A SERIOUS MAN

Larry Gopnik, the lead character in the Coen brothers’ bleak new movie, “A Serious Man”, lives the life of Job. His wife, ready to shack up with their recently-widowed neighbor, has demanded a divorce; his tenure request at work (he’s a college physics professor) looks like it might be denied; his deeply depressed, unemployed [...]

THE HURT LOCKER

A bomb lies menacingly in the middle of a dusty Iraqi street. A soldier–a member of an elite squad of Americans who defuse bombs where- and whenever they find them–approaches it slowly, cautiously, decked out in enough protective gear to make Iron Man swoon with envy. Eventually, he reaches the device, takes a gander [...]

IT’S OSCAR TIME!

Ah, spring (well, almost)–when a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love, a sports fan starts dreaming about hot dogs, beer, and baseball, and Hollywood begins buzzing about…the Oscars!
Yes, the Academy Awards are almost upon us again, and this time–in one category at least–there is more to choose from than ever. The powers-that-be [...]

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

Quentin Tarantino could have spelled the title of his latest blockbuster using ancient hieroglyphics, and “Inglourious Basterds” still would have been exactly what it is: a magnificent movie.
Brad Pitt stars at Lt. Aldo Raine, the Southern-fried, smart-alecky leader of a group of heavily-armed, vengeance-seeking Jews who dart from place to place during World War II [...]

PRECIOUS

“Precious” is unrelentingly grim and often hard to watch — but, like a three car pile up on the side of the road, you can’t turn away from it, either.
Kudos to the actors, some of whom are almost unrecognizable. As the lazy, foul-mouthed mother from hell, stand-up comic and talk show host Mo’Nique is wincingly [...]

THE ROAD

Yes, “The Road”–based on the Cormac McCarthy novel–is as grim as advertised. Yes, you might feel the need for a long, hot shower after you’ve seen it.
But it’s also a powerful, heartbreaking, and–ultimately–uplifting film.
Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee play a father and son who, as the movie begins, are in the middle of a [...]

THE BLIND SIDE

We wish we could tell you that we were blindsided by “The Blind Side”, that we went in expecting to see one of those syrupy-sweet, feel-good movies, and ended up seeing something else.
We wish we could…but we can’t. It was, regrettably, as soft around the edges as we thought it would be.
Sandra Bullock stars [...]

UP IN THE AIR

“Up in the Air” is a grown-up movie about grown-up characters, for grown-ups. There isn’t a car chase, explosion, gunfight or bloodbath in the entire film. It’s low- key, literate, and infinitely charming.
And it works.
George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a part-time motivational speaker and full-time professional hatchet man who earns most of his [...]

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG

Disney returns to its old-fashioned roots in the wildly colorful, darkly magical–and, most importantly, hand-drawn–”The Princess and the Frog”, a New Orleans-set fairy tale based on “The Frog Prince” that also happens to be the first Disney feature to star both an African-American heroine and a predominantly African- American cast.
The tale revolves around Tiana, the [...]

FELA!

“Fela!” is a whirlwind of song and dance, a perpetual motion machine in which all the parts are nearly always moving, always gyrating, largely in synch with the Afro-beat rhythms that give the show its pulse.
The star (and he is very much the star; he has nearly all the lines, and participates in practically all [...]

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