Posts Tagged ‘Film’

WAVING THEIR WANDS

Written by admin on . Posted in Arts & Film, Film

To say that the Harry Potter fans documented in We Are Wizards have piggybacked on J.K. Rowling’s success to create their own careers may not be the most generous observation, but it’s true nonetheless. These are not the rabid fans that would dress in costume before camping out in front of bookstores, waiting for the
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FINE MALE ROLE MODELS

Written by admin on . Posted in Arts & Film, Film

Role Models looks like another of those comedies about boorish males that threaten to turn American cineplexes into frat houses or romper rooms. Critics don’t fight this Judd Apatow contagion because its symptoms (loud laughs and big box-office) suggest a cultural juggernaut. The New Yorker’s attempt to turn Knocked Up into a modern avatar of
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TACTICAL RETREAT

Written by admin on . Posted in Arts & Film, Film

There I was: Ten minutes before midnight this past Saturday at a packed downtown multiplex auditorium, right before the coming attractions to Saw V, and not one pair of seats could be found together. Any way you sliced it, it was a lose-lose situation. Anyone else might have sucked it up and sat down, but
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TEEN SMART

Written by admin on . Posted in Arts & Film, Film

Four teams vie for Student Union president in Frontrunners, a documentary about the competitive nature of Stuyvesant High, New York’s top-ranked public school. (Only 3 percent of 25,000 yearly applicants gain admission.) Director Caroline Suh looks at each ticket (headed by drama student Hannah Freiman, jock Alex Leonard, debonair Mike Zaytsev and cagey George Zisiadis)
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THE BEE WORD

Written by admin on . Posted in Arts & Film, Film

That’s the question director Gina Prince-Bythewood poses in her adaptation of The Secret Life of Bees, which is based on a novel that rips off the female-empowerment angle of The Color Purple. Prince-Bythewood, who directed the 1999 romance Love and Basketball, may have intended a showcase for strong black screen actresses, but she neglected to
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CYNICAL SELL-OUTS

Written by admin on . Posted in Arts & Film, Film

Bad movies beget worse ones. That’s the lesson of What Just Happened, a behind-the-scenes Hollywood spoof from Barry Levinson, director of the unbelievably overrated Wag the Dog. At least back in 1992, Levinson’s script was by David Mamet, someone with few ideas about film industry venality and how to construct political satire. Now Levinson’s way
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HOW TO ALIENATE NO ONE BUT THE SOURCE MATERIAL'S FANS

Written by admin on . Posted in Arts & Film, Film

By some bizarre alchemy, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Toby Young’s 2001 acid-penned letter to New York media based on his experiences at Vanity Fair, has been translated to the screen as a Judd Apatow romantic comedy crossed with The Devil Wears Prada. Completely fictionalizing Young’s memoir, How to Lose Friends now presents
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READY TO ROLL

Written by admin on . Posted in Arts & Film, Film

Guy Ritchie didn’t make the mistake of putting his wife Madonna in RocknRolla; but his latest gangster film queers a sense of Macho to match Madonna’s sense of Slut. Hopefully, Ritchie’s fantasy won’t roll back human progress; but this time it’s shaped an unexpectedly enjoyable movie. RocknRolla joins badass folderol to bad-boy (adolescent) distress. Ritchie’s
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HEARTLESS DARKNESS

Written by admin on . Posted in Arts & Film, Film

Paul Newman’s passing casts a shadow over Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe’s performances in Body of Lies. This spy/mercenary flick feels like a eulogy-a slick, cynical death knell-for Newman’s ideal: the morally charismatic movie star. As CIA field agent Roger Ferris and his Langley, Va., boss Ed Hoffman, DiCaprio and Crowe shed the recognizable moral
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