Escape from Tomorrow

Posted in movies by - Nov 01, 2013
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Escape from Tomorrow

This was fun.

Apparently shot on Disney property, without the knowledge of the Disney machine, this is a charmingly weird little piece of guerilla filmmaking.

You know that feeling you have when you’re wandering around the ‘Happiest Places on Earth’ and you smell that tiny whiff of dread? This movie is about that. Disney was known to have a creepy mustache, after all. Very creepy indeed.

Now imagine you’re there with a wife who is fed up with you, and kids who (rightly) think the world is entirely about them. Imagine there’s a bit of midlife crisis thrown in, and somehow you …

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The Fifth Estate

Posted in movies by - Nov 01, 2013
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The Fifth Estate

If the really important story about WikiLeaks is that Julian Assange is a weirdo and should never have been so cavalier with Daniel Berg’s feelings, then this movie is the perfect dramatization of the WikiLeaks moment.

To Daniel Berg, who gets the gauzy-lens treatment here, it probably does feel like that’s the takeaway. It certainly could be bruising to be semi-anonymous at the center of a media hurricane. Especially if you helped to create the hurricane. One might be forgiven for holding on to grudges, and writing a history that favors one’s point of view.

For you and me, however, the …

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The Counselor

Posted in movies by - Oct 26, 2013
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The Counselor

Watching ‘The Counselor’ felt a lot like watching a Mamet play set in a high-end vodka commercial. Lots of pretty people, lots of high-end appliances and pool parties, and lots of talking about the metaphysics of crime and deceit.

I don’t say that to take anything away from the movie. I mean, who doesn’t want to imagine life as a really heady, dangerous liquor advertisement? Sounds pretty great to me.

The script was written by Cormac McCarthy, and it is generally true to his body of work – dark, verbose and ultimately disappointed in the human condition. It concerns a lawyer …

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Carrie

Posted in movies by - Oct 20, 2013
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Carrie

The best thing I can say about the 2013 version of Carrie is that the special effects are workmanlike, with one fairly awesome moment in Act III involving a windshield. I also thought Julianne Moore had some inspired moments of high creep. I wish she had more to do.

The rest is pretty grim. Chloe Moretz is left alone up there – the overacting she’s asked to do is truly cringe-inducing. Moretz plays the early scenes so saucer-eyed and jumpy that it’s hard to relate to her at all. For the climax to work, we need to love Carrie. We need …

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A.C.O.D

Posted in movies by - Oct 19, 2013
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A.C.O.D

‘A.C.O.D’ has a cast any comedy would envy, but the ratio of laughs to comedic geniuses on screen is very low. This is not to say the movie isn’t funny, but there are long stretches where very funny people are given no direction but to be sad and anxious.

‘A.C.O.D’ stands for Adult Children of Divorce. It follows Adam Scott and his awful family, chronicling the way ugly divorces and selfish parenting follow kids into their adult lives.

Amy Poehler, Catherine O’Hara, Jane Lynch, Richard Jenkins, Clark Duke – it’s like the improv comedy Justice League. While they don’t manage to …

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Captain Phillips

Posted in movies by - Oct 19, 2013
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Captain Phillips

This movie made me dizzier than ‘Gravity’ did. Paul Greengrass is a fine filmmaker, but he seems unable to settle down the camera, ever. The constant, restless, often aimless jitter really wore me down.

That’s kind of a shame, because the story ‘Captain Phillips’ is trying to tell is interesting, and Greengrass goes to some pains to tell it in an interesting way.

The film purports to tell the true story of an American commercial sea captain whose vessel was hijacked off the coast of Somalia. Captain Phillips agrees to be taken hostage in an escape vehicle in order to protect his …

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Insidious 2

Posted in movies by - Oct 16, 2013
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Insidious 2

‘Insidious’ was kind of a cool mid-budget horror movie. Sure, it had a lot of rote jump scares (who’s that in the mirror, creepy paranormal kids, general noisy poltergeistery). The thing is, in acts 2 and 3, it got pleasantly retro-nuts.

There was an astral projection subplot, and it played out with early Doctor Who-level production values. I found myself really enjoying the approach. Not only did it introduce some authentic, earned creepiness, but it actually carved out its own space in the genre a bit. Original ideas are in pretty short supply in studio horror pics, so I went home …

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Runner, Runner

Posted in movies by - Oct 16, 2013
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Runner, Runner

If you want an argument against Batfleck*, ‘Runner, Runner’ is it.

Mister Affleck is cast as a ruthless criminal mastermind, and he mugs and smirks so much that it’s difficult to take him seriously. That chin dimple reads heroic, and he never acts hard enough to overcome it.

Now I think it’s stupid to worry whether any actor is good enough to play something as relentlessly juvenile as Batman, but if I were to indulge the premise I would say that his self-adoring puckishness would have to be worked around somehow, at least if one judges by this film.

The rest of the …

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Rush

Posted in movies by - Oct 15, 2013
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Rush

I’ll just admit it. I don’t care if Ron Howard ever makes another movie.

He seems like a nice guy. ‘Splash’ was cool.

The thing is, this sepia-toned hagiographer thing he’s gotten into lately is just the worst kind of boring. It all just starts to feel like those NFL films with the heroic voiceover.

There are some very pretty shots of dinky racecars, and feet on clutch pedals, and that guy who plays Thor, but in its guts ‘Rush’ is just a crappy TV biopic.

I’d say skip it unless you’re a real fanatic for F1 racing like the guys who …

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Gravity

Posted in movies by - Oct 15, 2013
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Gravity

Gravity is less of a movie than a theme park ride for your face. Sure, there are some gossamer undergirdings of disconnection and rebirth, but rest assured that they are secondary to roller coaster ride.

The thing is, it’s a really good roller coaster ride. The premise of being adrift in space, alone is powerful in a Jungian archetype kind of way, and the constant stake-raising makes it feel like an exceptionally vivid IMAX stress dream.

On a slightly more meta level, director Cauron has done something very impressive here. You know going in that they didn’t shoot this movie in space. …

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