– by JOEL CRARY – A nurse named Jude (Karen LeBlanc) watches a young man die on an operating table. He has suffered a bullet wound to the chest. There is a look of fear in his eyes as blood from the wound runs between Jude’s fingers and then, nothing. It is as though a personification...
Author Archive
Under Review: ‘Un Prophète’
– by JOEL CRARY – There’s a certain sense of justice that accompanies seeing the impotence of macho bravado behind bars that the gangster picture doesn’t offer. The character of César Luciani (Niels Arestrup), a figurehead of the Corsican National Front ...
Under Review: ‘La Donation’
– by JOEL CRARY – In her review of “La Donation,” Liz Braun over at canoe.ca claims that the film is “very much about geography, so it leaves you feeling super-Canadian.” I get a kick out of the term “super-Canadian.” I picture groups of people flocking to theatres, taking in...
Under Review: ‘Shutter Island’
– by JOEL CRARY – There have been a number of films of late dealing with the effect of war on the psychologies of those who experience it, plots built around the chaos that manifests in post-war American mentalities, presenting us with protagonists who are altered in some way. So ...
Under Review: ‘The Wolfman’
– by JOEL CRARY – I’ll say this for Joe Johnston’s “The Wolfman”: It spares us the hyperbole and gets down to brass tacks. There are no needless scenes of exposition informing us that a lycanthrope can only be assassinated by the use of silver bullets, that the full moon brings ...
February 5th, 2010 - 11:07 am § in Reviews
Under Review: ‘From Paris with Love’
– by JOEL CRARY – My girlfriend and I had a discussion about white heteronormativity after seeing “From Paris with Love.” She raised a valid point about the tendency of mainstream American films to promote white heteronormative values and turn heteronormative fears into ...
February 1st, 2010 - 5:26 pm § in Reviews
Under Review: ‘Red Cliff’
– by JOEL CRARY – John Woo’s “Red Cliff,” the first project of the now permanently Hollywood-ized director to be set in China and written exclusively in Mandarin in 16 years, clearly reveres Sun Tzu’s ancient “Art of War” treatise in the way it portrays war as a universal ...
January 25th, 2010 - 4:09 pm § in Reviews
Under Review: ‘The Yes Men Fix the World’
– by JOEL CRARY – What I like about the Yes Men is that they are self-professed failures. One scene of “The Yes Men Fix the World” shows masters of deception Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno sitting in front of a television set, watching the effects of the free market on the poor of ...
January 15th, 2010 - 6:12 pm § in Opinions
I Want to Be Alone
– by JOEL CRARY – Greta Garbo turned 36 the year her final film, “Two-Faced Woman,” was produced in 1941. Apart from some screen tests shot later that decade, the actress never again set foot in front of a camera and voluntarily faded out of the public eye. In 1953, she purchased a ...
January 10th, 2010 - 8:53 pm § in Reviews
Under Review: ‘Leap Year’
– by JOEL CRARY – Last year, my girlfriend and I stopped by Dublin on a trip across Western Europe. In addition to the inevitable carousing that took place in the city, we took the opportunity to visit Wicklow Mountains National Park, an area of sprawling, largely uninhabited green hills...
December 27th, 2009 - 1:13 pm § in Reviews
Under Review: ‘It’s Complicated’
– by JOEL CRARY – Meryl Streep’s Golden Globe nomination for “It’s Complicated” may prove that the actor could draw awards for any role, no matter how pedestrian — compared with her other nominated work in films such as “Doubt” and ...
December 25th, 2009 - 12:00 am § in Opinions
Revisiting ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’
– by JOEL CRARY – “It’s a Wonderful Life” is the story of a man who feels his life being pulled away from him, year by year, as he struggles to keep a destiny within his sights. George Bailey, as played by cinema great James Stewart, is an institutive American character perhaps unr...
December 20th, 2009 - 7:59 pm § in Reviews
Under Review: ‘The Young Victoria’
– by JOEL CRARY – Teenagers crave the freedom to make their own decisions and live their own lives away from their guardians, who couldn’t possibly know better. In Princess Victoria’s case, she knew better. She saw that she was in a position to be taken advantage of ...
December 14th, 2009 - 2:44 pm § in Reviews
Under Review: ‘It Might Get Loud’
– by JOEL CRARY – “It Might Get Loud” is the best superhero movie since “The Dark Knight.” It’s like a crossover issue that provides all but the expected big battle for supremacy. Jack White ponders what will happen when he gets together with guitarist icons...
