Reviews

Movies

Boilerplate Biopic

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There’s nothing wrong with Ray that a little less hype couldn’t fix. As biopics go, it’s pretty good. Jamie Foxx is convincing as the iconic Ray Charles. Writer James L. White and writer/director Taylor Hackford employ a clumsily expository flashback structure that actually pays off beautifully at the end with a startling and unexpected moment of transcendence and vision. Two and a half hours clip by briskly. And there’s plenty of Charles’ music.

Tagged: Based on Real Events, Biopics, Dramas, Jamie Foxx, Ray, Ray Charles, Reviews, Taylor Hackford
Movies

Reincarnation’s Provocative Practicalities

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Birth is the perfect antidote for anybody who thinks reincarnation is a romantic notion, allowing for a reunion with the spirit of a loved one who has died. By mining the practicalities of the situation, the movie becomes a rare work that humanizes and seeks to understand the effects of reincarnation instead of merely employing it for cheap horror or cheesy romance.

Tagged: Birth, Death, Dramas, Jonathan Glazer, Reincarnation, Reviews, Spirituality
Movies

The Ethics of Desperation

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A key reason Dirty Pretty Things works so well is that the audience can never be sure in what direction it will go. It might be a sober exploration of issues related to immigration, or it might be a romance, or it might be a humanistic thriller, or it might be a Lynchian mystery, or … . It’s all those things, actually, and at least pretty good at all of them. The movie is nimble, and just when you think you’ve nailed it, it swerves in another direction.

Tagged: Dirty Pretty Things, Reviews, Stephen Frears
Movies

Village Idiocy

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Bashing The Village, of course, is easy. But out of M. Night Shyamalan’s plodding, over-deliberate bore — neither intellectually stimulating nor marginally entertaining — could have been salvaged a good, serious, potentially wrenching exploration of the concept of the social contract.

Tagged: M. Night Shyamalan, Reviews, The Village
Movies

Water Torture

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Open Water would barely be worth the effort of dismissing except for some shockingly enthusiastic reviews. So to prevent you from wasting 80 minutes of your valuable time with this piece of shit, I’m wasting considerably less of your valuable time with the piece of shit that you’re presently reading.

Tagged: Chris Kentis, Horror, Making a Mockery, Open Water, Reviews
Movies

Animation on a Human Scale

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With its sixth feature, Pixar succeeds wildly at its first human endeavor. But beyond The Incredibles’ myriad charms as entertainment, the movie could prove to be groundbreaking, building a bridge between the studio’s wonderful family-oriented work and a new way of making fantasy pictures. It portends great things.

Tagged: Animation, Brad Bird, Pixar, Reviews, The Incredibles
Movies

Forced Whimsy

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Watching The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou initially created a pleasant sensation — ah, yes, my old friend Wes Anderson — that over two hours turned tedious and finally grating. Anderson has taken his love of artifice and dry humor to its logical end and proves that it doesn’t work. Now, hopefully, he can go back to making rewarding movies.

Tagged: Reviews, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Wes Anderson