Part 2 of the YA dystopian riff on Plato's Republic: the city as the soul writ large, with society segmented according to people's dominant traits. Of course, the real adventure here is in the Divergent (read: complicated) soul belonging to pixie-hero Tris (Shailene Woodley, alternatingly adorable and sullen). She's got …
There aren’t many surprises in writer-director Jason Kim’s South Korean exorcist story. (Though maybe that should read “super-exorcist,” given the fact that our reluctant hero is an MMA champion whose demon-driving abilities come not from fervent faith, but from a mysterious manifestation of the stigmata in his unbelieving right hand. …
If you think weddings cost a lot, just wait until you get to the divorce!
As a Christian allegory, director Scott Derrickson’s entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is impressively thorough. Proud and worldly neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch, cockily joking even as he fumbles with his accent) is cast down from his throne, seeks healing from a keeper of ancient spiritual wisdom and …
In 2011, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas "outed" himself as an illegal alien - sorry, "undocumented American" in an essay for The New York Times Magazine. (Changing the language of the debate is a major goal for Vargas; as a journalist, he understands the power of terminology.) Now, he …
What is a dog’s purpose? In Lasse Hallström’s take on W. Bruce Cameron’s canine POV novel, it’s to distract you from a dizzying, at times painful array of contradictions by looking soulfully at the camera. At heart, it’s a Hindu saga, picking a doggie’s soul (gamely voiced by Josh Gad) …
A "what happened next" DVD extra that got stretched to feature length. Gee, Boss, it's looking a bit thin in a number of places. No problem. Just toss in a whole bunch of slo-mo kids swimming with dolphins, some adolescent angst and tantrums, and Morgan Freeman cracking wise. They'll never …
We open on the titular (and imprisoned) Dom (Jude Law): beefy, bare-chested, Burnsided, balding, and bursting with braggadocio. Dom is full of himself, unlike the fellow just below screen, who is full of Dom's...self. Which self is the subject of a lengthy monologue designed to impress the viewer and please …
This documentary "Faithfully" records how Filipino singer Arnel Pineda landed a gig as the lead singer for Journey and led the classic rock band on a hugely successful tour. Discovered on YouTube by guitarist Neil Schon, Pineda flies to LA and goes through a rough initial audition. But the old …
Ferris Bueller's Day in the Hood. Charismatic youngster Shameik Moore plays Malcolm, a brilliant high school senior from Inglewood who loves '90s hip hop but sings in a punk band called Oreo because, you know, he's into white shit, too. The (totally unnecessary and redundant) narration from producer Forest Whitaker …
For a film about identical-twin gynecologists who share a woman, David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers was awfully psychological. Conversely, for a film about identical-twin psychologists who share a woman, François Ozon’s latest is awfully gynecological. The film practically opens on a shot of a speculum-spread opening, and most of the drama …
Director and co-writer Alexander Payne gets Matt Damon to go full Everyman as Paul Safranek, a middle-aged, lower-middle-class white guy who’s rightly worried about the future: the world’s, sure, but mostly his own, which looks pretty bleak, at least by American Dream standards. When he starts hearing about the economic …
Early on in this upstairs-downstairs story built around the King and Queen of England’s overnight visit to the titular country estate, a kitchen girl tells a footman to get the soufflés upstairs before they collapse. A soufflé is a light and airy confection of unvaryingly smooth consistency, and so is …
aka The Lightly Fictionalized Rehabilitation of the Historical Vlad III "The Impaler" Tepes of the House of Draculesti, Prince of Wallachia, Former Hostage of the Ottoman Empire, and Defender of His People against Same, aka Maybe They Do Make 'Em Like They Used to, Sometimes. (The "lightly fictionalized" part involves …