Film
Originally slated to open in September 2012, Gangster Squad was delayed when
Originally slated to open in September 2012, Gangster Squad was delayed when the movie-theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado,…
Nick Pinkerton
Film
Promised Land: Matt Damon Versus Fracking
Salesmen are typically depicted onscreen as the quintessential American phonies. That one set of phonies are being dramatically…
Film
Anna Karenina: Keira Knightley’s Mad, Theatrical Passion
Tolstoy’s family epic has been smartly contoured to fit just more than two hours of screen time by…
Film
Flight: Denzel Washington’s Drunken Heroics
The yammering about “Oscar gold” and Denzel Washington’s potential three-peat will soon reach a deafening pitch, but such…
Film
Cloud Atlas: WTF, Wachowskis?
The trailer for this gargantuan adaptation of David Mitchell’s 2004 novel, directed by two Wachowski siblings and Tom…
Film
Two Years at Sea: Ben Rivers’ Cinema of Slow
It is difficult for residents of these sprawling United States to regard anything within the snug British Isles…
Film
Hellbound?: Theologians (and Others) Consider the Fiery Afterlife
Pope John Paul II made hell briefly unfashionable, but the administration of Benedict XVI has retrieved Gehenna from…
Film
Trouble With the Curve: Clint Eastwood Talks to an Empty Chair About Baseball
What a strange thing for an actor to have been rehearsing one’s decline and death for so very…
Film
2 Days in New York: Julie Delpy Pushes Toward Sitcomland
Julie Delpy’s sequel to her 2007 2 Days in Paris calls back many of the same characters and…
Film
Abendland: A Deadpan European Rebuttal to Samsara
A documentary composed of vignettes of Europe by night, shot as though through the eyes of some inquisitive,…
Film
Lawless: Moonshine and Machine Guns
Screening the history of bootlegging in urban America led to the invention of a genre—the gangster film—but moviegoers…
Film
360: Rachel Weisz and Jude Law Spin in Circles
Is there something intrinsic to these wide-net, “We’re all connected” ensemble movies that makes their authors think they…
Film
Killer Joe: Matthew McConaughey Will Kill You Now
At one point in Killer Joe, based on Tracy Letts’ play, a hideously funny tabloid noir set on…
Film
Red Lights: Robert De Niro Fails to Thrill
Like a great number of films dealing with supernatural and extraterrestrial phenomena, Red Lights is a thriller in…
Film
Dark Horse: Fear and Loathing in New Jersey
People always end up the way they started out. No one ever changes, one character says in Todd…
Film
Alps: Death and Surrogacy in Greece
In a gymnasium, a clandestine four-person group meets to discuss its name. One member suggests “Alps,” explaining: “The…
Film
Easy Money: Crime and Punishment in Sweden
As the general run of action films blithely defies the laws of gravity and consequence, what a pleasure…
Film
Portrait of Wally: Another Saga of Stolen WWII Art
Aside from the incalculable human cost, World War II left in its wake property-rights issues whose repercussions are…
Film
Crazy Eyes: Lukas Haas as Trust-Fund Bukowski
We first encounter the subject of Crazy Eyes‘ character study mixing his drinks while damning the glittering void…