
Synchronicity movie review: wormhole of the heart
If you could slap a dudebro fedora on Blade Runner, you’d get this ridiculous attempt at a mind-blowing sci-fi drama. Pretentious yet accidental silly.
film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997
If you could slap a dudebro fedora on Blade Runner, you’d get this ridiculous attempt at a mind-blowing sci-fi drama. Pretentious yet accidental silly.
Not exactly astonishing news, but fun nevertheless…
Plus: Javier Bardem to star in Chilean mine movie; Matt Damon not to star in the next Bourne movie; Napoleon Dynamite and How to Train Your Dragon going to TV; lots more…
Hello, *sigh*! Enough of those “smart” romantic comedies that force down our throats the preposterous notions that women can be competent at work — sorta — without being idiots at everything else, or that men can ever be adults, or that humiliating old ladies and priests isn’t hilarious.
We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, but you’re still working on putting together your Michael Jackson costume for Halloween; sewing all those sequins onto that glove is taking forever. But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the right DVDs. And when … more…
Busy, busy week. And awards season hasn’t quite hit yet (though screeners are starting to come). It’s gonna be a crazy couple months… Most hilarious title ever? Gentlemen Broncos (opens in the U.S. on October 30; no U.K. release date has been announced) looks to be a hoot… and I do really like Jared Hess’s … more…
Take a break from work: watch a trailer… Oh my god, that’s Sam Rockwell as “Bronco.” Of course, before the trailer even got to that point, I was doubled over in pain from laughter. I’ve been to science fiction conventions. I know these people. I’ve been eagerly awaiting whatever Jared Hess — he of Napoleon … more…
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN (encompassing production design, costumes, and makeup) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou I usually favor invented worlds when picking the year’s best production work… and maybe I’ve done that here, too. Steve Zissou’s universe feels like it’s a baby step off skew with our own — the colors just a tad flat, … more…
BEST DIRECTOR Lars von Trier, Dogville Ever a risktaker, Lars von Trier took one of the biggest risks onscreen in 2004 with a determinedly uncinematic film that was also unabashedly political — a breathtaking and refreshingly daring combination in an era of play-it-safe “entertainment.” Setting his cast and his scene on a bare, black-box stage, … more…
BEST ACTOR Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda It’s a role that, in the hands of even another very competent actor, could have descended into pathos and sentimentality, but Cheadle’s performance goes way beyond mere competence: As an Oskar Schindler-type figure in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, he approaches incomprehensible horrors in a way that makes us intimate partners … more…