While most of us have come to accept product placement as a necessary evil in motion picture financing, the way in which Ben Stiller’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” prominently hawks eHarmony, Papa John’s Pizza, and Cinnabon just goes to underscore its organically phony qualities. The film, which builds a narrative around the daydreaming […]
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Superficial readings of Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” characterize the movie as a microcosmic look at the gluttony and corruption of America’s so-called “One Percent,” but it’s actually a broader comment on our society’s confused moral compass. There’s a reason Scorsese and screenwriter Terence Winter chose to tell this particular story of financial
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When it was announced that Columbia’s new version of Stephen King’s “Carrie,” originally immortalized by Brian De Palma’s 1976 film, would be directed by Kimberly Peirce, there was reason to be optimistic. Peirce, who has made just one other movie since her groundbreaking 1999 debut “Boys Don’t Cry” (the overlooked soldier drama “Stop-Loss”), presumably would
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“Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa” is the first film to bear the “Jackass” name that doesn’t open with a disclaimer. It’s perhaps a sign of the gang’s aging, particularly on the part of frontman Johnny Knoxville, that their new film is light on potentially deadly stunts. Knoxville and Co. (actually, minus much of the Co., though
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“Escape Plan” is the first film to feature both A-list ’80s action gods, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, in starring roles. Forget the action-fantasy “The Expendables” and its sequel; those were Stallone’s films. Here, the two share top billing and a nearly equal amount of screen time. And it’s with that shared time one can
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“Don Jon” is, on the surface, about addiction. But dig a little deeper and one sees that its true subject is honesty, the first casualty of addiction. Whatever one joneses for, is there a greater effect of getting a fix than than one’s temporary escape from reality’s unforgiving glare? Here, first-time writer/director Joseph Gordon-Levitt explores
“Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” were cleverly referential, skillfully made comedies, but the final installment in Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost’s so-called Cornetto Trilogy, “The World’s End,” is in another league because it adds a rich human element to the equation. There’s plenty of the previous fun—popular allusions and action tomfoolery—but
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“We’re the Millers” might be one of the best comedies of the year. I don’t write that as an endorsement of the film, but as a commentary on comedies. In no other genre is it so difficult to make a classic, while perhaps only horror films are taken less seriously by critics and the public.
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Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing” may be the most shocking documentary I’ve ever seen, in the way that it asks the viewer to confront evil head-on. For two hours, the film retains a near-singular focus on its subject, Anwar Congo, an unrepentant executioner of over 1,000 people in the Indonesian genocide of 1965-’66. Congo
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In “2 Guns,” a pair of mismatched lawmen find themselves trading bullets with bad guys and banter with each other, moving methodically towards a climax that sees nearly every character torn apart by gunfire. Does this sound interesting to you? I don’t ask ironically. This kind of plot holds an ample degree of appeal not
