Try to think of an occasion on which you’ve seen the celebrated Mr. Walt Disney portrayed in film.
Simply put, you can’t: the Disney corporation has fiercely guarded the image of their founder, almost as fiercely as their iconic mascot.…
Tag: drama
For all its ideas, Zero Theorem is simply an entertaining zero-sum game
Terry Gilliam’s first film since the ill-fated, but enjoyable Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Zero Theorem showcases the former Python animator’s uniquely discordant worldview, as well as confirming Christoph Waltz as a supreme resource for any talented director.
The bald-headed, hunched-over, strangely grotesque Qohen is light years away from the smooth Hans Landa or charming Schultz.…
Does Ayoade replicate the success of Submarine with The Double?
The Double, the second film of Richard Ayoade – whose first, Submarine, accrued a BAFTA nom for Outstanding Debut – might not receive enough mainstream exposure to completely revamp his image as “Moss from The IT Crowd“, but as far as offbeat, art-house adaptations of Dostoyevsky novellas go, it’s a cracker.
…Nebraska: an emotionally resonant father-son road trip
A meditative, black-and-white exploration about growing up, growing old, and accepting life’s defeats.
Middle-of-the-road bachelor David Grant (Will Forte) takes his indolent, cantankerous father, Woody (Bruce Dern), on a road trip to collect on a junk-mail flyer for a million dollars.…
Filth is a raunchy, foul-mouthed bit of soul searching for a maniacal James McAvoy
The medical standard for Irvine Welsh adaptations is undoubtedly still Trainspotting, made back in the midst of the Britpop era (1996).
Since there have been two further attempts to bring his works to the bring screen – The Acid House and the explicitly titled Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy – but, as with Chuck Palahuik and Fight Club, no one’s been able to recapture the magic.
Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine is redolent of Streetcar but never feels like a ripoff
Cate Blanchett goes Blanche Dubois in contemporary San Francisco.
In Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, Blanchett stars as a fragile, nervy Southern Belle. Her performance seems to have been lifted wholesale from her 2008 appearance in Streetcar – and it’s cracking; an assured Oscar nom.…
Jobs is a bit of a jobbie
Less than two years after the Father of the Digital Revolution passed away, we have a shiny new biopic commemorating his life and achievements.
Less of the breakthrough that was the first Macintosh computer, more in-keeping with the most recent iPhone models – the fact of which perhaps suggest Steve Job’s importance to the company – Jobs is a bit… meh.…
Paranoia evokes nothing but boredom
Paranoia is a lavish techno-thriller with no central processor.
Director Robert Luketic, who’s made a career out of forgettable rom-coms, and Barry Levy, the writer behind the Rashomon-derived Vantage Point, cobble together a motion picture out of spare parts.…
Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain might actually be worth the effort of watching…
Before we see anything, before even the whirling stars of the Paramount logo form their triumphant arc above the idealized mountain peak, we hear the agonized grunts and yells of a man indulging in brutal self-abuse.
Then comes the money shot: Mark Wahlberg doing full-body sit-ups from a leg rest halfway up a twenty-foot billboard of an Atlas-like figure pumping iron.…
Renoir is a sumptuous, sun-drenched picture that harnesses the beauty and power of its subject’s work
With its overwhelming presence in our everyday lives, it’s easy to forget that film – in fact, media in general – is a medium still in its infancy.
It’s been less than 120 years since the first motion picture was displayed before an audience.…