By Matt Brunson
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON
**1/2
DIRECTED BY Chris Weitz
STARS Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
Hollywood’s second foray into the Twilight zone features enough fantasy and romance to satisfy most hardcore devotees of Stephenie Meyer’s vampire saga, but just as many viewers will notice that this is too often a case of the emperor — or, more specifically, buff teenage boys — wearing no clothes. (more…)
By Matt Brunson
AN EDUCATION
***1/2
DIRECTED BY Lone Scherfig
STARS Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard
Coming-of-age movies are a dime-a-dozen, but one as exemplary as An Education deserves nothing less than the opportunity to command top dollar on the open market. Sensitively directed by Lone Scherfig and exquisitely penned by Nick Hornby (adapting Lynn Barber’s memoir), this lovely drama set in London during the early 1960s stays true to its title by showing how its teen protagonist learns life lessons as they relate to issues of class, sex, schooling and her country’s own growing pains. (more…)
By Matt Brunson
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
***
DIRECTED BY Lee Daniels
STARS Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique
“Kitchen sink realism” was the term invented to describe a specific type of artistic movement that took place in England in the 1950s and 1960s, and here comes Precious to borrow that expression for a more modern, decidedly Americanized look at life among the lower classes. Adding to the appropriateness of subletting that term is that fact that a good part of this harrowing drama is set in and around the kitchen, as a frying pan to the head and hairy pigs feet to the arteries both take a toll on the well-being of the story’s heroine, 16-year-old Claireece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe). (more…)
By Matt Brunson
THE BLIND SIDE
**1/2
DIRECTED BY John Lee Hancock
STARS Sandra Bullock, Quentin Aaron
Precious is different in that it allows an African-American character to tell her own story, never ceding the camera to anyone else and remaining the focal point throughout. The Blind Side is more typical of the sort of racially aware films Hollywood foists upon middle America, purportedly focusing on a black protagonist but really serving as an example of the goodness of white folks. The only reason this young black boy exists, it seems to hint, is so that a Caucasian woman can feel good about herself. (more…)
By Matt Brunson
2012
*1/2
DIRECTED BY Roland Emmerich
STARS John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor
The perfect follow-up for those moviegoers who were simply crushed when Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen wrapped up at a too-brief 142 minutes, 2012 contributes another 158 minutes to the cause of wham-bam-thank-you-man cinema. No effect is too preposterous, no sound too deafening, and no cliché too enormous to be left out of the latest end-of-the-world effort from director Roland Emmerich, who there but for the grace of God goes Michael Bay. (more…)
By Matt Brunson
THE BOX
***
DIRECTED BY Richard Kelly
STARS Cameron Diaz, James Marsden
The Box is the latest picture from writer-director Richard Kelly, who with the cult fave Donnie Darko proved that he’s one filmmaker able to think outside the box (ouch). (more…)
By Matt Brunson
A SERIOUS MAN
***1/2
DIRECTED BY Joel & Ethan Coen
STARS Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind
Unpredictability is a constant in the Coen Brothers canon, but after the heavy lifting involved with the Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, it wasn’t too surprising to see them tackle lighter fare with the quirky Burn After Reading. A Serious Man, however, defies all expectations. In many ways, it feels like a minor effort from Joel and Ethan (a sensation massaged by its modest production values and no-name cast), yet its subject matter is nothing less than man’s relationship with God. It’s a comedy through and through, yet it frequently carries the weight of a Biblical tragedy. In short, it’s unclassifiable — and also one of the best movies of the year. (more…)
The Main Library’s fall film series, “The Master of Suspense: Alfred Hitchcock Classics,” continues tonight (Monday, Nov. 9) with a screening of another popular offering from the portly genius. 1951’s Strangers on a Train is certainly one of the director’s most diabolical films, a startling piece in which a tennis player (Farley Granger) meets a peculiar man (Robert Walker) during a fateful train ride and dismisses the stranger’s suggestion that they “exchange” murders. It’s only after the athlete’s loathsome wife turns up dead that he realizes the plan was no joke — and that he’s expected to live up to his end of the bargain by murdering the other man’s domineering father. Walker’s creepy performance ranks among the best found in any Hitchcock film, and several of the set pieces — Walker’s immobile presence among an animated tennis crowd; a murder reflected in the victim’s eyeglasses; the shocking merry-go-round finale — represent the filmmaker in top form.
Strangers on a Train will be screened at 7 p.m. this evening at ImaginOn, 300 E. 7th St. Admission is free. For more info, call 704-416-0252.
By Matt Brunson
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
*1/2
DIRECTED BY Robert Zemeckis
STARS Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman
Officially, the title is Disney’s A Christmas Carol, which is acceptable since it sure as hell isn’t Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. While it might be true that this animated version retains more of the literary classic than might reasonably be expected, it’s also accurate to state that a key ingredient of the novel — namely, its humanist spirit — is largely missing from this chilly interpretation. (more…)
By Matt Brunson
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS
***
DIRECTED BY Grant Heslov
STARS George Clooney, Jeff Bridges
Loopy enough to stand out from the homogenized pack but not bold enough to truly go the distance, this eccentric satire (inspired by Jon Ronson’s nonfiction book of the same name) proves to be a modestly pleasing piffle in which journalist Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor, sincere but straightjacketed by an undemanding role) searches for a great story on the outskirts of the Iraq War and finds one in Lyn Cassady (George Clooney). (more…)
