I haven’t figured out yet whether Stardust is essentially charming or essentially disposable, although I suppose there’s no reason that it can’t be both. It is after all August, and the line between “good cinema” and “watchable movie” is at its annual ebb. Stardust, I think, is fun, no more; but that’s honestly enough for […]

This far into the summer, I don’t suppose I have to prove that I’m pretty hard to break, but I must say that this one hurt. So: back to 1989, the year in which Jason took Manhattan and shamed Paramount into selling the whole damn Friday the 13th franchise. The year, if you buy my […]

Author’s note, July 2016: The tone is all wrong and I regret the limited chronological focus, but as I prepared to write a new version of this review, I found that I really had nothing to change besides the mode of expression. While it represents the style and thought process of a much younger, and […]

Seriously. I mean, it’s not like anybody is going to mistake The Ten for Kieślowski’s similarly-themed miniseries, but the parallels are more than skin deep: both treat upon the ten commandments in ten short stories that don’t really illustrate their nominal subject all that much, each set of ten takes place in an interconnected universe […]

It probably shouldn’t be a thorny question, but it is: what makes a good adaptation of a book into a movie? Thanks to the Harry Potter film series, that question has been bobbing around quite a bit of late, although I suspect that most of the people debating it wouldn’t think that they are trying […]

The clearest sign of what went wrong: during the end credits of A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, we are treated to a rap titled “Are You Ready for Freddy?” performed by the Fat Boys, with uncredited assistance from Robert Englund in character. It is the stuff of nightmares, if you’ll pardon […]

It strikes me that the documentary Manufactured Landscapes is a film in search of a subject. On paper, this is an exploration of the work and methods of the photographer Edward Burtynsky, whose work focuses on the impact that industry has on the natural world, presented in a non-editorial way. In execution, under the hands […]

How can you possibly be disappointed by a film like No Reservations? It doesn’t lie about what it is, not for a moment. “Alright kids, here’s Catherine Zeta-Jones being statuesque! Here’s Aaron Eckhart being goofy and charming! Here’s Abigail Breslin being so damn cute! And it’s all set in a kitchen!” On the other hand, […]