Film Reviews
Soul Sapphires
Aboriginal singers (and one Irish guy) distinguish this Down Under musical.KRISTIAN LIN
Ah, Chris O’Dowd! Whether you loved him in Bridesmaids or detested him on TV’s Girls, you’ve probably been amused by the antics of this lumpen 33-year-old Irishman with the blocky physique, close-set eyes, and delightful ...
Beyond the Pines: Fathers and Sons
Generations marked by crime and justice concern this big, flawed drama.KRISTIAN LIN
I hate to agree with the consensus, but sometimes there’s just nowhere else to go. Three years ago, Derek Cianfrance made a magnificent filmmaking debut with Blue Valentine, his study of a marriage’s beginning and ending. H...
42: Mister Robinson
A sports hero gets a much blander biopic than he deserves.KRISTIAN LIN
Jackie Robinson’s story was already made into a rather amateurish movie in 1950, with the Dodgers’ infielder and civil rights pioneer portraying himself. It needed a new treatment, an epic canvas befitting a chapter of base...
Florence Nightingale
Heavy themes weigh down the portentous road trip thriller Tomorrow You’re Gone.KRISTIAN LIN
Lacking much in the way of star power, Tomorrow You’re Gone might well be a mystery to audiences when it opens this Friday in Grapevine. I wish I could say that the low-budget entry balances thrills and gravitas well enough t...
Dual Blazes
Fort Worth brothers balance their filmmaking careers with high school.KRISTIAN LIN
Conducting a phone interview with the Blaze brothers turns out to be somewhat difficult. It’s not because 18-year-old Nathan and 17-year-old Jon are reluctant to talk. It’s just that their voices sound rather similar, and t...
Watch the Woman, Not The Girl
This border drama boasts a better lead performance than it merits.KRISTIAN LIN
Abbie Cornish is from Australia, and yet something about her makes filmmakers think of Texas. The blonde, apple-cheeked beauty already played a small-town Texas girl in Stop-Loss, and now she returns to the Lone Star State in T...
The No Has It
¡Adiós, Presidente! An adman beats a dictator in this hot Chilean satire.KRISTIAN LIN
Where advertising and politics meet, movies usually turn cynical and satiric. Political ads foul our airwaves, reduce complex policies to soundbites, pander to our unspoken prejudices and fears, and convince us to vote for dema...
Stoker: India and Korea
Your family is nowhere near as messed up as the one in this chiller.KRISTIAN LIN
A few months ago, I wrote about the wave of South Korean filmmakers coming to America. That wave reaches much higher tide with Stoker, a slow-churning, delicately crafted psychological thriller that crawls under your skin. The ...
I Accept Admission
Tina Fey gives it the old college try in this comedy.KRISTIAN LIN
Like all right-thinking persons, I adore Tina Fey. Yet for all her glorious work on TV, she still hasn’t made the great comedy film that we all know her to be capable of. Her latest, Admission, falls agonizingly short of grea...
Wonderstone, Oz: Lesser Wizards
Two movies about magic go up in a puff of smoke.KRISTIAN LIN
One of the earliest filmmakers, Georges Meliès, started out as a magician, so it’s really no surprise that filmmakers have long felt an affinity with magicians. They both practice the art of diverting our attention for the p...