First off, apologies that this is running on Thursday and not the usual Monday or Tuesday. We recorded it on time, but the editing process can take several hours, which was a tall order this week. So without further ado… On this week’s Critic Speak Podcast, James and I disagree with Steven Spielberg and George […]
Critic Speak Podcast: Episode 10 Read More »
I’m in a tight spot. I didn’t find “This is the End,” the new comedy made by Team Apatow without Judd Apatow’s involvement (Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg directed and produced), to be particularly funny. But most people I know and respect—and the general public, if the “B+” CinemaScore is any indication—think that the movie
Review: “This is the End” Read More »
It would be difficult to tell a superhero origin story better than was done in the 1978 “Superman.” “Man of Steel” is a relentless attempt, one handled with an abundance of violence and characters but near complete lack of humanity. Before, Superman was the embodiment of decency, raised by two plainspoken, kind middle-Americans who imbued
Review: “Man of Steel” Read More »
There’s a scene in Olivier Assayas’ recent movie “Something in the Air,” about the youth culture movements in France in the years following the sociopolitically tumultuous Summer of 1968, in which a group of filmmakers premiere their latest activist work on Laos. Its conventional essayist presentation prompts an audience member to challenge, “Shouldn’t revolutionary cinema
Review: “The Internship” Read More »
Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office results. I began an official accuracy slump last week, under-predicting both “The Purge” (who didn’t?) and “The Internship,” making it two weeks in a row that I got both openers off by a considerable margin. So
Box Office Beat: Weekend of June 14 Read More »
It’s a short (relatively speaking) and sweet episode of the Critic Speak Podcast this week, as James and I keep it to reviews of the new horror-thriller “The Purge,” starring Ethan Hawke, and the new comedy “The Internship,” starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. We’re pretty much in agreement on the former, but we split
Critic Speak Podcast: Episode 9 Read More »
“The Purge” is a high-concept thriller with a low budget and an even lower amount of thought put into its plot. There’s potential in the premise, which allows for all sorts of bloodletting, suspenseful situations, and a healthy dose of political commentary, if that’s your thing. And it is writer/director James DeMonaco’s thing, though his
Review: “The Purge” Read More »
Filmmaking and magic ask much the same thing of their respective audiences: we know they aren’t “real,” but we willingly pretend as though they are in order to engage our sense of wonder. Certainly, cinema is capable of leveraging such engagement to achieve a far greater impact on people than a simple card trick is,
Review: “Now You See Me” Read More »
Now here’s something you don’t see every (or any) weekend at the movie theater: a film about life under an ultra-conservative religion (Orthodox Judaism), made by an adherent of said religion (first-time writer/director Rama Burshtein). Filmmaking is so heavily dominated by the secular left that even the most seemingly objective portrayals of these socially antiquated
Review: “Fill the Void” Read More »
Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office results. After sustaining a pretty strong accuracy record this summer, I finally screwed the pooch last weekend when I predicted “Now You See Me” would tank (it was an unexpected hit and grossed double my guess)
Box Office Beat: Weekend of June 7 Read More »
