Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office grosses. After last weekend’s mammoth load of six new wide releases, which resulted in a lot of work for me, I’m incredibly glad that there are only two this time around. One is fairly easy to […]
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“Seven Psychopaths” is not so much under- or over-written as it is written. It’s a comedic crime thriller that becomes about its own construction ala “Adaptation,” with writer/director Martin McDonaugh figuring as the lead. But unlike the Spike Jonze film, “Seven Psychopaths” never really gels right; its disparate elements, often strong on their own, chafe against
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Few things are more irritating than a movie that’s full of itself, a characterization that undoubtedly applies to Javier Rebollo’s “The Dead Man and Being Happy.” Sympathetic lead performances and pretty Argentinian locations help alleviate the aggravation of the experience, but the film’s smug self-satisfaction with its own quirkiness is ultimately irredeemable. The titular “dead
NYFF Review: “The Dead Man and Being Happy” Read More »
Lee Daniels’ “Precious” was a messy, vaguely impressionistic, swing-for-the-fences coming-of-age film that, against the odds, struck a chord with highbrow awards voters, at least in part due to the perceived social importance of its 1980s Harlem setting and the public support of Oprah Winfrey. Now, Daniels is back with an equally daring work–“The Paperboy”–that will
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Miguel Gomes’ “Tabu” is a conventional story of forbidden love presented in a visually dazzling package that took me a full act to start enjoying. The reason for my delayed gratification was the film’s unusual structure: it begins with an ultimately irrelevant framing story that distracts from the meat. But once “Tabu” reaches its core
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Films that traffic in the abstract can be difficult to objectively judge, because each viewer is either lured in by the style or they aren’t. “Leviathan” is one such film, so much so that I won’t even pretend to understand the viewpoint of those praising it. For the full 87 minute runtime, I tried to
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Pablo Larraín, the writer/director of “No,” shyly introduced his work to the New York Film Festival audience by mumbling a few thanks into the microphone and quickly taking a seat. Having seen the filmmaker’s prior two efforts, “Tony Manero” and “Post Mortem,” which make up a spiritual trilogy with “No,” I was not surprised that
“Taken 2,” the ‘Liam Neeson is still a badass, in case you were wondering’-billed sequel, once again topped the North American box office chart this weekend, adding $22.5 million to the till for an $86.8m domestic cume. The revenge pic should easily surpass $100m by the end of next weekend. It probably won’t hit the
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Despite the fact that my civilian ticket only earned me a back-row balcony seat in the Alice Tully Hall theater, my view of “Araf – Somewhere in Between” was still spectacular, thanks to the huge, crystal clear screen. The writer/director of the film, Yesim Ustaoglu, was present for this very first North American showing of
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Although the found footage format is hardly new, dating all the way back to 1980’s “Cannibal Holocaust,” the success of the “Paranormal Activity” series has ushered in its ubiquity in the horror genre. Most of the time, a movie’s use of this now tired style is a signal that the filmmakers don’t have anything original
Review: “Sinister” Read More »
