Opening in cities nationwide this Friday, Drinking Buddies represents a significant moment in the career of writer/director Joe Swanberg – a step into the mainstream for the famously independent filmmaker. More than anyone except perhaps Mark Duplass, Swanberg is often associated with the “mumblecore” film movement, a term that he himself only half-embraces. His low-budget…
For the last fifteen years or so, Hollywood has been obsessed with orphans. We’ve seen them survive harrowing shipwrecks (Life of Pi), win game shows (Slumdog Millionaire), and discover old, forgotten filmmakers (Hugo), not to mention the seemingly endless number of them who become superheroes (Batman, Spider-Man, Superman). Why so many orphan movies? It could…
A quick story: I tried to get my wife to come see Ain’t Them Bodies Saints with me last weekend, but she opted out. When I asked her why, she said she was put off by the name. For me, that’s no reason to dismiss a movie, but she has a near-perfect track record of…
I came away from this week’s excellent episode of The Newsroom with one overriding message: journalism is a tough racket. For weeks, the News Night team has been tracking down evidence in support of the Operation Genoa story. They found the retired general and the two soldiers who participated in the attack. They stumbled upon…
When the complete history of The Newsroom is written, the sixth episode of season two should be remembered as the moment it went from an uneven drama with political overtones to outright propaganda. There’s just no other way to describe it anymore. In season two, Aaron Sorkin’s motivations have been revealed: he is hell-bent on…
On the surface, The Butler might seem like an awfully conservative film. It certainly takes the form of one of those safe historical epics that Hollywood loves to put out around Oscar time – its rush through eighty years of history is a little reminiscent of the reactionary Forrest Gump. But as a movie that…
Despite my complaints, of which there are have been many, I just can’t quit The Newsroom. But it’s for episodes like this one that I’m glad I stick around. The simply titled “News Night with Will McAvoy” was easily the best episode of this second season, a self-contained masterpiece that juggled what seemed like dozens…
The danger in naming your movie The Spectacular Now is that it creates unreasonable expectations. If it falls flat, you’ve made the job of film critics everywhere all too easy: the headlines will read “Not so Spectacular” or “The Spectacular Not.” Thankfully for all involved, the film is certainly nowhere near bad enough to warrant…
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