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movie reviews

At Any Price

5

Zac Efron, Dennis Quaid

Directed by: Ramin Bahrani

Welcome to hard times. And the world of Ramin Bahrani, a director (Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, Goodbye Solo) with a penchant for morality tales that tend to burden characters with more than they can carry. Not to mention audiences. Say this for Bahrani – born in North Carolina to Iranian parents – he's a filmmaker with a conscience. Where do you find that in Hollywood, where toys for boys and a snide Michael Bay-like cynicism rule the box office? At Any Price puts Bahrani knee... | More »

April 18, 2013
April 10, 2013

Disconnect

6

Jason Bateman, Alexander Skarsgard, Paula Patton

Directed by: Henry-Alex Rubin

I've read a lot about Disconnect being a rant against the Evil Empire of Digital that instead of bringing us together really does the opposite. What a bore that movie would be. Not to mention so last century. But here's the thing: Disconnect is not that movie. It's 2013: A Cyperspace Odyssey, a techno-thriller driven by genuine feeling. First-time feature director Henry Alex Rubin, working from a script by Andrew Stern, sees social media as a fact of life, like sex, drugs and ... | More »

To the Wonder

4

Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Olga Kurylenko

Directed by: Terrence Malick

Film genius to miss the mark. Case in point: Terrence Malick's To the Wonder, a beautifully empty exercise that – so glacial is the pace – makes Malick's Tree of Life look like G.I. Joe: Retaliation. As ever, you can't accuse Malick of being plot-heavy. We spot lovers Neil (Ben Affleck) and Marina (Olga Kurylenko) walking the Normandy beach near the monastery of Mont St. Michel. "Love makes us one," she says. Not exactly. When Neil and Marina, a Ukrainian divorcee ... | More »

April 4, 2013

The Company You Keep

6

Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Julie Christie

Directed by: Robert Redford

Right-wingers have their panties in a bunch misreading Robert Redford's The Company You Keep as a celebration of the Weather Underground, who were 1960s radicals committed to the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. It's the corruption of Sixties idealism that sparks the interest of Redford as actor and director. In adapting Neil Gordon's novel, screenwriter Lem Dobbs tells us about extremists who went into hiding. When a present-day New York housewife, Sharon Solarz (Susa... | More »

March 28, 2013

The Host

3

Saoirse Ronan, William Hurt, Diane Kruger

Directed by: Andrew Niccol

A human girl, possessed by something alien and undead, must choose between two cute boys. WTF! Is this another Twilight? Nope. But The Host is born from the mother of all things Twilight, Stephenie Meyer, which is the next best – or worst – thing, depending on your point of view. Meyer's 2008 bestseller has its moments; the movie has fewer, owing to director Andrew Niccol's bizarre decision to drag things out. Ever. So. Slowly. The MVP is 18-year-old Irish miracle worke... | More »

Room 237

7

Directed by: Rodney Ascher

Repeat looks at a favorite film are no big whoop. But the five fans of The Shining in Rodney Ascher's mesmerizing Room 237 are obsessed to near psychosis with Stanley Kubrick's 1980 thriller. ABC journalist Bill Blakemore, college professor Geoffrey Cocks, playwright Juli Kearns, author Jay Weidner and musician John Fell Ryan are heard but unseen. The visuals are all from the film, based on Stephen King's novel, with Jack Nicholson as a caretaker haunted by the Overlook Hotel, ... | More »

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