The final installment of Roy Andersson's "living" trilogy, following Songs from the Second Floor and You, the Living. Presented as a series of highly focused tableaus — nothing (including the camera) moves, except what's intended for your attention — it's very much a meditation on how people pass their time …
A fine thriller, old-fashioned in the best senses. The grounded (but still otherworldly) setting: American diving experts assisting the Norwegian government in building a deep-sea oil pipeline. (The tension is there at the outset: technicians from the two sides arguing about what sort of gas mixture to give the divers …
A sequel to the reboot, but not a reboot of the sequel to the original. Instead, a barely-there story (as opposed to the swimsuits, which are often not there at all) about piranha invading a tawdry water park. (Are there really other kinds?) It’s okay, though – you’re not here …
Aardman Animations makes a solid case for its brand of gussied-up claymation (contra the grandeur of Pixar and the flash of Dreamworks) with this story of a foppish swashbuckler who just wants to be Pirate of the Year. You could spend a good chunk of your time just studying the …
Johnny Depp stumbles, staggers, lurches, leers, preens, pratfalls, and melancholily mugs his way back into the role that made him rich: Captain Jack Sparrow, the poncy pirate. But he’s no longer particularly clever nor particularly funny (“Think Captain Jack is washed up, eh? I’ve not had a wash in years!”), …
The problem: geek culture has ascended to the point where it's difficult to portray, say, college guys who do a capella renditions of pop songs as lovable losers who have to triumph over their own peculiarity to win the respect of their peers. Even if they're not the Big Men …
The problem: geek culture has ascended to the point where it's difficult to portray, say, college guys who do a capella renditions of pop songs as lovable losers who have to triumph over their own peculiarity to win the respect of their peers. Even if they're not the Big Men …
Charm is a delicate commodity, especially when you're grinding it between the millstones of high camp and naked sincerity. In 2012, the celebration/spoof of a cappella college groups Pitch Perfect managed to preserve it, thanks mostly to the light touch of star Anna Kendrick. But the grim arithmetic of sequels …
It's hard to put hunger onscreen. Starvation, sure, that's easy: the visible ribcage, the distended belly, the face stretched tight over the skull. But a hungry person can look very much like a full person - can even look like someone who eats too much. Directors Kristi Jacobson and Lori …
A rare exception to the old line about the book being better than a movie, The Place Beyond the Pines is a small-scale epic that might have been better as a novel. In a novel, we might not have minded the sudden loss of major characters, the 15-years-later epilogue that …
Matthew Vandyke was a comfortable, educated young man, a beloved and pampered only child with a single mom, a girlfriend, and a nagging case of OCD. So naturally, he set out on a “crash course in manhood.” Following the lead of Australian he-man moviemaking adventurer Alby Mangels, he took a …
For a while, the first live-action Pokemon movie’s achievements are enough: first and foremost among them, Ryme City, a vibrant urban world in which Pokemon and people live cheek-by-jowl and it doesn’t seem unbearably weird or impossible. (Nor does it seem morally complicated, since the city’s residents have gotten past …
For a while, the first live-action Pokemon movie’s achievements are enough: first and foremost among them, Ryme City, a vibrant urban world in which Pokemon and people live cheek-by-jowl and it doesn’t seem unbearably weird or impossible. (Nor does it seem morally complicated, since the city’s residents have gotten past …