Terrence Malick is a polarizing filmmaker. Some people respond to his works, in all their enigmatic glory — dreamy, abstract narratives told though hushed, half-conversations, weighty ideas contrasted against a fascination with the natural world and, always, endlessly expansive shots of sunsets. Others find his work pretentious and dull. Generally speaking, I would label myself […]
Film review
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“Renoir”
Whatever the complications and challenges in making any motion picture, films about great artists, especially in the graphic and plastic arts, should really make themselves. Beyond the inherent interest in the life of a particular famous person, the sheer process of creation holds its own fascination, and above all, the images themselves provide a rich […]
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“Iron Man 3”
Summer movie season has officially arrived with the release of “Iron Man 3,” the third (and-a-half, including last summer’s “The Avengers”) chapter in the story of billionaire industrialist and inventor, Tony Stark. The film continues Marvel Studios’ winning formula of picking interesting filmmakers for their mega-budget superhero blockbusters over more commercially viable (i.e. boring) options. […]
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“The Company You Keep”
Despite the passage of time and age, the fading of memory, no matter how many horrors blight the last several decades, the Vietnam War still haunts the American soul. It remains one of those exclusively American tragedies, a wound that may never heal, still a source of anger, guilt, and blame. Robert Redford’s new movie, […]
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“Mud”
After spending years slumming it in one dimwitted romantic comedy (more often than not co-starring Kate Hudson) after another, Matthew McConaughey appears to have grown tired of coasting and decided to remind audiences that he’s still capable of, you know, acting. Starting with 2011’s “The Lincoln Lawyer,” he has made a number of good choices, […]
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“Oblivion”
Whatever their merits, the devotion of their many fans, and the panegyrics of a whole gaggle of critics, those phenomenally successful semi-literary works known as graphic novels (in my day they were pretty much just comic books) often generate a certain pretension. The writers and illustrators introduce learned allusions, copy established literary patterns, interweave complicated […]
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“42”
No doubt consciously timed for the opening of the baseball season, the new movie “42” provides a valuable lesson in contemporary American history, showing viewers the culture of baseball and of the nation not all that long ago. As everyone must know, the picture deals with some of Jackie Robinson’s struggles as the first black […]
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“The Place Beyond the Pines”
As the showing I attended of “The Place Beyond the Pines” — director Derek Cianfrance’s moody, ambitious, new crime-drama — came to an end, I couldn’t help overhearing the conversation happening amongst the college-age group sitting behind me. One was explaining to his friends that while the film wasn’t what he expecting, he thought it […]
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“Room 237”
Rodney Ascher’s documentary, “Room 237,” playing at the Dryden this week, presents some very unusual interpretations of Stanley Kubrick’s classic adaptation of “The Shining.” Through voiceover, we hear from a number of people offering their explanations for what the director was really saying with his horror masterpiece. Using “clues” found in the film, they see […]
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“On the Road”
For reasons no critic quite comprehends, Neal Cassady commanded the attention and indeed the love of most of the major members of the Beat Generation, dominating their literature and their lives. The Beat saint, the holy goof, a car thief, street hustler, speed freak, and prodigious womanizer, he even accomplished the odd transition from one […]
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“Evil Dead”
With 2012’s “Cabin in the Woods” still so fresh in the minds of moviegoers, Fede Alvarez’s new remake of Sam Raimi’s horror classic, “The Evil Dead,” has its work cut out for it. It has to find a way to make fresh the tropes of the now well-known story that “Cabin” so cleverly sent up, […]
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“No”
In 1988, the Chilean government was forced to enact a referendum wherein the population would vote whether to keep then president/dictator Augusto Pinochet in power. A “yes” vote meant he stayed, “no” meant that democracy would win out and an election would be held to elect a new leader. “No,” Oscar-nominated last year for Best […]
