Film
We Bought a Zoo: Matt Damon Needs a Hug
When I told someone the other day I was off to a screening of We Bought a Zoo,…
Robert Wilonsky
Film
Moneyball: Brad Pitt Discovers Statistics
Michael Lewis’s book Moneyball was published in 2003, in the immediate wake of The Season That Shook Baseball.…
Film
Paul: The Hot Fuzz Guys Remake E.T.
This isn’t the third installment in the so-called “Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy” featuring Simon Pegg and Nick…
Film
Megamind: Kryptonite for 7-Year-Olds
On matters animated and three-dimensional I take my cue from the 7-year-old sitting at my right, who got…
Film
Red: At Last, Helen Mirren as International Assassin!
Classiest. Comic. Book. Movie. Ever. Not the best. Not the worst. Just the classiest—Helen Mirren (and Morgan Freeman…
Film
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Michael Cera Does His Michael Cera Thing Again
For all of Scott Pilgrim‘s adherence to the graphic novels upon which it’s based—the pop-art pows and thwacks,…
Film
Middle Men: Luke Wilson Fills the Insatiable American Appetite for Porn
If the plot of Middle Men sounds familiar—Luke Wilson gets in bed with James Caan, who just wants…
Film
Despicable Me: Steve Carell as Summertime Grinch
As the lights were dimming before a preview screening of Despicable Me, the 6-year-old who lives in my…
Film
Get Him to the Greek: Jonah Hill Has a Man-Crush on Russell Brand
This roller-coaster spinoff of Forgetting Sarah Marshall often feels as if it’ll jump the tracks and smash to…
Film
Furry Vengeance: Brendan Fraser, Eco-Propagandist
The simple thesis of the movie is very much made for the 6 to, oh, let’s say 6½-year-old…
Film
The Joneses: Demi Moore Is Too Perfect to Be Truthful
For a while, at least, a pitch-black (and therefore pitch-perfect) tale of our times: Four business partners masquerading…
Film
She’s Out of My League: Wingman Steals Movie
This isn’t entirely without its selling points, chief among them T.J. Miller, who’s a cross between Seth Rogen…
Film
Brooklyn’s Finest: Wait, Ethan Hawke Is Italian?
A multiplex three-pack filled with every cop-movie convention since the invention of gunpowder and curse words, Brooklyn’s Finest…
Film
Youth in Revolt: Michael Cera, Grow Up Already!
Winded and weary from its long journey to a bigger screen, C.D. Payne’s 500-page 1993 novel has been…
Film
Everybodys Fine: Robert De Niros Holiday Miscalculation
Don’t be misled by the cheesy, generic poster for Kirk Jones’ retelling of Giuseppe Tornatore’s 1990 Stanno tutti…
Film
Up in the Air: George Clooney Swings the Corporate Axe
There is something oddly familiar about Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, in which George Clooney plays a…
Film
Pirate Radio: Philip Seymour Hoffman Brings Rock Music to Britain
Seven months after its theatrical release in the UK, and two months after its DVD debut there, Pirate…
Film
The Informant!: Matt Damon Is Totally Deluded
As evidenced by The Informant!, it’s a hell of a tricky thing to turn real-life pulp into floss…
Film
It Might Get Loud: Jack White Hates Technology
Marketed as a guitar summit with The Edge, Jimmy Page, and Jack White, Davis Guggenheim’s affectionate, intermittently insightful…
Film
Julie & Julia: Meryl Streep Can Cook No Wrong
It was the best of movies. It was the worst of movies. Which is to say: There’s half…