Sometimes, I suppose, some people just need to watch a nice movie where nice people end up in nice places, despite not nice situations. Hollywood knows this, and they know it well. They crank out these nice movies like a long, processed line of uninterrupted sausage, knowing it’ll find some sort of audience. It doesn’t […]
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“Our battles quickly got more elaborate. He would win some, I would almost win others! He took the name Metro Man, defender of Metro City. I decided to pick something a little more humble – Megamind, incredibly handsome criminal genius and master of all villainy!” What makes a hero? DreamWorks latest animated feature Megamind, scripted […]
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Disney gets a lot of grief for these feel-good sports movies that tend to up the schmaltz and oversimplify the story. Say what you want about them, they usually have a helluva lot of heart and are (at least a little) smarter than their critics give them credit for. I’ll freely admit to liking my […]
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If you’ve ever thought what was really missing from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was a teen’s perspective then It’s Kind of a Funny Story might be what you’re looking for. Although not in the same class with Cuckoo’s Nest, this film adapted from Ned Vizzini’s novel of the same name by writers/directors Anna […]
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This film was screened at Fantastic Fest 2010 and ended up on my Top 10 best of the festival list—more #FF2010 coverage here. After 12 years in prison, life doesn’t seem so bad for the physically imposing yet seemingly docile Ulrik (Stellan Skarsgard). His longtime friend and former crime boss Rune (Bjørn Floberg) has set […]
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The word “bunraku” refers to form of Japanese puppet theater where the puppeteers, usually dressed in black, are visible on stage. “Bunraku” the film combines elements of classic samurai and cowboy films and sets it in a gunless future that feels more like an alternate past. The aesthetic feels both unique and familiar. While it […]
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The slasher film ruled the horror genre from the release of “Halloween” in 1978 until Jason was sent to Hell in 1993. It had a brief resurgence, though, with the self-aware “Scream” trilogy and the films that followed in its wake. But true 80s-style horror has been the exception, rather than the rule. Enter writer/director […]
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Fantastic Fest 2010 has started and George Hickman is covering it for Scene-Stealers. His reviews of all the movies he can cram into one week will be published here until the genre-oriented film festival is over and his bloody fingers can type no more. Fantastic Fest Day One – 14 Blades, Let Me In is […]
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Where the spooky Swedish film “Let the Right One In” was set (like John Ajvide Lindqvist‘s novel) in an economically depressed apartment complex in early-80s Stockholm, the American remake “Let Me In” paints a similarly bleak picture, taking place in dreary suburban Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1983. Writer/director Matt Reeves (“Cloverfield”) goes further with […]
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One of the reasons that “Catfish” succeeds so well as a “reality thriller” is that it abandons the typical documentary style for a first-person as-it-happens feel that’s actually closer to a fictional film.
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With the release of “I’m Still Here,” the mockumentary has officially come full circle. Actors have already played roles in documentary-style comedies (“This is Spinal Tap,” “Best in Show”), they’ve combined that format with real-life pranks (“Borat,” “Bruno”), and they’ve played fictional versions of themselves for laughs (“Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Extras”). This time the performance […]
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I must confess that when I first saw the trailer for “Easy A,” the literature nerd in me was thrilled. A teen comedy that takes on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter”? So down. I didn’t expect much of the movie—by which I mean I went in with no expectations of greatness—and while I don’t think […]
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Make no mistake: Just because Robert Rodriguez’s “Machete” revolves around timely issues like anti-immigrant xenophobia and Hispanic stereotyping doesn’t mean he gives them the respect and critical treatment they deserve. Instead, he does what any low-budget genre filmmaker worth his salt-covered wound did in the 1970s: He exploits the hell out them. “Machete” is the […]
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What makes “The American” work as a thriller is not what it shows, but what it leaves out. There are no flashbacks and there is very little talk about the past. In fact, the first time we meet George Clooney’s character, we have no context at all. He’s at a cabin in the woods in […]
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