New Releases
-
Eric Kohn0 commentslike0tweet0
Brief Thoughts on "Batman: Year One."
While the web has been drenched with rumors and buzz about the upcoming third entry in Christopher Nolan's live action "Batman" movies, the dark knight made a comparatively quieter arrival in a new movie this week: On Tuesday, Warner Home Video released the direct-to-DVD "Batm...
Read More » -
Eric Kohn3 commentslike0tweet0
Rex Reed Handicaps "The Myth of the American Sleepover" on Metacritic.
As if you needed another reminder that review aggregators are better for finding reviews rather than measuring them, check out this list of reviews for "The Myth of the American Sleepover," opening this Friday. I may have been more enthusiastic about the movie than Reed, but Metacritic processes his...
Read More » -
Eric Kohn0 commentslike0tweet0
William Mapother is Creepy, But Not in "Another Earth."
When I saw "Another Earth" at Sundance earlier this year, I was caught off guard by the presence of William Mapother. A cousin of Tom Cruise, Mapother recently played the eerie "Other" Ethan on ABC's "Lost," showing up in the first season as a mysterious presence among the plane crash survivors and slowly taking on a more complex dimension over the course of the show (even long after his character was killed off). Although I wrote in my review that Mapother did powerful work in "Another Earth," which opens this week, it's mostly the material that deepens his performance. I don't really feel for the guy as a frustrated widower; he seems like a...
Read More » -
Eric Kohn0 commentslike7tweet2
"Our Time," A Documentary About Today's American Youth.
I've been really curious about "Our Time," a documentary directed by Matt Heineman and Matt Wiggins about four recent college grads traveling the country in a quest to understand it. I have yet to watch the movie, which premiered on the Documentary Channel last night, but there will be other opportu...
Read More » -
Eric Kohn0 commentslike0tweet0
A Yiddish-Speaker Sees "Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish."
You don't have to find the Yiddish language inherently amusing to get something out of "Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish" -- which is currently playing at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Elinor Bunin Monroe Film Center -- but it helps. A linguistic oddity with oodles of charm, it cleverly satirizes...
Read More » -
Eric Kohn1 commentlike0tweet0
5 John Carpenter Alternatives to "The Ward."
In a review posted today on the main site, I wasn't exactly kind to John Carpenter's "The Ward," although if it was just some forgettable effort from a first-timer I may have simply ignored it. Instead, it's a forgettable effort from a guy who has made masterpieces and for all intents and purposes should still be able to make them. "The Ward" proves that by containing many of the components of great Carpenter works while failing to bring them to life. Here are a few other options that will remain classics long after "The Ward" fades from memory. ("Halloween" being "Halloween," I have left it off this list. It's not really fair to compare any ...
Read More » -
Eric Kohn13 commentslike0tweet0
The Tragedy of Michael Bay.
The best part of "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" has no transformers in it. In the first act of Michael Bay's two-hour-plus threequel, regular transformer pal Shia LaBeouf fights a harder battle than any Decepticon has ever forced on him: Finding a job. In a humorous montage of ill-fated interviews, LaBeouf reminds us that he posseses legitimate acting talent beyond those countless reactions shots to CGI. (Remember "A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints"?) In a vain display of self-confidence, the erstwhile hero repeatedly gets put in his place by striking out. Even a bemused John Malkovich doesn't bat an eyelash when LaBeouf proclaims that he ...
Read More » -
Eric Kohn1 commentlike2tweet1
Interactive Theater Blows My Mind: "Sleep No More."
Art, particularly when it takes the form of a story, typically encourages a passive experience; the sensational interactive theater production "Sleep No More" works against that tendency. Loosely adapted from "Macbeth," the traveling show is currently housed at a warehouse in Chelsea, where it has b...
Read More » -
Eric Kohn1 commentlike1tweet1
"Melancholia" vs. "Another Earth": Which "Invading Planet" Movie Will You See?
The trailer for Lars Von Trier's dark family drama "Melancholia" hit the web today, catching fire immediately for its freaky apocalyptic imagery and intense performances by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Anne Thompson compared the heavy symbolic content to Terrence Malick's "Tree of Life" trailer, which I broke down shot-by-shot a little while back. "Melancholia" isn't quite as visually dense, but it's certainly loaded with big ideas, although it have some company. "Another Earth," the low budget sci-fi effort directed by Mike Cahill and picked up by Fox Searchlight at Sundance this year, also involves the sudden arrival of a new pl...
Read More » -
Eric Kohn12 commentslike1tweet0
My Dad Explains the Science of "Source Code."
Ever since I caught "Source Code" at an early screening last month, I haven't been able to get its time-spinning, reality-defying concepts out of my head. The movie works quite well no matter how hard of you try to understand it, but since it deals with an imaginary technology that could--if it actually existed--prevent all kinds of disasters from taking place, it's hard not to wonder what it would take to bring its underlying concept to fruition. Partly inspired by these detailed attempts to decode the movie's ending, as well as a video produced by Wired about the science behind the movie, I turned to the one person whose opinion about thes...
Read More »
fresh from the blogs
-
The 2013 Cannes Review Report: 'Inside Llewyn Davi ...Criticwire
-
Cannes 2013: T-Bone Burnett Teases Live & Studio Versions ...The Playlist
-
Watch Season 2, Episode 1 Of 'Roomieloverfriends' (From ...Shadow and Act
-
ACLU to 'Modern Family': Let Cam and Mitch Tie the ...Thompson on Hollywood
-
2013 Cannes News - Part 2Women and Hollywood
-
CANNES 2013: Images, Part 1Press Play
-
Good Night, Lost Boy(s)The Lost Boys
-
Greta's New Wave: Frances HaLeonard Maltin
on 
