Fluxing Philosophic

Friday, February 09, 2007

Norbit: The Fat Lady Just Keeps Singing

"Not only is Norbit a vile, unfunny, and all-around-awful movie, it effectively impugns many of Murphy’s substantial comedic achievements over the past twenty years."

Click here to read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Friday, February 02, 2007

Because I Said So: Dismal Weening

"From the opening scene, the plotting is of the sitcom variety and anyone who can blithely make it through these torturous first twenty minutes of contrivance should really start demanding more from their movie-going experiences."

Click here to read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Friday, January 26, 2007

Seraphim Falls: The Good or the Bad?

"These performances, combined with the ambiguity of their characters’ intentions, hint at something really special but the film isn’t quite able to perform as a whole."

Click here to read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

I also had the opportunity to participate in a roundtable interview with the lead actors earlier this week.

Click here to read my interview with Pierce Brosnan

Click here to read my interview with Liam Neeson

Catch and Release: Dead in the Water

"There’s a lot of room for quaint pleasantries andhonest, human drama but things evidently became very artificial en route to the big screen. "

Click here to read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Extras: Squirming Riotously

"While Extras is probably more Curb Your Enthusiasm than The Office in its commingling of improvisation and celebrity self-sacrifice, it still operates in the same realms of foot-in-mouth comedy perfected in The Office."

Click here to read my entire DVD Review at the TheCinemaSource.com

Monday, January 22, 2007

Fantasy Oscar Ballot

On the eve of the announcement of the official Oscar Nominations, I figured I'd take a page out of my good friend/fellow critic John Young's book and post a list of names I would vote for in the top eight categories.

Best Picture
Half Nelson
The Departed
The Queen
Little Children
Children of Men

Best Actor
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Aaron Eckhart, Thank You For Smoking
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Daniel Craig, Casino Royale
Greg Kinnear, Little Miss Sunshine

Best Actress
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Kate Winslet, Little Children
Gretchen Mol, The Notorious Bettie Page
Meryl Streep, Devil Wears Prada

Best Supporting Actor
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Brad Pitt, Babel
Michael Sheen, The Queen
Bill Nighy, Notes on a Scandal
Clive Owen, Inside Man

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Diane Lane, Hollywoodland
Emily Watson, The Proposition
Toni Collete, The Night Listener

Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron, Children of Men
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson
Todd Field, Little Children
Steven Frears, The Queen

Best Original Screenplay
Russell Gewirtz, Inside Man
Peter Morgan, The Queen
Rian Johnson, Brick
Guillermo Del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth
Ryan Fleck & Anna Bowden, Half Nelson

Best Adapted Screenplay
Todd Field & Tom Perrotta, Little Children
William Monohan, The Departed
Andrew Birkin, Bernd Eichinger & Tom Tykwer, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Frank Cottel Bryce, Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story
Armistead Maupin, The Night Listener

As for predictions, the only risky pick I'll make is that DiCaprio gets snubbed for both performances and both Gosling and Cohen make it into the finalists. Very unlikely, yes, but what the heck.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Alone with Her: A Stalk to Remember

"It’s certainly an experiment of sorts and for what it is, it’s rather interesting, although it will probably play best on the small screen."

Click here to read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Top 10 of 2006

1. Half Nelson

2.The Departed

3. The Queen

4. Little Children

5. Brick

6. Children of Men

7. Cars

8. Tsotsi

9. Casino Royale

10. Inside Man

Read my List with Commentary at TheCinemaSource.com

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Idiocracy: Confederacy of Dunces

"While the film lampoons and indicts the audience that revels at the crotch-bruising and dimwitted dialogue, it also distances the (intended) audience that abhors these recent trends by subjecting them to so much of it, even if it is with ironic intent."

Click Here to Read my Entire Review at TheCinemaSource.com

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

The Dead Girl: Morbid Malaise

"The biggest problem with The Dead Girl is that it doesn’t offer anything rewarding for the viewer other than the novelty of each individual story."

Click here to read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Thursday, December 21, 2006

We Are Marshall: Mob Mentality at its Finest

"Audiences may be skeptical about the need for yet another football movie this year but We Are Marshall nonetheless offers an entertaining piece of uplifting football jingoism. "

Click here to read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Rocky Balboa: One Night with the Champ

"... getting to see Rocky train one last time is probably the three most invigorating moments from any film released this year."

Click here to read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Venus: Eros & Death

"...Venus is a romantic comedy - of sorts - and every frame of the film relies upon O’Toole’s performance, even the ones he’s absent from physically. "

Click here to read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

The Painted Veil: Unmasked Prestige

"In a time when so many movies rely on fractured editing and narrative incomprehensibility, it’s wonderfully refreshing to see a film with such a straightforward and reverent approach to filmmaking."

Click here to read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Monday, December 18, 2006

Charlotte's Web: Spinning its Legs

"On the whole, there isn’t anything that parents will find offensive and young children will definitely be entertained by the plights of Wilbur and his furry friends but experienced viewers will quickly realize that Charlotte’s literal web weaving is far more enthralling than the film’s figurative web weaving."

Read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Friday, December 08, 2006

Apocalypto: Tribal Lunacy

"Apocalypto is old-fashioned storytelling at its most basic level. Moreover, it’s a largely successful piece of filmmaking..."

Read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Friday, December 01, 2006

The Nativity Story: Preaching to the Choir

"...Other than some of the beautiful vistas, there isn’t anything in this big screen production that you can’t already see on the History Channel or your standard Visual Bible video series..."

Read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

The Devil Wears Prada: Bitch Work

"The film, based on a best-selling novel by Lauren Weisberger, is cheery and fluffy and goes down as smoothly as the Starbucks confections guzzled by the high-powered, fashion industry impresarios depicted in the film. "

Read my entire DVD review at TheCinemaSource.com

Monday, November 20, 2006

The Fountain: Evanescent Immortality

"The Fountain begins as cinematic poetry, gets waylaid with maudlin melodrama and concludes somewhere in between metaphysics and spirituality. "

Read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Casino Royale: Nobody Does it Better

In the immortal words of Carly Simon in the title track from The Spy who Loved Me, “Nobody does it better.” Quite lofty praise for Mr. Bond indeed. Is it deserved? Well, almost. Is it the best action/adventure movie of the year? Of course not, The Departed is. But that blend of popcorn entertainment, auteur cinema and quality storytelling is an anomaly. In any other year, Casino Royale would likely be the best popcorn action extravaganza. The climactic chase along the Venetian canals easily trumps the half-speed histrionics of Mission: Impossible III and the Bahaman locations that are nearly identical to former Bond Pierce Brosnan’s campy After the Sunset are nonetheless much more captivating and picturesque.

The debut of a new lead actor as the immortal James Bond character is a watershed moment for cinema and it doesn’t matter how many TV spots or production stills you’ve seen, it’s an undeniable thrill to see Daniel Craig pose for the trademark down-the-gun-barrel shot. Craig adopts a new approach to Bond and the filmmakers have complete faith in him. In the final frame of the opening credit sequence, Craig stands front and center and the camera lingers. Yes, he’s blond. Yes, he has blue eyes. No, he’s not conventionally handsome.

I’ve never been very good at comparing Bonds in terms of who’s “the best.” But I can say definitively, Craig is the most intimidating Bond to date. He follows through with what Timothy Dalton tried to achieve but ultimately couldn’t properly supply: a darker Bond with less quips and more introspectiveness. He also exhibits signs of misanthropy and masochism on top of it. For the first time in the series, we sense that if Bond wasn’t a OO-agent, he’d be a terrorist. (The blurred line between cop and criminal being a constant motif in 2006 cinema: from the aforementioned The Departed to the lackluster Miami Vice.)

Another likely first for the series is that Bond shows more skin than the Bond girls. Gender theorists will have a field day with Casino Royale. The lynchpin is the harrowing torture sequence in which a nude Bond is strapped to a chair and has his private parts mercilessly assaulted by the villain. After which, when Bond has been metaphorically neutered, he’s suddenly able to tell the female interest that he loves her. Wacky gender theories aside, the torture scene is pretty brutal, especially for a PG-13 movie. It’s an unforgettable scene and one of the crucial scenes in establishing the film as a unique entry to the series. It’s a scene that will leave audiences shaken, not stirred.

Friday, November 17, 2006

The History Boys: Artificial Intelligence

"...After garnering heaps of critical praise on Broadway and proudly becoming the recipients of “the most Tonys in 50 years” - as the trailer proudly boasts - the entire original cast reunites on screen for what feels more like a reward than a significant contribution to the cinematic medium... "

Read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Flannel Pajamas: A Chamber Drama of Dirty Laundry

"There’s a lot of flab hanging around the edges of this film and while it’s true, virtually every scene has at least one line of insightful dialogue, they aren’t enough to keep the film from dragging its heels on the way toward its inevitable conclusion."

Read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Stranger Than Fiction: The Pen is Mightier

"...And yet, all this derision is not to say that Stranger Than Fiction is a bad movie. It’s an enjoyable and entertaining film, albeit a slight and passively pleasing one."

Read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Monday, October 30, 2006

Scrubs Season Four: Still Loopy After All These Years

"... even during its slumps, Scrubs is still one of the more charming and earnest shows on television and it’s hard to fault a show this genuine and eager to please."

Read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Friday, October 27, 2006

Babel: Heavy Duty Trauma

"It’s not the movie stars (Pitt, Blanchett, Bernal) who demand the most attention in these continent-spanning stories. Rather it’s the fearless performance by Kikuchi and the heart-wrenching sympathy evoked by Barraza that are the most memorable and emotionally devastating."

Read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com

Friday, October 13, 2006

Man of the Year: Save Your Vote

"...A political comedy of this nature works best as either an all-out farce or a sobering allegory, not the limp shape of a film that Man of the Year adopts. The film works only as campaign material for Williams’ candidacy as a successful talk show host."

Read my entire review at TheCinemaSource.com