Neil Morris

Séraphine opens Friday in select theaters As yet another examination of the blurry line between creativity and madness, Séraphine paints a portrait of an inspired, tortured artist whose genius is compromised by the rigors of external judgment and acclaim. Among the contemporary pop culture parallels, two in particular spring to mind. First is how superior […]

Extract opens Friday throughout the Triangle Mike Judge will never be confused with Woody Allen. However, each shares an affinity for satirical comedy drawn from the nuances of their respective habitats. Allen, of course, is synonymous with New York, a city that reliably loves him back as he churns out a film a year. While […]

District 9 opens Friday throughout the Triangle It’s difficult, if not nearly impossible, to produce any new science fiction movies about extraterrestrial aliens visiting Earth that does not pilfer, intentionally or otherwise, from previous films in the same genre. When you hear that South African director Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 is generally about aliens marooned […]

Of all the taut, gripping images in director Kathryn Bigelow’s exceptional Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker, one of the simplest lingers longest in your mind. Pinned down by sniper fire in the middle of the desert with a group of British mercenaries, three American soldiers endure insufferable heat for hours, waiting outand killingtheir adversaries […]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opens Wednesday throughout the Triangle During the heyday of James Bond films, it seemed that every successive 007 movie was tagged as “the biggest Bond of all.” Similarly, the main question of each new entry in the Harry Potter saga is whether it is the “most mature” or “darkest” […]

Public Enemies opens Wednesday throughout the Triangle Rightly or wrongly, movies memorializing real-life criminals are lauded even as they ignore or vilify those who bring them to justice. Think of the films associated with Al Capone, Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, Jesse James, Butch Cassidy, Bugsy Siegel and even serial killers such as Son […]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen opens Wednesday throughout the Triangle To quote Team America: World Police, “Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies?” It’s no surprise that Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is as visually bleary and bombastic as Bay’s lucrative, aesthetically reprehensible forerunner. Or that the plot grafted together by usual […]

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 opens Friday throughout the Triangle Tony Scott is like the Rafael Palmeiro of filmmaking. Both were mid-to-upper standouts in their respective fields until avarice and self-indulgence persuaded them to artificiallyand detrimentallyenhance their innate abilities. For Palmeiro, it was taking steroids for more hits and homers. For Scott, it […]