killer to justice. And if there’s any justice, this True Grit will also nab Oscar statues. Bridges, […]
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Critics’ Picks 2010: DVDs
Apocalypse Now (Three-Disc Full Disclosure Edition) (Lionsgate) It occurs to me that I’ve owned more versions of Apocalypse Now, on more video formats, than any other movie. As this Blu-ray includes both the original masterpiece, Apocalypse Now Redux, and George Hickenlooper’s Hearts of Darkness documentary, it will hopefully be the last. –MP Cabin Fever 2: […]
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Melissa Leo goes the distance
Melissa Leo doesn’t do any boxing in The Fighter, but her role nevertheless required her to step into the filmmaking ring with two men responsible for on-set verbal brawls that have become the stuff of YouTube legend. Playing mom to Christian Bale, who went notoriously batshit after being distracted by a crew member on the […]
