Oh, how it is tempting to make a dreadful pun like “The Wackness is totally wack”, but just because a filmmaker invites mean jokes with a poorly thought-out title, doesn’t mean the reviewer is obligated to take advantage. Still, it is totally wack. At least, it’s marred by an inconsistent tone and a plot that […]

Smart People isn’t really a good movie, and nothing I can say can change that fact. This is particularly galling, because I actually liked Smart People, and liking movies that I can tell aren’t very good always leaves me feeling like I’m easy to manipulate. My lack of critical strength notwithstanding, it’s a film that […]

I made a huge mistake in judging the chipper little indie comedy Rocket Science from its marketing campaign. See, based on that, I assumed it desperately wanted to be Little Miss Sunshine, and while I’m sure the distributor would love if that turned out to be the case, that simplification is a gross disservice to […]

I know literally two facts about the late filmmaker Theo van Gogh: he is directly descended from that Theo van Gogh, Vincent’s brother; and he was knifed to death by a religious extremist for saying saucy things about Muslims. Thanks to the fanboyish glee of writer/director Steve Buscemi (yeah, you read that right), I have […]

Okay, I’ll admit: I didn’t do my due diligence for this review and watch Napoleon Dynamite, a film that I have not seen and doubt very strongly that I would enjoy even a little bit. Particularly because nearly everyone is claiming that the sour New Zealand indie Eagle vs Shark is very much like Napoleon […]

The attentive reader has doubtlessly realised by now that I have very little interest in film as a storytelling medium. Which is not at all the same thing as being anti-narrative (although I do not accord narrative much pride of place), and it’s not to say that I don’t think a film’s plot is an […]

Director Terry Zwigoff knows how to do artists; we know this from Crumb. And he knows how to do Daniel Clowes adaptations; we know this from Ghost World. So I’m at a loss to explain how Art School Confidential, which by every possible indication ought to have been a slam-dunk, ended up being so empty-headed. […]

Proof yet again that nothing good comes out of Sundance anymore: David Slade’s monumentally unpleasant Hard Candy. I saw the poster first in January. “Holy shit!” I thought, “that’s one hell of an image! I have no idea what the film is about, but the Little Red Riding Hood imagery? Brilliant!” Well, the little red […]