Film
Pain & Gain: Muscle Bay
What’s this? Michael Bay goes small-scale, and it’s not too bad.KRISTIAN LIN
Wonders never cease. Here’s Michael Bay, director of the Transformers movies and various other crimes against cinema, taking time out to helm a caper flick that has an actual story and characters and all that stuff. At $25 mi...
Film Shorts
Fort Worth WeeklyOPENING: Mud (PG-13) Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter) writes and directs this thriller about two 14-year-old boys (Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland) who meet a fugitive (Matthew McConaughey) by the Mississippi River and help him elude...
Indie Film Roundup
Are these three low-budget movies with stars worth traveling to see?KRISTIAN LIN
If you’re in Fort Worth, you’ll have to cover some territory to see the movies we’re discussing this week. That’s because their theatrical engagements are in Grapevine, Arlington, and Southlake. (Though one of them is a...
Film Shorts
KRISTIAN LINOPENING: Side Effects (R) Steven Soderbergh’s clever thriller stars Rooney Mara as a suicidal woman whose struggles with depression overwhelm her when her husband (Channing Tatum) returns home from prison. Mara does her best ...
To the Wonder: Into Thin Air
Terrence Malick’s latest is a transcendent bore.KRISTIAN LIN
Did we overrate Terrence Malick, or is he just regressing to the mean after The Tree of Life? Anyone who saw his Oscar-nominated cultural touchstone from two years ago will readily recognize the hallmarks of his style in his la...
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 ...
Filml Shorts
KRISTIAN LINOPENING: The Company You Keep (R) Robert Redford directs and stars in this thriller as a former 1960s Weather Underground terrorist who’s forced to run from the law after a young journalist (Shia LaBeouf) exposes his identity...
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...
Film Shorts
KRISTIAN LINOPENING: The Place Beyond the Pines (R) This drama written and directed by Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine) stars Ryan Gosling as a bank robber on a collision course with an ambitious young police officer (Bradley Cooper). Als...