Film Reviews
Dark Shadows: Angelique Diabolique
The supernatural TV soap gets revamped by Tim Burton.KRISTIAN LIN
It takes peculiar talent to make the Goth crowd laugh. Back in 1988, Tim Burton did just that with Beetlejuice, which marked him as a funnier version of the eyeliner-and-black-nail-polish morbid teenager in all of us. Now, havi...
Girl in Progress: All About My Mother
This Latin family saga wins a recommendation by default.KRISTIAN LIN
And still no one has discovered a reliable way to draw Latino audiences to movie theaters the way Tyler Perry has been able to draw African-American audiences. Maybe that’s a good thing; I’d rather have a few earnest dramas...
Avengers: Hammer and SHIELD
A team of superheroes turns this blockbuster into a fantastic force.KRISTIAN LIN
Joss Whedon looks poised to become the king of American pop culture, and I don’t mind it one bit. Having already established himself as a high-powered scriptwriter, a comic-book author, and one of the great TV show creators o...
Five Years Too Long?
Another Apatow rom-com isn’t great but scores some laughs.ZACK SHLACHTER
A few years ago, the films associated with Judd Apatow –– a handful he wrote and directed himself and several others he produced –– began to catch on like wildfire, and media types seemed eager to explain the Apatow rev...
Sea The Pirates!
From the brains behind Wallace & Gromit comes a delightful swashbuckling tale.Anthony Mariani
Like Disney-Pixar, the folks at Aardman know family-friendly comedy. The British stop-action animation company won an Oscar in 2005 for Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, a hilarious adventure yarn, and 2000’...
Oscar Worthy?
Disney’s latest nature doc, Chimpanzee is high on monkey business but short on appeal.STEVE STEWARD
When two British vets of nature documentaries, one of whom was the executive producer on the landmark films The Blue Planet and Planet Earth, collaborate on a project, nature lovers are prone to salivate in anticipation like hy...
Bully for You
This documentary aims for importance but falls short.KRISTIAN LIN
This review is dedicated to my seventh-grade English teacher, who told her class one day that bullied students deserved no pity because they were too weak to stand up for themselves. This is the guidance I was getting as a smal...
Think Like a Man: Harvey’s Rules
This ensemble comedy shows black actors deserving better roles.KRISTIAN LIN
Where are the good movies about African-Americans? The answer is far longer than this space will allow for, but one major reason is that Caucasian-dominated Hollywood doesn’t know how to market films about African-Americans t...
Indie Film Roundup
Three low-budget movies deserve a look.KRISTIAN LIN
For whatever reason, Hollywood has largely ceded this weekend to low-budget independent movies, giving you a chance to see some sparkling talents make their debuts in various roles. The best movie out this week is The Cabin in ...
Mirror Mirror: Snow Job
This new Snow White fable looks better than it plays.KRISTIAN LIN
Well, I’m in a spot this week. The only new movie coming out this weekend is American Reunion, and it didn’t screen for critics in time for our deadlines. I was planning to write this piece about both Mirror Mirror and Wrat...