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 […]
Glenn McDonald
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.
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 […]
Posted inFilm & Television
A study in stillness in Ida
IDA Opens Friday Very cold and very beautiful, director Pawel Pawlikowski’s IDA requires careful attention. Photographed in highly textured black-and-white, with a lean plot and sparse dialogue, it’s the sort of film whose depths must be actively plumbed.
Posted inFilm & Television
Family-friendly aliens in Earth to Echo
EARTH TO ECHO Opens Friday It’s very difficult to make a Steven Spielberg moviewhich is why, in general, only Steven Spielberg attempts it. A few guys can make it work. J.J. Abrams did it a few years back with Super 8. But it’s usually a bad idea.
Posted inFilm & Television
Tammy
TAMMY Opens Friday Melissa McCarthy can be very funny. Click around online for the gag reel from Bridesmaids or This is 40 to see what a formidable improv comic she is.
Posted inCulture
Movie review: Abortion fuels an unlikely but winning rom-com in Obvious Child
Obvious Child★★★1/2 Now playingObvious Child is the kind of underdog indie movie that just makes you glad all over. Glad that the people responsible made it. Glad that other people, with more money, were smart enough to get it into theaters. Glad that you saw it, and glad that other people will see it, too. […]
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