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How to Survive A Plague This harrowing and inspiring doc follows the highly organized activists that demanded medical and social progress for AIDS sufferers during the height of the epidemic in the ’80s and ’90s — a lesson in complacency, compassion and the power of a dedicated group of people. The Art of Rap Continue reading
At their best, each year’s Oscar-nominated short films are a chance to see something new, or unusual, or unlikely. Short films can take different chances with structure, rely less heavily on traditional narrative or capture a moment rather than laying out a whole tale. But this year’s crop of live action shorts is a bit of a letdown in this regard: They tend toward the traditional, are predictably heart-wrenching or fall a little short in one aspect while succeeding in others. Continue reading
It’s almost easier to talk about what director Michael Haneke (Cache, The White Ribbon) doesn’t do than what he does. He doesn’t hold the audience’s hand; musical cues don’t appear to direct your emotions and stories don’t neatly wind up to logical conclusions. He doesn’t give you a handy backstory or motivation for his characters, but expects you to find it in their interactions and, notably, their homes. In interviews, he avoids questions about themes, preferring to leave interpretation to his audiences. Continue reading
Nearly every brief summary of Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone borders on the absurd, or at least sounds mawkishly sentimental: A young man, mostly unemployed and recently in charge of his five-year-old son, strikes up a relationship with a killer-whale trainer who is terribly injured in a freak accident. It sounds like a story that will veer into sentimental territory early, overflowing with reminders about the fragility and beauty of life. Continue reading
David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook, now heavy under the weight of award-season expectations, is trying to be one (or more) of the following three things: 1. A romantic comedy; 2. A movie about mental illness, and 3. A peculiar send-up of one or both of these options. Continue reading
If you’re hoping for a full, deep understanding of the founding and success of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill W. probably won’t be the film you’d like it to be. A personal, occasionally patchy documentary, Bill W. sticks close to its subject: Bill Wilson, one of the founders of AA. Continue reading
Within a minute of Zero Dark Thirty, I was in tears. Director Kathryn Bigelow doesn’t pull punches, and the film’s dark-screen open is no exception: It leaves the images to your imagination as the audio gives you scared, horrified, frantic voices. I assume these are re-creations of audio from 9/11. If they’re not, I don’t want to know. Continue reading
Léos Carax’s baffling, magical Rorschach blot of a film, Holy Motors, is a magic mirror: It gives you what you want from it. If you think it’s funny, you’ll be amused; if you think it’s serious, you’ll be somber. Continue reading
2013 will be the year of … more comic book-based films, more action flicks and more zombie apocalypse movies, not to mention sequels, more sequels and reboots: Man of Steel (another Superman reboot), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (the second film of the trilogy), Jack Ryan (a second reboot of the Tom Clancy franchise), A Good Day to Die Hard (Bruce Willis’ fifth time as Mr. McClane), World War Z (Brad Pitt fights zombies), Pacific Rim (robots vs. Continue reading
The Hobbit is not a particularly large book. It’s a friendly size, a book that a kid can read happily, without tripping over the endless pages of description — and walking — that fill The Fellowship of the Ring. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is not the same size. The first film in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy pulls from Tolkien’s seemingly endless trove of Middle-Earth lore, filling out An Unexpected Journey until it’s more of a war story than the sprightly adventure on which it’s based. Continue reading