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Movie Reviews
Going 'Mental' And Enjoying The Ride
April 9, 2013 P.J. Hogan's new movie is madder than madcap, a zany, nonconformist boundary-pusher whose offbeat manner makes for a rich and grounded film. Toni Collette plays the part of a modern-day Maria von Trapp as if she has nothing to lose — and Anthony LaPaglia shows his true Aussie accent.
Movie Reviews
With Vengeance And Violence, 'Olympus Has Fallen' Flat
March 22, 2013 This macho action film starring Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman is a vigilante fantasy about terrorists and turncoats invading the United States. It's a popular genre, but critic David Edelstein says he's tired of the American addiction to these tropes.
Movie Reviews
Three New Films Examine What It Means When Girls Act Out
March 15, 2013 Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers, Sally Potter's Ginger & Rosa and Cristian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills are wildly different films, yet they share a common impulse: to demonstrate indelibly how for girls, behaving outrageously is still a political act.
Movie Reviews
'Oz': Neither Great Nor Powerful
March 8, 2013 There are three reasons to see this prequel to the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz: the trio of witches played by Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams. But James Franco, who stars as the wizard-in-the-making, disappoints — and the film as a whole is a bit snoozy.
Movie Reviews
A Disappointing Thriller Channels Hitchcock And Bram 'Stoker'
March 1, 2013 The film is ripe with a creepy-crawly feel that would be affecting if the tone weren't so arch. Directed by Park Chan-wook, written by Wentworth Miller and starring Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska and Matthew Goode, Stoker is a vile little chamber horror, says critic David Edelstein.
Movie Reviews
'Caesar' Comes Alive In An Italian Prison
February 8, 2013 In Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's new film, Caesar Must Die, a group of prisoners put on Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. It's barely an hour and a quarter, and it's physically small-scale, but it's so compressed it wears you out — in a good way.
Movie Reviews
'Gatekeepers' Let Us Inside Israeli Security
February 1, 2013 The Oscar-nominated documentary directed by Dror Moreh is not a defense of Israeli security policy, but a critique. The six Shin Bet heads Moreh interviews may believe in the tactics they devised, but it's the overall strategy they think is flawed.
Movies
'Mama': A Good Old-Fashioned Horror Movie
January 18, 2013 In an age of werewolves, hormonal vampires and endless sequels, horror movies have lost some edge. But Mama, starring Jessica Chastain, is an entertaining step in the right — which is to say backward — direction.
Movie Reviews
Looking For Bin Laden In 'Zero Dark Thirty'
December 14, 2012 Kathryn Bigelow's film tells the story of the U.S. hunt for the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks. Critic David Edelstein says the film presents itself as a work of journalism, but that that there's no doubting its perspective: It's the story of America's "brilliant, righteous revenge."
Movies
A Boy, A Boat, A Tiger: Reflecting On 'Life Of Pi'
November 23, 2012 Ang Lee's meticulously controlled style makes a perfect fit for Life of Pi, a passionately overcontrolled adaptation of a wondrous adventure story with a surprisingly harsh sting in its tail.
Movies
In 'Silver Linings Playbook,' Lawrence Is Golden
November 16, 2012 David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook stars Bradley Cooper as a bipolar high school teacher trying to put his life back together. But critic David Edelstein says it's the performance of co-star Jennifer Lawrence that makes the film a hot ticket.
Movies
Historical, Fictional Icons Take To The Big Screen
November 9, 2012 Two of the year's most highly anticipated movies arrive this week. Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, and Skyfall, the third film starring Daniel Craig as James Bond 007, directed by American Beauty Oscar-winner Sam Mendes. Film critic David Edelstein has this review of both.
Movies
'Cloud Atlas': You're Better Off Reading The Book
October 26, 2012 David Mitchell's exquisite novel Cloud Atlas has been adapted for the screen by the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer. The film is never dull, but critic David Edelstein found that unlike the book, the film fails in its attempt to tie six distinct stories together.
Movies
'The Sessions': Sex, Comedy And Something More
October 19, 2012 Writer Mark O'Brien spent most of his life in an iron lung. He was the subject of an Oscar-winning documentary, and now his story is told again in the semi-fictionalized feature The Sessions. Critic David Edelstein reviews the story of how one man lost his virginity — and found out how to love.
Movies
'Argo': Too Good To Be True, Because It Isn't
October 12, 2012 Ben Affleck's Argo, which is based on the declassified story of the CIA's mission to save six American diplomats trapped in Iran in 1979, is gripping, compelling and, at times, hilarious. But, as critic David Edelstein explains, the best parts of the "true" story are the parts that aren't true at all.
