DOLPHIN TALE 2 Opening Friday For parents of younger kids, quality family films are a precious commodity. Watching a good family movie can be crazy funchildren’s laughter is virulently contagious. And since kids like to watch their favorite movies over and over, parents will eventually be watching those movies over and over, too. I’ve seen […]
Glenn McDonald
Posted inFilm & Television
A good old time in Land Ho!
LAND HO! Opening Friday As a rule, movies are dominated by the young. So LAND HO!, a gentle Icelandic import about the adventures of two 70-something men on an impromptu walkabout, is refreshing. This isn’t a grumpy-old-men farce playing age for laughs. It’s a genuine, observant, character-driven comedy. Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson) and Colin (Paul […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Simulcasts bring TV, theater and more to cinemas
The movie theater: It’s not just for movies anymore. With the advent of digital distribution in cinemas, exhibitors have a wide range of options for screening events this fall. Most theaters in the Triangle have switched to digital, and many now host simulcastsby way of live satellite feedsof sports, concerts and cultural events, from boxing […]
Posted inCulture
Bonus Materials: Bullet trains and class rage in Snowpiercer
The brutal and visionary South Korean science fiction thriller Snowpiercer made a splash a few weeks back when it finally got a wide release in U.S. theaters after an extended tussle with distributor Harvey Weinstein. That dispute almost kept it out of theaters here. Details are too complicated to go into, but the upshot is […]
Posted inCulture
Bonus Materials: Romantic comedy + salsa dancing = Cuban Fury
A genuinely pleasant surprise, the U.K. romantic comedy Cuban Fury is one of those imports that surfaces theatrically in a few major U.S. markets, then quietly rotates into the DVD/digital marketplace, where it can be properly enjoyed. The always amiable Nick Frost stars as Bruce Garrett, a former teenage salsa-dancing champion who lost his nerve […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Richard Linklater’s groundbreaking 12-year project culminates in the remarkable Boyhood
Boyhood Opening Friday In 2002, director Richard Linklater began a remarkable movie-making experiment known as The Twelve Year Project. The idea: to make a series of short films, one per year, following a boy’s growth from age 6 to 18from first grade to college freshmanusing the same cast each year, with the intention of cutting […]
Posted inCulture
Bonus Materials: man, machine and Transcendence
Hollywood has yet to make an adaptation of William Gibson’s 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer. And it’s not for lack of trying—probably a dozen projects have started and stalled in the last 30 years. But if you’ve read the book and followed science fiction movies in the years since, it’s astounding how many of Gibson’s ideas […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Following the money in A Most Wanted Man
A Most Wanted Man 1/2 Opening Friday The 9/11 attacks were largely planned in the German port city of Hamburg. It was here that the terror cell led by Mohamed Atta first made contact with Al-Qaeda, in the late-’90s, from an apartment that was being monitored by both the CIA and German intelligence agencies. We’re […]
Posted inCulture
Movie review: Living and dying well in Life Itself, a documentary on noted film critic Roger Ebert by Hoop Dreams director Steve James
Life Itself★★★★ Now playingFor me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. — Roger EbertLife Itself, director Steve James’ extraordinary documentary on film critic Roger Ebert, is more than just a biographical profile of the man who would become America’s most popular and influential film critic. It’s a film about living well and […]
Posted inFilm & Television
New on DVD and digital: Laughter and subtlety in Le Week-End; Julia Louis-Dreyfus shines in Veep
Editor’s note: “Bonus Materials,” a new column by Glenn McDonald, highlights new movie and TV releases on DVD, digital download and streaming services. After its debut here in print, the column continues every other week on our Arts blog. The experience of watching a movie is changing rapidly. For 70 years or so, there was […]
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