The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Brad Pitt is a very fine actor (see "Twelve Monkeys" and "True Romance") but in this epic fantasy his diligent and thoughtful performance contributes less to the film than his appearance, about...
View ArticleInglourious Basterds
There is no question that writer-director Quentin Tarantino is a brilliant film-maker. But there is some question about whether he has yet made a brilliant film. No one takes a more visceral pleasure...
View ArticleTrailer: Megamind
Here's an early peek at "Megamind" an animated superhero (and super-villain) movie featuring the voices of Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, and Brad Pitt. It looks delightful! ...Read the full post here »
View ArticleMegamind
Let's get it out of the way first thing. "Megamind" would be a much more enjoyable experience if it wasn't so close to one of this year's brightest family pleasures, Despicable Me. Both are stories of...
View ArticleThe Tree of Life
On those dark nights of the soul, when we consider not just life but Life, and Meaning, and our place in the cosmos, our lives don't play out in our minds in sequence. Images and snatches of words...
View ArticleFall Movies 2011 — Miss Piggy, Double Clooneys, Spaceys, and Lautners, the...
Summer is time for superheroes, remakes, raunchy comedies, and sequels. As the leaves begin to fall, movies get a little more ambitious, a little edgier, a little weightier, with less CGI and a bit...
View ArticleMoneyball
Brad Pitt is underrated as an actor. But he is the best there is when it comes to calibrating the deployment of his onscreen star power, which he uses as expertly as Meryl Streep does accents. Pitt...
View ArticleHappy Feet 2
I loved the original Happy Feet, but five years later only liked this sequel. It's still a lot of fun to see dancing, singing penguins, but the meandering storyline never catches hold. In the...
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Movie Stars Go Bad for the NY Times Magazine
Be sure to check out this year's Hollywood issue of the New York Times Magazine this weekend. Some of the year's biggest stars try out some iconic roles in a series of...Read the full post here »
View ArticleWorld War Z
There are going to be a lot of superheroes on screen this summer, but none of them are as super as Gerry Lane a former investigator for the UN called back into action to fight the zombie apocalypse. No...
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The Counselor
Cormac McCarthy's spare, bleak, and very literary prose has made for some compelling cinema, most effectively in No Country for Old Men and Read the full post here »
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Fury
History, Winston Churchill reminds us, is written by the victors. But sometimes those victors have some second thoughts, more complex thoughts, about the nature of heroism, patriotism, and the spoils...
View ArticleBefore They Were Stars: Television Commercials With Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves,...
Phil Hall has a delightful collection of "before they were stars" television ads featuring Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves, James Dean, Morgan Freeman, Matt LeBlanc, Steve Carell, and more. Here's one I love...
View ArticleTrailer: The Big Short with Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, Steve Carell, and...
There is no movie I am looking forward to this year more than "The Big Short," based on the best book I read about the 2008 financial meltdown, written by Michael Lewis. It is directed by Adam McKay,...
View ArticleThe Big Short
Director Adam McKay is so obsessed with the 2008 financial meltdown that he inserted a series of charts and graphs and statistics about it over the closing credits of the silly buddy-cop comedy, The...
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