Summit Entertainment STEP UP REVOLUTION* * * stars Opens Friday Step Up Revolution, the fourth installment in the Step Up franchise, ditches the bogus high-culture/low-culture clash that fueled earlier installments. The story? Sean (Ryan Guzman), head of a flashy flash mob, romances Emily (Kathryn McCormick), whose father (Peter Gallagher) plans to tear down Sean’s Miami […]
Laura Boyes
Posted inFilm & Television
Katy Perry: Part of Me captures a poignant moment
Katy Perry: Part of Me opens Thursday throughout the Triangle (see times below) Our rating: Concert films follow a pattern. The star sings the hits, intercut with breathless fans and reflective interviews. Rare is the music doc that captures a moment as poignant as one toward the end of Katy Perry: Part of Me. Perry […]
Posted inFilm & Television
The Artist is deserving of the feverish praise it has inspired
The Artist opens Friday in select theaters (see times below) Our rating: Steeped in the love and lore of silent film, and already garnering heavy awards season buzz, the French silent film, The Artist, is deserving of the feverish praise it has inspired. This film was written and directed by Michel Hazanavicius and stars Jean […]
Posted inFilm & Television
From the streets of Baltimore to Sesame Street, Kevin Clash has spent a lifetime Being Elmo
Being Elmo is now playing at the Chelsea in Chapel Hill (see times below) Our rating: Documentary filmmakers often choose to portray unpleasant topics as the ultimate “reality.” Constance Marks’ Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey is the complete opposite, a sunny doc about bringing joy and making dreams come true. The subject of the film […]
Posted inCulture
Breaking blood: After guilty pleasures, more thoughts about Twilight
Summit EntertainmentA couple for the ages. And ages and ages. Spoiler alert: If you want to be surprised by anything that happens in the film, read this after you’ve seen it.Let me state at the outset that I thoroughly enjoyed the latest Twilight movie. This is not Jean-Luc Godard. Werewolves take their shirts off. Pale […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Conspiracy theater in Anonymous
Anonymous opens Friday throughout the Triangle (see times below) Our rating: Speculation about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays has rattled around academia for centuries. Now, Independence Day director Roland Emmerich has thrown his feathered hat in the ring. He proposes, in the flamboyant costume drama Anonymous, that Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, created […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Brighton Rock remake rocks for connoisseurs of British crime drama
Brighton Rock opens Friday in select theaters (see times below) Our rating: In Brighton Rock, the cold, slate-colored ocean laps the shore of the title town, a wintery resort on the southern coast of England. It’s 1964 and there’s a gang war on, in which a chilly teen sociopath named Pinky Brown (Sam Riley) is […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Speaking the speech in stellar The King’s Speech
The King’s Speech opens Saturday in select theaters (see times below) Our rating: Why do you go to the movies? Is it to see Ryan Reynolds shimmer in a CGI Green Lantern suit, as promised in a recent trailer? Or do you prefer to watch splendid actors do what they loveacting? The latter is not […]
Posted inFilm & Television
Burlesque is more like a loss leader for iTunes downloads than a film
Burlesque opens Wednesday throughout the Triangle (see times below) Our rating: Early on in Burlesque we meet Ali (Christina Aguilera), a scrappy hash-slinger, as she dons her platforms and stomps out of an Iowa trailer park with a one-way ticket to Los Angeles. Ali stumbles into a Liza Minnelli fever dream when she sees the […]
Posted inCulture
Slumdog Millionaire composer A.R. Rahman discusses his Wednesday show at RBC Center
arrahmanlive.comThe prolific A.R. Rahman performs at RBC Center tonight. A.R. Rahman’s multimedia spectacular, the Indian equivalent of Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball, rolls into Raleigh for one last American tour date before he opens the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. We spoke to Rahman last week, and he told us that his double Oscar win for Slumdog […]