John J. Bennett

Reviews THE IDES OF MARCH. I wish there was more to be said about The Ides of March. I’ve enjoyed George Clooney’s work as a director since Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), but I don’t think any of his subsequent films achieved the resonance of his debut. It could be argued that Confessions benefited more […]

REVIEWS 50/50. Usually, atypical urban settings in movies kind of bug me, coming across either like pandering or kitsch. But in 50/50 — set in Seattle, filmed in British Columbia — the oppressiveness of the perennially gray Pacific Northwest adds to the mood. Combined with excellent performances from a smart, understated script and a concise, […]

REVIEWS DRIVE. Director Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest is a masterpiece of crime-grime moviemaking, offering a pointed reminder of how good (and relatively inexpensive) movies can be. Refn’s ultra-keen eye for composition and subtlety of movement combine with a churning retro-synth soundtrack, impeccable production design and dead-right crazy performances, making for one of the year’s most […]

REVIEWS THE DEBT. The Debt, a remake of a 2007 Israeli film that I am not familiar with, is a tautly directed, effective spy thriller. As with the best spy stories, John Le Carré comes to mind, but this film is much more than gripping cloak-and-dagger. Its core narrative concerns the nature of truth and […]

Reviews ANOTHER EARTH. If there were such a label, I would call the independent feature Another Earth “alt-science fiction.” The scifi element of the film consists of the discovery that a second earth is approaching our own, labeled by us, of course, as “Earth 2.” Gradually, it appears that this other Earth may be a […]

Reviews THE HELP. Unquestionably, I bring a lot of baggage to The Help. For one thing, it is based on Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 debut novel of the same name that was mostly well-reviewed, became a best-seller, and is much beloved by many readers. In the latter category is a local friend who was very enthusiastic about […]

Reviews RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Virtually everyone of my age or so who goes to movies no doubt remembers the original Planet of the Apes, released in 1968. Who could forget the startling final scene when the humans discover the ruined Statue of Liberty, not to mention the over-emoting Charlton Heston whose […]

Reviews FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS. Inevitably, and inaptly, this film will be compared to the recent No Strings Attached, a completely lame romantic comedy despite the presence of Natalie Portman and perhaps partly because of the presence of Ashton Kutcher. Friends with Benefits is in a different league. For one thing, it has a savvy script […]

Reviews THOR. The conventional wisdom in Hollywood these days would seem to signal the impending doom of the screenwriter. More and more, big studio movies scrape together stories from old material. Remakes abound, as do usually pallid resurrections of old comic book characters. Maybe it speeds up the development process, or maybe good scripts are […]

WIN WIN. Regular moviegoers know not to trust trailers. In addition to regularly including plot spoilers and often, especially for comedies, revealing the film’s best lines, trailers can be significantly misleading. Such is the case with Win Win. From the trailer I saw too many times, I would have put this film down as a […]

Reviews SCRE4M. You might ask, when confronted with another Scream sequel, all these years later, what’s left to say? What new, original take on the formula could there possibly be? Is there a motive beyond profit for producing such a movie? You would be right to ask these questions, to which the answers are: nothing, none, […]