Category Archives: movies
Let the goriest one win
When the first knife lands square into a forehead and the initial spumes of arterial rain soak a room you know you’re not watching “The Hunger Games.” Something similar, something totally different, but not the new PG-13 tween flick by … Continue reading
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Being black and white on ‘The Grey’
“The Grey” is a strange movie. It’s a horror flick about man-eating wolves deep in the Alaskan wild, and yet it’s braided with dark musings about death and faith and suicide. It’s a monster movie with a brooding soul. Some … Continue reading
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Zip it, the credits are rolling
They’re the grouchiest of the grouchiest, the shushiest of the shushiest. They’re the moviegoers at MOMA’s film program and they shoosh perceived perpetrators with sibilant hisses that can kill — hard, blizzardy shhhhs that slither a tentacle around your neck … Continue reading
Malcontent at the movies
I’m mumbling and grumbling about the movies. Recently I’ve been buying tickets with a gulp of dread, sharply aware I might not like the film despite year-end critics’ raves. I haven’t been having a good time, see. I’m quick to … Continue reading
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Amid the noise and crash, seeking fun
Why are critics, the bulk of our top-tier movie scribes, giving such an enthusiastic pass to “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol”? I normally wouldn’t care, but I just spent more than two hours (and $13) watching this convulsion of crushing … Continue reading
When a little movie trash is good for you
In my first few months as a film critic, some years ago, I made what so many readers and not a few editors thought was the foolhardy sin of the young neophyte. It was a bold move, even I admit, … Continue reading
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Rohmer’s ray of light
For an aggressively desultory summer movie (see below) that works, BAM has picked Eric Rohmer’s delightful 1986 “Le Rayon vert (Summer),” which breezes along chattily and casually, like the best of Rohmer’s tiny French feasts of love, lust and loss. … Continue reading
Pungently, a noir classic comes to Criterion
What took so long? The Criterion Collection has at last released the acrid newspaper noir “Sweet Smell of Success,” a title that’s been crying out for the Criterion treatment and that’s been on my Criterion wish list for years. It’s … Continue reading
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A quick bow to a couple of screen sex kittens
Betty Boop, that innocent, knock-kneed tart, goes all pink in a clueless coquette’s fluster, not quite aware of the sexuality she emanates like a woozy drug. “Oh, my,” she chirps, finger twisting into a dimple. Her itsy-bitsy skirt scarcely hides … Continue reading
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‘Valentine’ blues
During a pivotal dramatic scene in the almost universally acclaimed romantic downer “Blue Valentine,” my eyes bugged a little and I leaned over and whispered to my companion, “Jesus, this is like bad Cassavetes.” The movie, starring Michelle Williams and … Continue reading
