Wallace Shawn

Radio Days Review

Radio Days Review

RATING: (3 STARS) Radio Days comes at an interesting time within the Woody Allen canon. That output that follows it (excepting Crimes and Misdemeanors) for the next several years is generally regarded as a series of high-concept, well-intentioned misfires. Preceding Radio Days, of course, were Hannah and Her Sisters, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway […]

The Double (2014) Review

The Double (2014) Review

RATING: (2 STARS) Director Richard Ayoade’s The Double finds visual beauty in some objectively ugly places. The entire movie is bathed in harsh, obnoxious light, and a dusty, dirty film—”a patina of shit,” to quote the movie Michael Clayton—engulfs its characters, which supports the film’s themes that the working world is a suffocating, miserable place. […]

A Late Quartet Review

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 […]

Toy Story 3 Review

Toy Story 3 Review

RATING: (4 STARS) Rarely does a film come out at the absolute perfect time, but “Toy Story 3” is such a film. I’d argue this film isn’t made for kids—it’s made for those of us, like me, who grew up with the “Toy Story” characters. We watched as kids and went home wishing we could […]