One of Woody Allen’s most interesting cinematic experiments is Zelig (1983). The year before This is Spinal Tap made “mockumentary” a buzzword term, Allen had fun with the concept of a nondescript man (played by Allen) so unhappy with his […]
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A Small Circle of Friends (1980) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
I first saw A Small Circle of Friends (1980) while I was in college, and as it is about a trio of friends whose lives change dramatically when they attend college, the film really resonates with me. Although critics disparage […]
Continue reading »Black Sunday (1977) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Before author Thomas Harris imagined his signature character Hannibal Lecter, he wrote a novel about an act of terrorism occurring at the one of the biggest spectacles in America, the Super Bowl. The resulting movie of the same name is […]
Continue reading »Battleship (2012) ☆ ☆
I’ll admit that I’ve not been a fan of bringing board games to cinematic life, but I was actually looking forward to seeing how Hasbro’s game “Battleship” would morph into an alien invasion movie. Sadly, the board game is still […]
Continue reading »The Lucky One (2012) ☆ ☆ 1/2
It isn’t easy to make a realistic movie about relationships that ventures from the battlefields of Iraq to the bayou country of Louisiana, tells a romantic story with powerful sexual tension and yet is only rated PG-13. The Lucky One suffers […]
Continue reading »Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Not to be confused with the classic British television series, or the abominable American movie re-imagining of the classic British television series, Marvel’s The Avengers is intended to be the greatest superhero movie of all, chiefly because it brings together no less […]
Continue reading »Monsieur Lazhar (2011) ✰ ✰ ✰
This perceptive, engaging French Canadian film explores the ways in which a school tragedy affects its students and teachers (but not, interestingly, the parents). After a popular teacher hangs herself in an empty classroom, a small Montreal public school is […]
Continue reading »The Raven (2012) ✰ ✰
The premise for The Raven — that a madman utilizes the works of Edgar Allan Poe as inspiration to unleash a wave of murder in Baltimore, ultimately pulling Poe himself into the investigation — is clever and intriguing, especially for Poeists. […]
Continue reading »The Descendants (2011) ✰ ✰ ½
A wealthy Hawaiian lawyer, Matt King (George Clooney), is about to sell his family’s huge tract of untouched land when his wife suffers a marine accident and ends up in a coma. While he struggles to manage his daughters (Shailene […]
Continue reading »The Lookout (2007) ✰ ✰ ½
A high school student driving at night (Joseph Gordon Levitt) gets into a serious accident that kills two of his friends, maims his girlfriend, and leaves him with a serious traumatic brain injury. A few years later, we find that […]
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