Perhaps the most surprising thing about the new documentary “Citizenfour” is that it does not require that the viewer have a positive opinion of its subject, the highly controversial NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, in order to be effective and vital. Make no mistake, the film hardly criticizes or even questions the ethics of Snowden’s extensively […]
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Just when all film animation was starting to look the same—one endless barrage of carefully focused-grouped CGI, designed to attract hoards of young American families—one finds renewed hope for the form in Laika’s latest elaborate stop-motion effort, “The Boxtrolls,” and Isao Takata’s “The Tale of Princess Kaguya,” which may be the most visually striking movie
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“Is perfection worth any price?” is the primary question posed by Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash,” the rare Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner that fully lives up to the mountain air hype. Set at the fictional Shaffer Conservatory, a Juiliard-esque Manhattan breeding ground for instrumental wunderkinds, the film follows drummer Andrew (Miles Teller) as he is berated
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It took three tries, but Sylvester Stallone has finally done the unfortunate; he has turned his “Expendables” franchise into the lame, pandering celebrity parade that people thought the original would be. Though far from deep, the first two “Expendables” movies were superior genre flicks that wisely traded on their litany of brawny actors’ iconographies to
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“The Giver” possesses all the right ingredients for a young-adult blockbuster success: a beloved and award-winning source novel, an A-list director in Philip Noyce, and talented veteran actors populating the supporting cast (most notably Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep). It’s also proof that the right ingredients don’t always result in a fulfilling meal. The problems
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No filmmaker’s oeuvre is as conducive to the categorization of ‘major’ and ‘minor’ works as Woody Allen’s. The writer/director/sometimes-actor has churned out a movie a year since 1982, and the question always remains the same: “Will this be Woody’s next masterpiece, or just a pleasant diversion?” Of course, the latter class of Allen film is
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First off, allow me to state upfront: I’m a Republican and, while not religious myself, I’m generally sympathetic to the view that the contemporary American Left has unfairly demonized socially conservative Christians. One needn’t look any further than popular progressive reactions to the recent Supreme Court decision on employer-subsidized birth control for evidence of such demonization.
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No contemporary actor has been able to foster as singular a screen persona within as diverse a filmography as Nicolas Cage. Consider the variety of motion pictures that could all be labeled “Nicolas Cage movies” (as opposed to simply “movies starring Nicolas Cage”): the sobering “Leaving Las Vegas,” for which Cage won an Academy Award;
In sports, there is nothing as singularly saddening as watching a fiery and determined star athlete try to singlehandedly save a game—or a season—from the failings of the lackluster team around them. Kobe Bryant puts up 40-point games almost just to spite the mediocrity he has recently been forced to deal with; Tom Brady throws
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“Edge of Tomorrow” could (half-) jokingly be titled “Groundhogs and Aliens,” but that doesn’t mean one should take it lightly. Tom Cruise’s latest would-be blockbuster is the kind of summer movie we need more of but see progressively less of, an elaborate actioner with a brain that combines its special effects with a story that
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