UNDER THE SKIN Opening Friday One of the very first scenes in Under The Skindirector Jonathan Glazer’s haunting, astonishing new science-fiction filmfeatures Scarlett Johansson undressing herself. But she isn’t taking her own clothes off. Instead, she’s removing the underwear of another Scarlett Johanssonperhaps a host body or clonethat lays dead in an abstract space of […]
Glenn McDonald
Posted inCulture
DVD+Digital: Aging, apocalypse and After People
courtesy of History channel Ever since aging through the sad end of the 18-35 demographic, I find my television tastes have drifted. When clicking around these days, I tend to linger on the pop scholarship offered by basic cable stations like History, Discovery, National Geographic and Animal Planet. My conclusion is that I like reality […]
Posted inCulture
DVD+Digital: Mel Brooks, political correctness and The Producers
courtesy of Shout! Factory As a filmmaker, Mel Brooks’ brand of comedy is often broad, usually excessive and always delivered in the spirit of goofiness. In his best genre parodies — Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety — no gag is too obvious, no joke is too dumb. Brooks’ first movie, though, was different. Released […]
Posted inCulture
DVD+Digital: Old reissues, new technology and infinite TV/movies
courtesy of Shout! Factory It’s a funny thing about new releases in the digital and DVD business — some weeks you get nothing particularly interesting, and some weeks you get everything under the sun. A recent flood of titles suggests the variety of options in that realm we can still call, with relative accuracy, home […]
Posted inCulture
DVD+Digital: Mike Leigh, British food trucks and Life is Sweet
courtesy of the Criterion Collection British filmmaker Mike Leigh is known for his very particular way of making films. Rather than start with a script, Leigh works with his actors in a designated improvisation period before filming begins. The director provides sketched-out ideas and characters, but the actors become full collaborators in the creation of […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Anarchic spirit in gonzo-comedy throwback This Is the End
This Is the End opens Wednesday (see times below) Our rating: Co-written and co-directed by Seth Rogen, This Is the End is something of a throwback to that style of movie they used to call the gonzo comedy. Like The Blues Brothers or Caddyshack, it takes a simple comedic premise, brings aboard a busload of […]
Posted inCulture
Suffer the little children: What Maisie Knew is easy to admire, hard to watch
courtesy of Millennium Entertainment What Maisie KnewOpens Friday (see times below) Carefully written and beautifully photographed, the child custody drama What Maisie Knew is an undeniably moving film with strong performances from everyone involved. It’s also extremely hard to watch, and I don’t know that I would recommend it. To parents, anyway. Maisie takes the […]
Posted inCulture
DVD+Digital: Spalding Gray, the theater of war and Swimming to Cambodia
courtesy of Shout! Factory I first saw Swimming to Cambodia — the film version of Spalding Gray’s groundbreaking monologue — on VHS my senior year of high school, by way of my first serious girlfriend Courtney. A fellow theater nerd, Courtney was also a dedicated goth girl and introduced me to many new and exotic […]
Posted inCulture
DVD+Digital: Ex-cons, Viagra jokes and Stand Up Guys
courtesy of Lionsgate Home Entertainment Slight, shaggy and sentimental, the crime comedy Stand Up Guys has exactly three virtues to recommend it. Those would be the film’s trio of lead actors: Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin. Nobody’s gunning for glory with the performances here, but nobody phones it in, either. Anyway, these three […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Them Iowa boys mean business in At Any Price
At Any Price opens Friday at the Chelsea (see times below) Our rating: Read our interview with director Ramin Bahrani Set deep in the American heartland of Iowa corn country, director Ramin Bahrani’s stark farmland drama At Any Price chronicles one family’s moral decay among the amber waves of grain. The film also has a […]