IRON MAN 3:  Watch It At Home – Offbeat But Uneven Tentpole The last thing on earth that Shane Black, the co-writer (with Drew Pearce) and director of IRON MAN THREE (the way the credits spell it) seems to have wanted to make was an Iron Man movie, and that makes this third–or third […]

> The fundamental problem with LAY THE FAVORITE, Stephen Frears’ new film that premiered last night at Sundance, is that it’s made by people who seem to have little if any interest in gambling. And since this is a movie about the thrill and especially the business of gambling, that means they don’t have any […]

ABRAHAM LINCOLN:  VAMPIRE HUNTER – Not Even For Free – An Unconstitutional Offense Against Moviegoers   Honestly:  how is a movie called ABRAHAM LINCOLN:  VAMPIRE HUNTER not a comedy?  It’s as if Woody Allen had given the title Bananas to his film Interiors–it makes no sense.  And yet, Timur Bekmambetov’s picture, and presumably the source […]

  DIVERGENT:  Watch It At Home – Not Hungry Enough The film of DIVERGENT, even more than Veronica Roth’s YA-franchise source novel, is determined to resemble The Hunger Games as much as any movie can that’s telling a different story with a different set of characters.  (Not an illogical thing to do, considering that the […]

  The prevailing atmosphere in Denis Villenueve’s PRISONERS will be familiar to anyone who’s been watching cable TV drama for the past few years.  Gloom, grief, hopelessness, helpless rage–it’s home turf for shows like The Killing, The Bridge, Low Winter Sun, Broadchurch and their brethren.  (The rural Pennsylvania setting of Prisoners has even borrowed the endless raininess of The Killing‘s Seattle.) […]

  ALEX CROSS – Not At Any Price – A Pilot For A Show You Wouldn’t Watch ALEX CROSS is as generic as a cop movie can be–it’s a few commercial breaks away from airing on CBS or TNT–but there’s been a certain fascination about it since it was announced that the lead role would […]

  MOONRISE KINGDOM:  Worth A Ticket – The Kingdom is Wes Anderson’s     Wes Anderson seemed to find the perfect vehicle for his particular form of brilliance with 2009’s stop-motion animated Fantastic Mr. Fox, a spectacularly designed, witty and surprisingly moving piece of jewel-like aritificiality.  Unfortunately, Mr. Fox wasn’t a success at the boxoffice […]

  PAST LIVES (A24):  The playwright Celine Song makes an impressive feature writing/directing debut with the lovely, eloquent Past Lives.  The film is sort of the opposite of Sliding Doors and all of the multiversal entertainment we’re showered with these days.  Rather than allowing Nora (Greta Lee), Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) and Arthur (John Magaro) […]