Review
-
The Playlist1 commentlike0tweet0
L.A. Film Fest Review: 'Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark' Can't Conjure Up The Scares
In the 1970s, there was a number of made-for-television horror movies and among the best remembered were "Salem's Lot," "Burnt Offerings" and "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark." Of the last film, modern horror master Guillermo Del Toro has referred to it as "the scariest movie (he's) ever seen." If one were to watch it today, they'd scoff at that sentiment as the pacing is weird and the monsters are silly. But anyone could look back at the stuff that gave them the chills as kids with new, more cynical eyes, however, what Del Toro is trying to do as producer and co-writer of this new remake is to get all of us to feel what we felt as kids again. Wh...
Read More » -
The Playlist1 commentlike0tweet0
Review: 'Larry Crowne' Finds Tom Hanks & Julia Roberts In A Miscalculated, Muddled Rom-Com
People get excited about a new Tom Hanks movie simply because people fucking love Tom Hanks. He's both an affable everyman and a huge movie star, and in the performances he leaves on screen, whether it’s a slow-witted American who happens into great moments of history, a gay man living with AIDS, or...
Read More » -
The Playlist10 commentslike0tweet0
Review: 'Transformers: Dark Of The Moon' Rewards With 40 Min. Of Great Action After An Asinine Story
Before everyone accuses us of drinking the Haterade, allow this writer to make a couple of facts known. I thought the first "Transformers" was a decent enough (though brainless) bit of summer popcorn entertainment, while I nearly walked out of "Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen." The problems with the second entry in the franchise have been well documented as even Michael Bay himself admitted it was awful and promised this time, things will be better. With much being made about the work that has gone into the special effects, with Bay writing a letter to the pimply teenagers who will be playing this for the majority of America to make sure ...
Read More » -
The Playlist8 commentslike0tweet0
Review: 'Hot Coffee' An Eye-Opening, Must-See Doc About A Legal Case You Thought You Knew
In 1994, a decision in a seemingly innocuous legal case made waves around the country, becoming fodder for "Seinfeld," late night stand-up routines and editorials around the country, and you probably remember it. A woman in New Mexico was awarded a judgment of $2.86 million dollars after suing McDonald's because her coffee was too hot. "Isn't coffee supposed to be hot?" seemed to serve as a punchline to numerous jokes, while most just read the headlines in newspapers and assumed it was yet more evidence of a legal system gone out of control. But did you know that the plaintiff, Stella Liebeck, was 79 years old? Did you know that the burns wer...
Read More » -
The Playlist0 commentslike0tweet0
L.A. Film Fest Reviews: Songs by Animal Collective & Bon Iver Can't Save 'The Dynamiter'
Plus Iranian Indie 'Please Do Not Disturb'"The Dynamiter" opens in the fields of the South with two young brothers (one fourteen, one eight) throwing sharpened sticks they've made at a pile of hay. We keep seeing wannabe Malick-like cuts and shots as the older brother is telling a joke, the sky is a...
Read More » -
The Playlist0 commentslike0tweet0
L.A. Film Fest Reviews: Herzog-ian 'Family Instinct' & The Quiet Tragedy Of 'The Salesman'
"Family Instinct" Director Andris Gauja seems to be taking a page out of Werner Herzog's "ecstatic truth" playbook with "Family Instinct," a film about Zanda, a Latvian woman waiting for her husband and father of her children to come home from prison. But he's only in prison because she told the pol...
Read More » -
The Playlist0 commentslike0tweet0
Review: 'A Better Life' Is Uneven, But A Well-Intentioned & Modest Human Story
Sincerely rendered, modest and at times, a little too simplistic, Chris Weitz's "A Better Life," is neverthless a labor of love and a quiet, well-intentioned examination of family, father-son relationships and immigration issues in the U.S. Chalk it up to guilt. No, not white guilt, franchise guilt. After delivering two back-to-back rather bankrupt genre tentpoles (the polar bear coke commercial, anti-religion campaign "The Golden Compass" and the vacuous "Twilight: New Moon") director Weitz pulls a full 180 with his small-scale humanist drama, and he's a better man (and filmmaker) for it. If only every empty and tentpole obsessed director fe...
Read More » -
The Playlist0 commentslike0tweet0
L.A. Film Fest Review: 'The Destiny Of Lesser Animals' Is A Study In Identity
The Filmmakers Also Talk Bringing The Production To Ghana In “The Destiny of Lesser Animals” director Deron Albright and writer/lead actor Yao B. Nunoo paint an unhappy picture of life on the coast of West African nation Ghana. Boniface Koomsin (Nunoo) is a police inspector in the Cape Coast region, but is trying his best to break free and return to the bright lights, big city of New York, where he spent time as a young man. But following his deportation back to Ghana after 9/11, he finds it much harder to return to the States and desperate, saves his paychecks for a counterfeit U.S. Passport that, no sooner does it finally reach his hands, ...
Read More » -
The Playlist0 commentslike0tweet0
Review: ‘Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop’ A Funny & Moving Portrait Of The Late Night Staple
The following is a reprint of our review from SXSW.
Read More » -
The Playlist2 commentslike0tweet0
Review: 'Bad Teacher' Only Deserves A Mildly Passable Grade
After the critical and commercial success of "Bridesmaids," and an escalation in the discussion of women's place in comedy both in the more niche-y blogosphere and in mainstream popular culture (illuminated most wonderfully earlier this year in a gonzo episode of "30 Rock"), "Bad Teacher," about a foul-mouthed, irresponsible, self-centered, drug-addled teacher (who also happens to be a woman) seems particularly well-timed. And while the comedy is periodically laugh-out-loud, shoot-soda-out-of-your-nose funny, it also ultimately feels like a missed opportunity; like a substitute that breezes out of your life a semester too soon without ever ma...
Read More »
fresh from the blogs
-
The 2013 Cannes Review Report: 'Inside Llewyn Davi ...Criticwire
-
Cannes Review: The Coens Brothers' 'Inside Llewyn Davis' ...The Playlist
-
Cannes 2013 - Morgan Freeman, Diane Keaton Are Couple ...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 
