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 »
“The Great Gatsby” is an emphatically faithful adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel not so much in plot, but in spirit. Writer/director Baz Luhrmann remains true to the text in terms that make its source material instantly recognizable: the 1920s setting, the cast of characters, the arch of the melancholy story. But it’s only by
Review: “The Great Gatsby” Read More »
The American film industry operates under the general rule that the narrative of any animated film must be simple enough for a small child to follow completely, a practice that harms kids more than it helps them, in that they are, as a result, very rarely exposed to the kind of sophisticated storytelling that might
Review: “Rise of the Guardians” Read More »
We’re barely past the Fourth of July, but that’s not stopping DreamWorks Animation from releasing the trailer for its Holiday Season tent-pole, “Legend of the Guardians,” based on the book by William Joyce. The family-friendly pic tells the story of five children’s heroes – Santa Claus, Jack Frost, the Easter Bunny, the Sandman, and the
New trailer: “Rise of the Guardians” Read More »
