29 April 2011

At the movies: Fast Five.


More cars go boom, this time in Brazil. There's a lot to enjoy in this film, namely a mid-credits reversal of something that's been bothering me for two years, some heightened caperings, that muscle bear from the first one who pops up again, and using a corrupt businessman's propensity for grabbing ass to unlock his secrets. At least they didn't call it The Fa5t and The Furiou5. I bet somebody wanted to, though.

At the movies: Potiche.

A mental margarita of a movie that nonetheless promises more fun than it delivers. Deneuve is still an icon, and having a blast. But a note to U.S. distributors- if you use Boney M in a trailer, there better be some Boney M in the actual film. Baccara is always a pleasant surprise, but Baccara is no Boney M.

16 April 2011

At the movies: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

So, I was pretty bowled over by finding my review of Uncle Boonmee... in The Tennessean today (I also heard from some folks about it, which was kind of nice). As is their prerogative, they made some editing choices, which is fine, because I knew my pure uncut dope review would run at No Concessions, my webspace on the Metromix page. You can check them both out, if you'd like, though I prefer the Metromix version myself.

13 April 2011

At the movies: Super.

The latest film from James Gunn. You might remember him as the sick individual who wrote Tromeo and Juliet. He brings it.

08 April 2011

At the movies: Hanna.

So I'm totally digging on the new Joe Wright film. You could take this exact script and make it as a big dumb exploding action blockbuster, and instead, he takes it and makes it work the arthouse runway like a classic art thriller. Love it.

05 April 2011

At the movies: Poetry.


One of the stunners from this past year's New York Film Festival. This movie has just about everything. Crime, intrigue, knowledge, beauty, disease, pleasure, torment, and the cruelty of the body. Until David Cronenberg makes a movie about Alzheimer's, this is one of the best ever on the subject.

At the movies: Of Gods and Men.

A great teaching tool for religious tolerance, as well as a sad companion to Roland Joffe's 1986 masterpiece The Mission. That film, if you didn't know, had me wanting to be a Jesuit for a while. This one didn't have as much of an impact, but I see it as a useful film, and one that I look forward to wrangling folk in to see.