— by BEV QUESTAD — Happiness, a big loping dog, runs through Beijing streets chased by his owner, San Bao (Duan Bowen), on his motorbike. An ill-timed stop manned by a traffic cop restricts Bao from following free-running Happiness, so Bao hauls off and decks him. Like a row of dominoes [...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: In the Family
— by BEV QUESTAD — Patrick Wang has a gentle, honest, remarkably charismatic onscreen presence. What’s remarkable is that besides having the lead role, he produced, directed and wrote this tender legal gripper as well. All this surprisingly artsy involvement is from a Massachusetts Ins[...]
Review: Despicable Me 2
— by ADAM DALE — “Despicable Me” was a global success on all counts. Not only did it make more than $540 million at the worldwide box office, but was a tent-pole film that launched the new animation studio Illumination Entertainment onto the map of major contenders in animated films.[...]
Review: Terms and Conditions May Apply
— by BEV QUESTAD — I’m glad we caught the bros who bombed the Boston Marathon so quickly. Surveillance cameras and private cell phones did their job. This act of wanton hurt is justification for an entire camera grid of all streets, malls, schools and government buildings. Yes, it soun[...]
Review: The Way, Way Back
— by ADAM DALE — Movies about adolescents finding themselves have been popular for decades and a source of many classic films, but it begs the question: “Do we need more of them?” That is the question the writing and directing duo Nat Faxon and Jim Rush are hoping audiences will say [...]
Review: Pretty Butterflies
— by RON WILKINSON — Sara Podda and Maya Mulas star in Salvatore Mereu’s new wave Italian neorealist romp in small town Italy. Not unlike small town America, the big dreams of two young girls are hemmed in on all sides by the small mindedness of their provincial environment. Screened a[...]
Review: The Act of Killing
— by RON WILKINSON — Every now and then, a film comes along that defies description. Typically these films are so horrible and so irresistible that the viewer wants to forget he or she never saw the film, but is terrified that may be impossible. When Werner Herzog & Errol Morris tea[...]
Review: Leviathan
— by BEV QUESTAD — Sip some Ginger Ale, the sailor’s stabilizing brew, to get you in the mood to travel on this grueling ship of hardy yeomen. Using photography that defies the wet, windy, turbulent, listing life at sea, this ship experience off the coast of New Bedford, famed 19th cen[...]
Review: Man of Steel
— by ADAM DALE — As is only fitting on his 75th Anniversary, Superman is back on the big screen in Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel.” Being one of the very first, and still most iconic, superheroes of all time, there have been many incarnations of the hero in every form of media, from c[...]
Review: HairBrained
— by RON WILKINSON — Screened at this year’s yeasty Brooklyn Film Festival, emerging director Billy Kent’s new “HairBrained” is a funny, if not hilarious, exploration of the college eccentric theme. Having taken a few years off since his modestly received “The Oh in Ohio,” Ke[...]
Review: Frances Ha
— by RON WILKINSON — Greta Gerwig (“Greenburg”) comes flying out of the screen and into your heart in this surprisingly disarming and genuine coming of age story by Noah Baumbach (co-written by Gerwig). Threatening at first to become just another self-absorbed New York poor girl who [...]
Review: Violet & Daisy
— by RON WILKINSON — Anybody who watched 2009’s astounding “Precious” knows that when screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher digs into the far corners of dysfunctional women’s minds, he comes up with eye-opening realities. In “Violet & Daisy,” he not only writes the screenplay, [...]
Review: The Internship
— by ADAM DALE — The comedic duo from 2005’s “Wedding Crashers” are back together on the big screen, as Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson re-team in director Shawn Levy’s “The Internship.” Two out-of-date watch salesmen Nick (Owen Wilson) and Billy (Vince Vaughn), who are [...]
Review: Yesterday Never Ends
— by RON WILKINSON — Screened at the 39th Seattle International Film Festival, Spanish director Isabel Coixet’s atmospheric dialog of love and loss is, for better or for worse, textbook film school. At 108 minutes, this film will be about 30 minutes too long for the majority of America[...]