‘Invention of Lying’ has a simple, resonant premise but is made without rigor. Only intermittent ingenuity saves it from offensive laziness.
Like Selick’s other animations, ‘Coraline’ is merely weird. While imaginative, meticulous, and thematically rich, it’s dull and oddly inert.
Regardless of which film takes home Best Picture on Sunday night, the Academy Awards finally got it right. I don’t mean that the best movie of 2009 will have won, even if one only considers the 10 nominees. Rather, the Oscars have chosen a sound voting system – an instant-runoff election – that nearly guarantees that every ballot will help determine whether Avatar or The Hurt Locker nabs the prize.
