Film

THE SAD LEGACY OF AN HISTORICAL MOMENT Making the Boys, the vigorous and absorbing new documentary, ostensibly about Mart Crowley and his ground-breaking The Boys in the Band, is, in truth, at least three (and possibly four) documentaries rolled into one, and put together with a sure and steady hand by the highly gifted and…

MY,GRANDMA, WHAT MISSED OPPORTUNITIES YOU HAVE Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the first Twilight movie, has a gift for conveying horny teenage moodiness, in particular as it applies to females. I’m not sure anyone grows up thinking that will be his or her gift. Nevertheless, there it is, and her take on the Red Riding…

UNFUNNY AND UNFUNNIER During their heyday in the nineties, culminating with There’s Something About Mary, the Farrelly brothers had the power to shock you into submission. It wasn’t just that the films made you laugh. They made you laugh involuntarily. They made you laugh against your will. Â  Which is the best sort of laughter. They…

2010 has been a year in which the indies, arties, foreign and prestige films overpromised and underdelivered, while the best genre and mainstream films delivered and then some. Hooray for Hollywood! . . . 10. The Social Network David Fincher’s Â  Facebook origin story is like the NFL team that wins the Super Bowl with the…

. . . . . THE ESSENTIALS: ANOTHER YEAR (Mike Leigh) . . . . . . . . WHITE MATERIAL (Claire Denis) . . . . . . . . CARLOS (Olivier Assayas) . . . . . . . . INSIDE JOB (Charles Ferguson) . . . . . . . . THE…

Stage and Cinema continues its traditional mid-February publication of   our Best(-and-then-some) Lists of the past year’s movies. Here is my list.   As always, I prefer to include every film I’ve seen, so if I name something as the worst of the year, you can check the list and say, “Oh, but he didn’t see Burlesque…

A SIGNPOST FOR THE DIRECTION OF SUPERHERO MOVIES When small children lay their head on the pillow each night, do they dream of running into a phone booth to change into Seth Rogen? A more popular figure in raunchy comedies than little boys’ daydreams, Rogen is one of the least likely Hollywood stars to play…

GIRL MEETS MEN She arrived in Fort Smith with two long braids, her father dead in the street, bent on revenge and calling it justice. All of 14 years, she carried the aura of a professional. She would quote the law. She would spook old men. She would hire the marshal least likely to take…

SOMETHING TO FIGHT ABOUT I once referred to Christian Bale as The Actor Most Likely To Tick Off His Wife By Staying In Character Over Dinner. Shortly thereafter, to my amusement, I read an article in which Bale admitted this was true, that his method actor’s commitment sometimes got on his wife’s nerves. With that…

FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE MOVIES THAT TAKE PLACE IN VENICE ONLY I suppose it’s at least a small accomplishment that The Tourist ends in the exact place that it’s been going all along — with its too mega-stars, Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie, in white tux and evening gown, dashing and bejeweled on a sailboat…

NOT YOUR MOTHER’S HONEYMOON Picture one of those seaside cafes on The Riviera from the idyllic literature of pre-depression jazz age. Â  Everyone’s well mannered; clothes are pastel; sailboats bob in the sun; the air seems rarified. Young writer David Bourne Â  has just married rich, spoiled, pretty, poisonous Catherine. They’re footloose on an extended honeymoon. “I’m…

WHAT I DID FOR BALLET The Criterion version of the classic 1953 musical The Band Wagon includes a brilliant lost dance number by Cyd Charisse called “Two-Faced Woman.” Â  The lanky Texan with the French married name performs a delirious routine in a sleek black outfit. For all the Technicolor appeal, the outtakes reveal something you…

RAPUNZEL – THE INTERNET-RESEARCHED VERSION Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair / Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen ’¦. As a friend of mine noted, we are entering an age of collective amnesia. We no longer have to remember anything anymore. There are no long debates over beers about factual details. If there’s…

SUBMIT TO THE THRILL RIDE I loved Unstoppable. I loved every improbable, electric minute of Tony Scott’s runaway train movie. Â  I loved its ludicrous start. I loved its “Why didn’t they do that in the first place? Because then we wouldn’t have a movie†ending. Most of all, I love the fact that it’s red…

LIKEABLE FOR ALL THE WRONG REASONS What’s wrong with being happy? Contrary to the evidence presented in adult-focused movies, you might never know there are happy people out there. Â  It’s true. I’ve ignored them at parties. But I never see them onscreen. In Morning Glory, Rachel McAdams plays a lemons-to-lemonade go-getter named Becky Fuller, with…

FOR LOVERS OF ROAD TRIP MOVIES Lately in movies there has been an epidemic of obvious music choices. For example, the Beatles’ “Baby You’re a Rich Man†ends The Social Network. In Due Date, a Motown song about getting back to my baby opens the film as expectant father Robert Downey Jr. prepares for a…

IT’S 2010.   DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR MONEY WENT? As I write this review, the Federal Reserve is embarking on a near trillion-dollar program that it hopes will stimulate the economy. Quantitative Easing amounts to Helicopter Ben Bernanke printing money in order to horse-whip capital off the sidelines and into circulation. You might think this…

MAN VS. ENVIRONMENT In movies, nothing good ever happens on a mountain. Unless you’re Julie Andrews, and good things happen to you everywhere. There’s Kevin MacDonald’s documentary Touching the Void, about a mountain-climbing expedition shot to hell. And what was that mountain disaster movie that at first advertised its cannibalism but later changed to a…

A PRETTY GOOD FILM JUST OPENED. HELLO?   IS ANYONE LISTENING? Why are so few people talking about Conviction? Is it boring to talk about Hilary Swank being very strong in a quintessentially awards-style role? Over-awarded or not, it shouldn’t stop talk of how real and involving she is as Betty Anne Waters, a Massachusetts waitress…