The American film industry operates under the general rule that the narrative of any animated film must be simple enough for a small child to follow completely, a practice that harms kids more than it helps them, in that they are, as a result, very rarely exposed to the kind of sophisticated storytelling that might […]
Review: “Rise of the Guardians” Read More »
The “five-day weekend” over Thanksgiving has become a less popular time for Hollywood studios to release hot new movies than it used to be. As a result, the top three box office performers this year were films in their second and third weekends of release: “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2” at the
Weekend Box Office: “Twilight,” “Skyfall,” “Lincoln” beat openers Read More »
While Leos Carax’s “Holy Motors” leaves viewers with dozens of questions due to its deliberate lack of a conventional narrative structure and any exposition whatsoever, the ideas that Carax explores in the film become rather clear after one’s initial befuddlement over the story details subsides. Of course, the film is so unlike anything audiences have
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The task of adapting Leo Tolstoy’s 864 page, multi-volume novel “Anna Karenina” for the silver screen undoubtedly possesses a high level of difficulty, not just due to the obvious challenge of condensing such a detailed work into a two-hour production, but because one must be very creative in finding a new angle to tell such
Review: “Anna Karenina” Read More »
Bill Condon is the best thing that could have ever happened to the “Twilight” franchise. After two paralytically humorless sequels that pleased little more than diehard fans, the acclaimed director of “Kinsey” and “Dreamgirls” unexpectedly took the reigns on the series’ fourth entry and effectively restored the original’s endearing fusion of teen film romance and
Review: “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2” Read More »
David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook” sets itself up for disappointment by initially adopting the appearance of a sophisticated movie that it’s not. The premise–two mentally ill people, he bipolar and she coping with the death of her husband, fall in love despite their difficulties with day-to-day life–suggests that the film is the rare romantic-comedy
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Just as I predicted in this weekend’s Box Office Beat column, the final installment of the “Twilight Saga” franchise, “Breaking Dawn – Part 2,” was able to duplicate the box office success of its predecessor and gross in the $140m opening weekend range — $141.3m, to be exact. That’s a strong finish for what has
Weeekend Box Office: “Twilight” closes well Read More »
It took me two full reels to get into “This Must Be The Place”–an experience that I suspect many viewers will have with the film–because I wasn’t sure if I was willing to accept Sean Penn’s singular protagonist as the real deal. Even though Penn is among the finest working actors today, the character can’t
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Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office results. After coming within 1.9 percent of the actual for “Skyfall” last weekend, I’m feeling pretty good about my prognostication abilities–at least for now. Let’s hope I don’t goof on one or both of this weekend’s
Box Office Beat: Weekend of November 16 Read More »
A few liberal American critics have argued that the lessons of “A Royal Affair,” which chronicles Enlightenment thinking’s triumph over the religion-abusing aristocracy of 18th Century Denmark, apply to today’s domestic political sphere, as far-right officials and pundits like Michele Bachmann and Sean Hannity use the country’s Judeo-Christian tradition to justify what the left views
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