We Need to Talk About Kevin: Merry Christmas no ho ho [MOVIE REVIEW]
We Need to Talk About Kevin is the stocking of coal hanging at the chimney on Christmas morning. It’s high class, multi-faceted coal, but coal nonetheless and is sure to darken the holiday mood, a darkness that is enhanced by cinematographer Seamus McGarvey’s dark palette. Briefly, for the story is brief, Eva, happily married to […]
Young Adult: Charlize Theron shines as an aging prom queen hellbent on homewrecking [MOVIE REVIEW]
What if high school really was the best time of your life? In the case of “Yong Adult,” directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody, the beautiful Mavis Gary, ghost writer of a successful young adult book series, plays out those halcyon years in print, book after book after book. Except now the […]
Tinker Tailor Soldier Snooze [MOVIE REVIEW]
Director Tomas Alfredson, in his remake of John LeCarré’s Cold War masterpiece spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, has delivered a film that proves that sometimes less is just, well, less. In both the novel and the previous mini-series from 1979, the plot and characters suck you into a vortex of quicksand, gasping for breath. […]
Hugo: an early holiday gift from Martin Scorsese [MOVIE REVIEW]
Untie the brightly colored silk ribbon from the softly textured wrapping paper concealing the delicately carved box containing the lustrous golden ornament that is “Hugo” and you will be rewarded with a wonderful film about film cloaked in an emotional and deeply rewarding, multi-layered children’s tale that has arrived just in time for the holiday […]
The never ending “Weekend” from Hell [MOVIE REVIEW]
A newly restored and pristine print of the Jean-Luc Godard classic from 1968, “Weekend,” opens at the Nuart Theatre for one week beginning Friday, November 25. Godard, originally a writer for the iconic film criticism journal Cahiers du Cinema and a co-founder of the “New Wave” (along with fellow writers Claude Chabrol, François Truffaut, and […]
Garbo the Spy tells the true tale of the Allies’ secret weapon [MOVIE REVIEW]
“Garbo the Spy,” a new documentary from novice director Edmon Roch, tells the tale of one of the Allies’ secret weapons in World War II, Juan Pujol Garcia. Pujol, a Spaniard from Barcelona, had a checkered history during the Spanish Civil War. Drafted by the Republicans, he went into hiding. Joining the army some time […]
Freud vs. Jung a beautiful period piece [MOVIE REVIEW]
In “A Dangerous Method,” David Cronenberg gives us a beautiful choreographed period piece, lushly filmed and intelligently told. Written by Christopher Hampton, using his own play “The Talking Cure,” John Kerr’s book A Dangerous Method and Jung’s own notebooks, the film unspools the ever widening rift between Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and the man he […]
Refreshing “Marilyn” film engages [MOVIE REVIEW]
“My Week with Marilyn” is the beautifully told story of a short but significant period in the lives of Marilyn Monroe, Arthur Miller, Lawrence Olivier and, most particularly, Colin Clark. The film, by director Simon Curtis, is based on Clark’s Diaries, as adapted for the screen by Adrian Hodges. Clark, judged affectionately as the wastrel […]
The Artist: a new silent masterpiece [MOVIE REVIEW]
“The Artist” made me remember why I love movies and why I always hold hope that movies can exceed even the greatest expectations. This silent black and white film by director Michel Hazanavicius is an homage to the past with a glance at the future. The story of this film is driven and enhanced by […]
“We Are Still Here” by Anne Makepeace screening
“We Are Still Here,” by Anne Makepeace, screens at 7 p.m. in the Warner Grand Theatre, 478 W. Sixth St., San Pedro. Spurred by linguist Jessie Little Doe, the Wampanoag nation of southeastern Massachusetts is bringing their language and culture back to life. Free. (310) 833-4813 or go to grandvision.org.
The Descendants: Alexander Payne’s early holiday present to moviegoers [MOVIE REVIEW]
As teenagers wait for the dog days of summer to find their release in air conditioned movie theaters with 3D special effects-laden tentpoles, so do I await the unpredictable winter months in Southern California because that signals the arrival of those mostly Indie features that reveal that American directors actually do understand the importance of […]
“Pianomania” film well tuned [MOVIE REVIEW]
Stefan Knupfe, the protagonist in “Pianomania,” the German documentary written and directed by Lilian Franck and Robert Cibis, is, simply-put, a piano tuner. Simply-put doesn’t, however, come anywhere close to describing his tasks as the chief technician and master tuner of Steinway & Sons in Vienna. Stefan is concierge, master magician, cohort, consort, inventor, improviser […]
Incendiary: powerful film shows how an innocent man was put to death in Texas, under Governor Rick Perry’s watch [MOVIE REVIEW]
“Incendiary” in every sense of the word. Like an onion, as layer upon layer is pulled away in Steve Mims’ and Joe Bailey, Jr.’s film “Incendiary: The Willingham Case,” more and more is revealed and exposure to the deeper layers pulls at the tear ducts both in frustration and sadness. On December 23, 1991 a […]
Film on Charles and Ray Eames a winner [MOVIE REVIEW]
He understood function, they understood form, and she understood color. He was the concept, she was the artist, and together Charles and Ray Eames formed the very definition of conceptual artist. In “EAMES the architect and the painter,” Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey unspool the career of Ray and Charles Eames, because, as what becomes […]
The Other F Word: punk rock dads rule
If you’ve never rebelled against authority, against your parents, against the status quo or simply never rebelled, then read no further because in all likelihood you won’t understand the conflicts that follow. Andrea Blaugrund Nevins’ insightful, profane and poignant documentary The Other F Word adds a new dimension to the collision course of the “rage […]
A bad trip to Bombay Beach [Movie Review]
The Salton Sea, 385 square miles of water created when the Colorado River overflowed in 1905, was marketed in the 1950s as “Bombay Beach,” the recreation capital of the world, complete with marinas, yachts and movie stars. Now that would have made an interesting film. Instead, what we got was Bombay Beach, yet another cinema verité-style […]