An awfully bad adventure
Adam Lubitow
Film critic for CITY Newspaper, writer, iced coffee addict, and dinosaur enthusiast.
Posted inMovies
Film Review: “The Walk”
People (usually critics) like to opine about the proliferation of CGI and effects-driven films that saturate the multiplexes, and it’s true that a lot of these films (and by extension, their effects) are slapdash efforts that arise out of bloated blockbuster budgets. But that’s not always the case: used properly and with purpose, digital effects […]
Posted inMovies
Film Review: “The Martian”
At a time when the general populace seems to be growing more and more distrustful of science and the term “intellectual” is thrown around as an insult, a film like “The Martian” may hold the potential to tip the scales back in science’s favor. Committed to making the science half of their science-fiction tale feel […]
Posted inMovies
Film Review: “Sicario”
If “The Martian” offers audiences a glimpse of humanity at its best, “Sicario” resides firmly at the opposite end of the spectrum. Its story, about the drug war being waged at the US-Mexican border, offers a rather despairing reminder that wading into morally and ethically murky waters often leaves everyone covered in muck. We follow […]
Posted inMovies
Film Review: “Al Helm”
The Witness Palestine film series draws attention to the human rights issues raised by the Middle East conflict between Israel and Palestine; the series explores stories of the people directly affected by the violence and turmoil. In “Al Helm: Martin Luther King in Palestine” director Connie Field chronicles an American gospel group’s 2011 trip to […]
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Film Review: “The Intern”
As a director, Nancy Meyers’s style is almost aggressively plain and unobtrusive, yet there’s no mistaking her films for anyone else’s. Known for her attention to detail when it comes to dressing her sets, she makes movies that sometimes feel more like tasteful home decor catalogs than motion pictures, and typically revolve around low-conflict plots […]
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Film Review: “Pawn Sacrifice”
While portraying tormented chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, Tobey Maguire delivers a solid performance in Edward Zwick’s effective, if conventional biopic, “Pawn Sacrifice.” Choosing to focus mostly on Fischer’s 1972 showdown against Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky (a terrific Liev Schreiber), Zwick and screenwriter Steven Knight paint Fischer’s early life in broad strokes. We get a CliffsNotes […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Adam reviews “It’s a Spaceship Now” and “Cinderella — Just What I Needed”
“This show is artistic, not necessarily 100 percent scientifically accurate,” Stuart Wilson cautioned the audience at a certain point during his one-man production, “It’s a Spaceship Now.” And yes, the science involved may be dubious, but the entertainment value was never in question over the course of this 60-minute, interactive ode to DIY rocket science […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Adam reviews “Am I a Grownup Yet?”
We’ve all had that feeling at one time or another (or, if you’re me, constantly): sensing that, though we’ve gotten older, graduated college, and possibly found some sort of gainful employment, we’re not truly an adult. We’re all fumbling around and around pretending we know how “grownups” are supposed to act, faking it until we’ve […]
Posted inMovies
Uphill battles
Following so closely on the heels of the gripping documentary “Meru,” Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s 3D action-adventure, “Everest” — which chronicles the 1996 tragedy that befell a group of climbers who set out to scale the world’s largest mountain — only emphasizes that the true message of any movie about mountain climbing seems to be […]
Posted inMovies
Uphill battles
Screening as the first feature in the Witness Palestine film series, “The Wanted 18” is a most unusual documentary about an incident in the small village of Beit Sahour during the first intifada. In an effort to become self-sufficient during the Israeli occupation, and as a form of nonviolent protest, the townspeople purchase a herd […]
Posted inSpecial Sections
Adam reviews “James and the Giant Peach” and “Hidden in this Picture”
Performed by RAPA Family Theatre, “James and the Giant Peach: The Musical” comes from Tony-nominated composing team BenjPasek and Justin Paul (“A Christmas Story: The Musical”). An adaptation of the beloved Roald Dahl book, the musical combines aspects of Dahl’s book and the 1996 film, adding in a plethora of new songs (it should be […]
