Reviews OUT OF THE FURNACE. As with his last feature, Crazy Heart (2009), co-writer/director Scott Cooper explores classic themes of America’s underbelly. Last time out, he directed Jeff Bridges to a well-deserved Oscar as Bad Blake, an alcoholic outlaw country singer sliding down the backside of a storied career. Thanks mostly to Bridges’ fearless, barely […]
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All is Not Lost
Reviews ALL IS LOST. Robert Redford doesn’t have anything to prove. He made his bones in the business nearly half a century ago and, a few minor artistic missteps aside, has earned the right to just hang out in Utah — maybe attend the occasional film festival that he created. I certainly wouldn’t ask him […]
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Where’s the Fire?
Reviews THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE. I greet this release with markedly lower enthusiasm than, apparently, the rest of the movie-going world. Not that I harbor any ill will toward the franchise; it just doesn’t do a whole lot for me. The furor over the book series passed me by almost entirely, though another member […]
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And Everything is Going Fine
I last talked with Spalding Gray at Wildberries Marketplace on the afternoon of his last Center Arts performance. I’d had dinner with him in Pittsburgh (along with six or eight others) several years before, where the general conversation was high-spirited — at least until he quietly observed that he couldn’t laugh anymore. He didn’t know […]
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Better Men
Reviews THE BEST MAN HOLIDAY. It’s not absolutely necessary to see The Best Man (1999) to get something out of this; I managed to enjoy it without even knowing it was a sequel. However, since it eschews helpful exposition on the way to a ponderous two-hour-plus running time, the uninitiated (me included) may spend some […]
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Risky Stunts
Reviews THE COUNSELOR. Cormac McCarthy will go down as one of America’s immortal literary voices. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a great screenwriter. Case in point: this new venture with director Ridley Scott. Sure, it’s got McCarthy trademarks in spades. But his tendencies toward misanthropy, deceptively simple prose (at least in his later work), […]
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Captive Audience
Reviews PRISONERS. When we were small, my brother and I decided to play a joke on our parents and disappear for a while. This only amounted to a couple of hours hiding out above the garage, and I couldn’t understand why Dad was so upset when he found us. A few decades of living have […]
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Local Girl Does Good: ‘The Wine of Summer’ Victorious in Portugal
Humboldt native and filmmaker Maria Matteoli was already celebrating the inclusion of The Wine of Summer in Portugal’s Douro Film Harvest – she and her crew had flown to Porto to attend the world premiere of the movie they crafted during 2011 in Spain and the streets of Eureka’s Old Town – when things got […]
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Growing Pains
Reviews Kick-Ass 2. Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass (2010) is that rare comic book movie that balances humor, violence and style with unique cinematic technique. This follow-up has some of the original’s essence, but so diluted that it feels more like a pale imitation than a proper sequel. The movie opens with Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) back […]
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Spock versus Spock
Reviews STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS. My personal investment in all this Star Trek business is pretty minimal. Years ago, I burned through the first four or five movies over the course of a languorous, lost afternoon. I enjoyed the experience, but I chose those movies because they were the only ones in the house where […]