Posts Tagged ‘films’
Film Shorts
KRISTIAN LINNOW PLAYING: Anna Karenina (R) Joe Wright turns Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece into a shallow, gimmicky movie that stars Keira Knightley as the married 19th-century Russian princess who torches her social status and her family by ...
Django Unchained: I’m No Slave 4 U
Southern slaveowners are killed wholesale in Tarantino’s rip-snorting Western.KRISTIAN LIN
Last month, Steven Spielberg put out Lincoln, a movie about the evils of slavery. Predictably, he took a serious, high-minded approach to the issue. This Christmas, Quentin Tarantino also has released a movie on slavery, and ju...
Film Shorts
KRISTIAN LINOPENING: Rust and Bone (R) Jacques Audiard (A Prophet) adapts Craig Davidson’s short stories into this French-language romance between a Belgian MMA fighter (Matthias Schoenaerts) and a killer whale trainer (Marion Cotillard)...
Spawn of Knocked Up
Judd Apatow’s fingerprints are all over this week’s comedies.KRISTIAN LIN
On the one hand, Judd Apatow may just be the defining comic genius of our generation. As a producer, he has discovered and nurtured so many talented actors, writers, and directors that his influence is to be found in places as ...
Film Shorts
KRISTIAN LINOPENING: Any Day Now (R) Alan Cumming and Garret Dillahunt star in this drama as a 1970s gay couple who fight to keep custody of an abandoned Down syndrome-afflicted teen (Isaac Leyva) living with them. Also with Frances Fisher...
Family History
BIG TICKETArnon Goldfinger was a TV director and documentarian in Israel when his grandmother, Gerda Tuchler, passed away. Gerda had fled Nazi Germany and retained as much of her German culture as possible, though she spoke English with ...
Film Shorts
KRISTIAN LINOPENING: End of Watch (R) The chemistry between Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña is the best thing in this buddy-cop thriller that thinks it’s more groundbreaking than it is. They portray L.A. beat cops who film themselves a...
Playing for Keeps: Blown Dryer
After starting strong, this soccer romance fades badly in the second half.KRISTIAN LIN
I’m not sure what convinced Gerard Butler and decision-makers in Hollywood that his best move was to start portraying brash Americans. Whatever it was, it has done him no favors in the past few years, as his acting has steadi...
Hitchcock: American Psycho
This behind-the-scenes drama runs into a few hitches.KRISTIAN LIN
Nothing in Hitchcock tops its opening sequence. After serial killer Ed Gein (Michael Wincott) murders his brother with a shovel, the camera pans to Alfred Hitchcock (Anthony Hopkins) standing a few feet away, wearing a suit and...
Killing Them Softly: Cogan’s Bluff
When it’s not bashing America, this crime thriller is pretty good.KRISTIAN LIN
Andrew Dominik is at home among thieves and killers. The New Zealander has made three films, and they’ve all been crime thrillers: the terrifying 2001 Australian entry Chopper, followed by the gorgeous and lethally dull 2007 ...