Stan Lee’s Lightspeed (review)

“It’s a comic book world, sir.” A spear-carrier offers this by way of explanation — to his boss, no less, a secret government agent played by, no kidding, former Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors — for the fact that the local newspaper is full of news of a superfast crimefighter. It’s the “sir” that … more…

A Soap (review)

It’s all really rather shockingly unshocking, for so seemingly provocative a setup. Charlotte (Trine Dyrholm) leaves her indifferent boyfriend, moves into her own apartment, and strikes up an unusual friendship with her new neighbor, Veronica, a pre-op transsexual (David Dencik). Both are depressed, confused people, and hardly pleasant to be around, and their tentative relationship, … more…

Best Student Council: 1: A New Home (review)

The best evidence for the proposition that the Japanese are the most alien humans on the planet is, I suspect, anime. Or am I the only Westerner who just doesn’t get it? Here we have what is ostensibly a comedy about a private girls’ school and its “best student council” that wants to evoke, I … more…

The Festival (review)

The targets are obvious and easy — neurotic filmmakers, trust-fund kids, self-involved actors — but the touch is light enough to keep this made-for-cable mockumentary series from devolving into its own kind of self-parody. Indie director Rufus Marquez (Nicholas Wright) brings his film, The Unreasonable Truth of Butterflies, to the 13th annual Mountain United Film … more…

My Hero: Season One (review)

I guess it was inevitable: just as superhero stuff starts to be taken seriously (Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, Bryan Singer’s X-Men), something was bound to come along to dumb it all down. And so we have this witless, desperate attempt at superhero humor from the BBC in the form of a sitcom about a crime-fighter in … more…

Factory Girl (review)

If you’re like most people, you’ve been asking yourself for several years now, ‘Just who the hell is Sienna Miller, why is she famous, and why must I endure the latest gossip about her?’

Bridge to Terabithia (review)

Oh, devastating, *devastating* and lovely and bittersweet and entirely wonderful, this enchantingly old-fashioned movie about the power of friendship and imagination and art and learning and expanding one’s horizons.

Breach (review)

This is one smart thriller: it lets you draw your own conclusions, assumes you’re connected enough to current events to understand the context in which it occurs — no, actually, it *requires* that you’re connected in order to get the full brunt of the anxiety and dread bubbling under its surface.

my schedule at Boskone, and other Geek Philosophy goodies

I’ll be a guest at the Boston science fiction convention Boskone this coming weekend, and I’ve just posted my schedule of panels at Geek Philosophy. I’ve also been trying to get back on track with Geek Philosophy, so if you’d given up on it lately because I hadn’t been updating, please do give it another … more…

Hannibal Rising (review)

So, this Hannibal Lecter Babies movies, it’s mostly just boring, and in the rare few moments when it isn’t boring, the rare few moments when it dares to be even the slightest bit adventurous, it’s either risible or reprehensible. It takes one of the greatest boogeymen in the history of cinema and turns him into a comic book villain. Oh, and it’s ridiculously banal, to boot.