The first sequence of Harmony Korine’s devilishly good new film “Spring Breakers”—comprised of intimate views of scantily clad, young female body-parts on a Florida beach, most of them gyrating—perfectly encapsulates the film’s modus operandi. This type of establishing shot has become commonplace in T&A-focused cinema, like the latest “Porky’s” knockoff (whatever that was) — to […]
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Antoine Fuqua’s “Olympus Has Fallen” might be the most patriotic movie ever that makes Americans look blazingly incompetent. Here we have a plot that sees a band of North Koreans launch a blistering attack on the White House by sea and air, one that kills hundreds and results in the capture of the president (Aaron
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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 a slow start, it looks like we’re finally in a financially successful part of the year for Hollywood, with the recent big openings of “Oz the Great and Powerful,” “The Croods,” and the surprise
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“Starbuck” has a comic premise that Kevin Smith might envy: After years of donating sperm, a truck driver discovers that he has sired more than 500 kids—and now 142 of them want to know the identity of their prolific dad. At first glance, this French-Canadian production fits cozily into the present American trend of building
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“The Silence” is built around a novel idea: to depict the effect of a murder (two, actually) on everyone immediately impacted by the crime. We spend what seems like equal time with the murderer, his accomplice, the investigators, and the parents of the victims. The film is told with a surprising amount of empathy for
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Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office grosses. Four new wide releases hit the multiplex tomorrow, the 24th birthday of yours truly, so let’s not dilly-dally. It’s time to crunch some numbers. Undoubtedly the highest-profile opener is DreamWorks Animation’s “The Croods,” which is
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“The Call” is three parts “Cellular” and one part “Buried.” It’s a phone-driven thriller that sees a 911 operator on the line with a kidnapped girl as the girl’s captor transports her to the site of what will be a gruesome death. The high-concept premise doesn’t yield much new outside of its unusual setting, but
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As the San Diego Latino Film Festival enters its final weekend, there’s still plenty of good stuff left to see (I have five selections slated for today and tomorrow). It’s been tough to find time to write about the festival films I’ve already seen—in addition to my usual load of regular screenings and reviews, I’ve
SDLFF 2013: Dispatch #3 — “¡Atraco!” and “Post Tenebras Lux” Read More »
The world of egomaniacal, spray-tanned Las Vegas magicians in which “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone” takes place is perfect fodder for a comedy, and I have no doubt that Christopher Guest would have gotten a lot of milage out of this premise. But director Don Scardino and writers Jonathan Goldenstein, John Francis Daley, Chad Kultgen, and
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Films about oppressive regimes tend to have a flair for the dramatic, either focusing on the tyrannical leaders themselves (as in “The Last King of Scotland” and “Downfall”) or the worst atrocities committed under their reigns (as in “Hotel Rwanda” and “The Killing Fields”). This is not a criticism, as the films I’ve mentioned (and
