The allegory is piled on so thickly in Yorgos Lanthimos’ THE LOBSTER that after a while, it’s not clear just what the underlying subject is supposed to be.  Lanthimos is a cult-favorite filmmaker (the cult mostly consists of critics and film festival selection committee members) whose arresting Dogtooth was an unlikely Best Foreign Film […]

  BLENDED:  Not Even For Free – A Bad Sitcom Episode, 4 Times As Long On the Adam Sandler Movie Pain-o-Meter (patent pending), the new BLENDED ranks about midway between the not-so-bad Just Go With It and the soul-crushing horror of That’s My Dad and Jack & Jill.  It’s Sandler wearing his sentimental, romantic hat, […]

> BEING FLYNN:  Watch It At Home – Troubling Story That Doesn’t Go Deep Enough There’s a scene in Paul Weitz’s new film BEING FLYNN where Jonathan Flynn (Robert DeNiro), the alcoholic, narcissistic, pitiful, self-destructive father of Nick (Paul Dano), reads to his son from a publisher’s rejection letter.  Jonathan sees himself as one of […]

  PACIFIC RIM:  Watch It At Home – Even Michael Bay Might Say “Too Much” Why isn’t PACIFIC RIM a better movie?  It’s a passion project for the tremendously talented co-writer (with Travis Beacham) and director Guillermo del Toro, who’s made both the enjoyably junky Hellboy adventures and the transcendent Pan’s Labyrinth.  Del Toro is […]