Doomsday documentary on the imminent destruction of Planet Earth if earthlings don't change their ways. As laid out by a big panel of deep thinkers, the what's-gone-wrong part of the film (roughly two-thirds of it) is pretty depressing; the what-can-be-done part (the remaining third) is not commensurately encouraging. Narrated in …
Zombie recurrence in the U.K., under U.S. military occupation, and under Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (of Intacto) in place of Danny Boyle (of the original 28 Days Later). The scrappy, scruffy digital visuals are largely annoying (as if the zombies weren't bothersome enough), though there are some effective scenes, …
Fatuous chatter between mid-thirties lovers, two years together, an uptight American designer and a carefree French photographer, visiting her parents in Paris. Julie Delpy, surrounding herself with her actual family, and showing unknown depths of self-indulgence, is the star, director, writer, editor, composer, and vocalist over the closing credits. And …
Like Sin City, this takes its material from a "graphic novel" by Frank Miller, and in turn it takes from the film treatment of that one — or to be more precise, director Zack Snyder takes from director Robert Rodriguez — the same, or similar, unnatural light, "virtual" backgrounds, coarse-grained …
A tribe of subtitled vampires strategically targets the northernmost town in the U.S., Barrow, Alaska, hunkered down for a sunless month, free rein for nocturnal bloodsuckers. The majestic clouds and snowscapes on the last day of light ignite hope for a sense of style, but the superhuman strength and speed …
Honest-to-gosh Western, a rare sight in the 21st Century, thick as fleas fifty years earlier, when the original 3:10 arrived. The remake is done in the decadent style of shades-of-brown realism, luxuriantly whiskered and shaggy-haired, yet preening and grandiose, with amplified passions, topographical sprawl, and an overblown (and significantly altered) …
Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu details a squalid quest for an illegal abortion in the final years of the Ceausescu regime, and discloses, in passing, a good deal about a way of life, and in particular about the foundation stone of the black market. Altogether a strong film, in the mode …
Two-and-a-quarter-hour promo for the Beatles without ever mentioning them by name. A generous, even overgenerous sampler of their songs (thirty-three of them, by the count in the press notes, leaving aside the numberless others that are quoted from or alluded to) has been re-recorded, or "covered" as they say in …
Dreamlike narrative in monochrome, a stout, slow, ponderous old lady visiting her grandson at a dry and dusty military camp in Chechnya, questioning his mission: “You can destroy. When will you learn to rebuild?” A Russian art film from the dreaded Alexander Sokurov, challengingly dull, uneventful, amorphous. The lead actress, …
In addition to the possessive Alice, the place is crowded with three strapping sons, a straying husband, and a vision-impaired mother (“Which one of you peed on the toilet lid again?”), not to mention, outside the house, an old flame who happens to be married to Alice’s best customer at …
The cross-series combat continues on a crash-landed spacecraft in Colorado, and spills into the small town of Crested Butte. The brothers Colin and Greg Strause, visual-effects technicians in their feature directing debut, appear to be on very poor terms with human beings, and not a whole lot better terms with …
Live action plus computer animation, with Jason Lee, directed by Tim Hill.
Formula underworld drama poured into an epic template. Like Jiffy-brand waffle batter spread over an iron the size of a billiard table. "Based on a true story," it traces, in separate intertwined storylines, the converging upward paths of criminal and cop: the former (Denzel Washington) starting out as the servile …
Rather tardy anti-Western (at least a couple of decades out of style), with a decidedly unheroic Jesse James, brutal, bullying, backshooting, paranoid, and suicidal, and a slightly more sympathetic Bob Ford, conflicted in his feelings toward the legendary outlaw, idolizing yet inferior, intimidated, frightened, resentful, envious. There are some gripping …
British, bookish period piece, from an Ian McEwan novel, about a young girl's misreading of the amorous activities of her elders, and its tragic consequences. (A mole on the right cheek links the three different actresses who play the role, Saoirse Ronan in the Thirties, Romola Garai in wartime, and …