Rushmore Review
RATING: (4 STARS) With Rushmore, writer/director Wes Anderson beelines it out of Wes Andersonville toward a place that resembles the world you and I inhabit. In Wes Andersonville, individuals are quirky beyond recognition—sometimes overwritten into oblivion. Rushmore‘s lead character, Max Fischer, is a proud citizen of Wes Andersonville, but unlike the director’s other films, this […]
Anna Karenina (2012) Review
RATING: (1.5 STARS) Joe Wright’s adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s monumental novel Anna Karenina is a borderline unendurable experience—an exercise in period porn so devoid of charm, pleasantness, and an artistic reason to exist that each second feels like 1,000. Yes, Wright has updated Tolstoy’s text considerably—a necessary evil of adapting something that’s been seen on […]
Hanna Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) Hanna isn’t quite the film you’d expect from director Joe Wright. The man who directed Pride and Prejudice and Atonement does an action-thriller? It’s an odd match on paper, but it works on film—at least as far as the story will allow. Wright’s film looks gorgeous. It sounds terrific. Yet, it’s totally […]
The Ghost Writer Review
RATING: (3 STARS) The Ghost Writer is an interesting enough thriller from director Roman Polanski, but there’s just nothing great about it. It keeps you at a distance for its first two-thirds before finally allowing you to become absorbed in it. Its subject is intriguing, and Polanski’s direction is quite good, so I’m recommending it. […]
An Education Review
RATING: (4 STARS) “An Education†is a brilliant coming-of-age story in 1960’s England. A clever, pretty young girl named Jenny (Carey Mulligan in a star-making performance) learns the true value of a woman’s education and the heartbreaking consequences of taking shortcuts. It’s a fascinating film that’s well-written and brilliantly acted and should be in line […]
