Archives

'Traitor': Complicated and Brilliant

It’s rare that one comes across a very surprising film; especially if such film opens at the very end of the summer. That’s the case with ‘Traitor’, starring Academy Award nominee Don Cheadle (‘Crash’ and ‘Hotel Rwanda’) in an action thriller that not only serves up on the popular genre but also delivers a captivating story. Click here for the full article

'Year of the Fish': Cinderella in New York

The Cinderella story has been retold by Hollywood ad infinitum, but it’s safe to say that this is a new one. ‘Year of the Fish’ is the feature directing debut of David Kaplan, but it isn’t his first fairy tale; he has made short films with familiar titles like ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and ‘The Frog King’. The inspiration for his latest was a 9th Century Chinese tale that predates the better known Cinderella story by some eight centuries. It involves a girl, a stepmother, and, yes, a fish, but in this story the girl is an immigrant living in New York City’s Chinatown, the stepmother is the manager of an illicit massage parlor, and the fish is, well, still a fish. Click here for the full article

'Hamlet 2': No Holds Bard

I knew little about ‘Hamlet 2’ before seeing it, only that it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and told the story of a fictitious production of a sequel to the Bard’s iconic tragedy. If I had known it starred Steve Coogan and Catherine Keener, I would have been more excited. If I knew it were this funny, I would have been ecstatic. There’s surprise in nearly every frame, and though uneven, it builds to one of the best comic crescendos I’ve seen. I don’t want to tell you about this film, I want you to see it for yourself. Click here for the full article

'Tropic Thunder': Hilarious Bungle in The Jungle

“The best way to criticize a movie is to make another movie,” said French director Jean-Luc Godard. If that’s the case, I needn’t have reviewed ‘Step Brothers’, because Ben Stiller has done it for me. As the co-writer, director, and star of ‘Tropic Thunder’, he has made a film that is everything ‘Step Brothers’ was and wanted to be: loud, ribald, strewn with expletives, and based around characters of shocking self-involvement, but also funny, smart, and unexpectedly endearing. Click here for the full article

'Pineapple Express': A High-larious Action Comedy

‘Pineapple Express’ starts off as buddy comedy building on the relationship between two very unlikely characters. Dale is a process server who enjoys his job and wants to become a radio talk show host. Saul on the other hand is the quintessential stoner and drug dealer. The odds of the circumstances bring them together and like any relationship the story goes through the different emotions and hilarious episodes between the two. Click here for the full article

'Step Brothers': Comedy Fumbles for Laughs

Judd Apatow has a lot to answer for. It’s not easy to do what he does. He makes romantic comedies with full hearts and filthy mouths, keeping the delicate balance between vulgarity and sincerity. When he’s directing his own scripts, he spins gold: ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin’, ‘Knocked Up’. As a producer, however, letting his friends and colleagues take the reins, his track record is spottier: earlier this year came the abominable ‘Drillbit Taylor’, following last year’s severely overrated ‘Superbad’. Click here for the full article

A Darker Hero in 'The Dark Knight'

Batman is back. And this time Christopher Nolan and company introduce the audience to the darkest chapter of the hero’s comic book storyline. ‘The Dark Knight’ is by far the best film in the Batman franchise that will certainly become number one in the box office this weekend. Click here for the full article

Beating Logic in 'Hancock'

‘Hancock’ can be summed up in three words: error in judgment. There are some movies that are born bad; from the drawing board, the pitch meeting, the first word on the first page of the first draft of the screenplay, they seem never even to have been intended to be good. ‘ Click here for the full article

'The Love Guru' Wallows in Juvenile Humor

The good news is that it’s not as bad as it looks, which is kind of like saying food poisoning isn’t as bad a cancer, but never mind. Expecting a grand spectacle of awfulness, I was treated instead to a kind of average terribleness, and there are even one-and-a-half chuckles—I counted—courtesy of erstwhile TV host Stephen Colbert as a drug-addled sports commentator, but he should write a letter of apology to any member of the Colbert Nation who foolishly stumbles into the film to see him in it, because they’ll have to sit through the rest of it. Click here for the full article

'Brick Lane': Indie drama is short on nuance

As ‘Brick Lane’ begins, it bears no small resemblance to Mira Nair’s ’The Namesake’, in regard to its story—both films follow the lives of young Bengali women married off to husbands living in the Western world—and in regard to its style. As Nair did, director Sarah Gavron focuses her camera on colors and textures—traditional garments in bright hues, clear water and lily pads, and deep, foreboding skies. Click here for the full article