Screen
Reel to Reel | Week of Oct. 8, 2009
BW Movie Trivia! Sponsored by the International Film Series www.internationalfilmseries.com...
‘Bright Star’ pretty, but lacking substance
Certain images in Jane Campion's Bright Star are beautiful, as opposed to merely attractive, and only a major talent could've produced them. My favorite is a sundrenched shot of Abbie Cornish's Fanny Brawne, her head and heart newly opened to the intoxication of love...
‘Couples Retreat’ a waste of talent, unfunny
Director Peter Billingsley had a tough assignment: take four suburban couples and put them through a series of "relationship building" challenges that were thought-provoking, poignant, revealing and funny. In attempting to accomplish this, he makes everyone a crass ...
‘Serious Man’ a new Coen classic
A Serious Man is a tart, brilliantly acted fable of life's little cosmic difficulties, a Coen brothers comedy with a darker philosophical outlook than No Country for Old Men but with a script rich in verbal wit. This time it's God or chance, or fate with a grudge ...
More suspense from ‘Whiteout,’ please
Here's a really cool idea for a film: you're a U.S. Marshal working at a United States research facility in Antarctica, helping keep the peace. Like a campus cop, your primary job is dealing with drunks and minor thefts, but you're hoping that a major crime will ...
Unfashionable life at a fashion magazine in ‘September Issue’
Two years ago may as well be 200 in this economy, a fact that gives the easygoing, entertaining court documentary The September Issue a certain poignancy. It's about the run-up to a late-boom-era capitalistic war, a triumph of advertising and frippery over rational ...
‘Amelia’ plays it safe
"No borders, just horizons," enthuses aviator Amelia Earhart in the new biopic Amelia. "Who wants a life imprisoned in safety...
‘Astro Boy’ seems dated
Lovely dollops of wit and warmth float through the big screen version of Astro Boy, the latest Japanese TV cartoon to make it to the big screen. But the look, themes and slam-bang "Transformers" violence of that 1960s animated series make this every bit as dated as "...
Jonze takes ‘Wild’ risks; succeeds
Truly, I am madly, deeply in love with the film version of Where the Wild Things Are. Not since Robert Altman took on Popeye a generation ago, and lost, has a major director addressed such a well-loved, all-ages title. This time everything works, from tip to tail, ...
A snapshot, somewhat blurry, of ‘New York’
The simplest thing you can say about the movies is that they take you places, geographically, emotionally, hypnotically, and the ongoing “Cities We Love” project that began three years ago with Paris, je t’aime continues its global exploration with New York, I Love ...