Sarah’s Key (review)
Asks the tough question: Should we remember every horrid detail of the past, or is it better to sometimes let the past go?
based on a book
Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie review: of primate bondage
Jokiness and hokeyness have been genetically engineered away, leaving something pure and sweet and poignant, a throwback to late-60s/early-70s humanist science fiction. More Charly than Heston.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (review)
This is simply a great flick: powerfully emotional, profoundly resonant, scary and funny and intense and wholly enrapturing.
Winnie the Pooh (review)
Oh, it’s more of the same old crap we’re feeding our kids these days: Gratuitious destruction of the English language. Partial ursine nudity. Hunny abuse.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (review)
I’ve listened to my fellow critics snarking on the film’s many many faults and I’ve laughed, but only at myself, because they’re not wrong and yet still it doesn’t change the fact that I really had a lot of fun with this movie.
Something Borrowed (review)
The genre always assumes we’ll sympathize with ugly, soulless, personality-free women doing terrible things to the people they supposedly care about in the pursuit of a wedding, because what is more important than landing Mr. Right, right? But even grading on that rom-com curve, this is a disgusting movie.
Water for Elephants (review)
As cornball goes, there’s nothing cornier than running away to join the circus. And that’s why Water for Elephants works so beautifully: It doesn’t pretend to be anything other than an old-fashioned melodrama yarn-spun for as much emotion and tragedy and romance as possible.
Miral (review)
What could possibly be offensive about artist-filmmaker Julian Schnabel taking on an underdog tale and imbuing it with his usual warm, empathetic, humanist touch? Ah, here is Schnabel’s mistake: his story is about a Palestinian girl, and he fails to give equal time to the Israeli side of the story, an unforgivable transgression in the eyes of many. That said…
Killing Bono (review)
In Dublin in the late 1970s, a bunch of guys who fancied being rock stars even though they couldn’t play a lick of music formed two bands that developed a friendly rivalry. One of those bands went on to become U2. This is the story of the other band.
Mars Needs Moms (review)
Do kids really need to be reminded — in IMAX 3D! — that Mom loves you and has your best interests at heart when she tells you to eat your broccoli and gets mad when you feed it to the cat instead? I guess someone at Disney figured this was the case.
