BUCK – I was reluctant to watch this film; how interesting could a film about a horse trainer be? Well, it turns out it’s pretty good, thanks to a surprisingly charismatic central figure in Buck.
Read more →THE LAST MOUNTAIN – No real revelations; coal mining is destroying the Appalachians, and the lives of many in the area. Well produced film captures some of the impact on one community.
Read more →DEFENDOR – I’m not a big Woody Harrelson fan, but there’s something great about his portrayal of Defendor. It’s described as a dark comedy, but there’s nothing that I’d consider traditionally funny here – this is a tragedy in every sense. This dim man child tries to track down his nemesis, Captain Industry, who stole [...]
Read more →BUCKET OF BLOOD – Stupid hipster jazz fans and spoken word poets love anything non-artistic that’s called art; lucky for abused busboy Walter Paisley who mashes corpses into clay and joins the elite artistic pretenders for just a little while. THE ARTIST – Two films about unappreciated artists today; though I much prefer George Valentin [...]
Read more →SOLARIS (2002) – The central story changes significantly from the Russian version to this one. While cutting about an hour from the run time, it doesn’t make the film any better. While there’s less brooding, I found there was much less connection with the characters. LAST WOMAN ON EARTH – Interesting end of the world [...]
Read more →THE INNKEEPERS – The plot itself is basically a throwaway, but lead actors Sara Paxton and Pat Healy work really nicely off each other. There are a number of problems with the script; the ghost-hunter angle gets the most basic ideas so wrong that this film is likely not going to be well-received among the [...]
Read more →VIDEODROME – Come up to Toronto and James Woods will show you some torture porn and then pierce your ears. Watch out for his Six Pack Dentata. Emissions from the Cathode Ray Tube setup in a mission to help cure the homeless… and perhaps carry something more sinister. I’m more than a little surprised to [...]
Read more →TEENS IN SPACE – They arrive on the distant planet, and head down to see who had sent the signal that was received on Earth. What do they find? pinheaded disco aliens in bell-bottoms. These disco creatures are capitalist robots; actual robots, seeking self-centered bliss without any personal reponsibility! During one of the rescue missions, [...]
Read more →MARGIN CALL – With Kevin Spacey managing a team of traders, MARGIN CALL feels something like a modern day retelling of GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS salesmen… There may be more blame laid on the top levels of the firm in MARGIN CALL, but the same smell of desperation is on all the characters – even the [...]
Read more →THE HELP – I think the tagline shown on the altered poster (below) may be more correct; “White people solve racism. You’re welcome, black people.” There’s nothing really wrong here, but this is a film that seems made for The Oscars. It has simple characters and simple solutions. – found in the story “If 2012′s [...]
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