RocknRolla (review)

Guy Ritchie would surprise us if he surprised us. *RocknRolla,* his latest mockney crime caper, is exactly what you expect it to be. Hell, it’s exactly what you *want* it to be…

‘Pushing Daisies’ blogging: “Frescorts”

(previous: Episode 3: “Bad Habits”) Do you smell pie? I smell pie. Mmmmm, pie… [spoilers after the jump!] I was horrified to discover this morning that my DVR had not recorded last night’s episode of Pushing Daisies. I think I’ve fixed what I think was ailing the stupid machine (we’ll see if it records Life … more…

W. (review)

Surely this is the greatest satire of the American presidency ever made for film. It’s kinda like *Being There,* but far more terrifying: instead of a wise, gentle idiot becoming president, here it’s an incurious, perpetually adolescent idiot who ascends to the highest office in the land. Surely this would be a horror story if it were true…

‘Pushing Daisies’ blogging: “Bad Habits”

(previous: Episodes 1/2: “Bzzzzzzzzz!”/“Circus, Circus”) Do you smell pie? I smell pie. Mmmmm, pie… [spoilers after the jump!] Goodness. Nuns talking about sex? A dead nun who had talked about sex? A suicided dead nun who had talked about sex? A suicided dead nun who had talked about sex who swears like a sailor when … more…

Burn After Reading movie review: stupid power

I think maybe I’ve figured out how Joel and Ethan Coen do it. How they move so effortlessly from comedy to drama, from fluffy to forceful, from silly to solemn. It’s that they don’t think about tone or genre, at least not at the beginning: they just think about a character, and let him have his lead, and see where he takes them.