Enough Said Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Considering my only taste of writer/director Nicole Holofcener‘s cinema was the icy cold Please Give, it’s hard for me—even in its wake—to think of her as the heart and soul behind Enough Said. Maybe that’s because the true heart and soul of the film is the late James Gandolfini, who gives one […]
Captain Phillips Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) Movie magic happens when the right actor finds the right director. Jimmy Stewart was the perfect everyman to navigate the twisted worlds of Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers. In Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese found the ideal actor to bring his tough Italian leading men to the big screen. The list goes on and […]
A Late Quartet Review
RATING: (3 STARS) A sedate and stately drama about the dysfunctional private lives of classical musicians, Yaron Zilberman’s A Late Quartet just screams “acting showcase.” And it’s hard to argue the film’s chief pleasure isn’t seeing Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Christopher Walken on top of their respective games. There’s a lot more to […]
Trust Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) David Schwimmer is probably the last person you’d expect to direct a hard-hitting drama about rape, but with Trust, he’s done just that, and he does a solid job. He certainly deserves a great deal of credit for the extraordinary performances he coaxes out of all four of the main actors involved. […]
Cyrus Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) Few films received as much positive buzz out of Sundance as “Cyrus,†the latest from the Duplass Brothers, Jay and Mark. Many hailed it as a film of rare emotional honesty. Festival-goers in Austin for South by Southwest responded in kind, but I couldn’t help but think the film didn’t live up […]
SXSW 2010: Day 2
SXSW Day 2, the first full day of the film festival (and sadly my last) began early for me with a panel discussion featuring acclaimed horror directors Neil Marshall (“The Descentâ€), Ruben Fleischer (“Zombielandâ€), Matt Reeves (“Cloverfieldâ€), Ti West (“The House of the Deadâ€), and Robert Rodriguez (“Desperadoâ€). The participation of Marshall and Rodriguez was […]
