Having Ryan Gosling's character -- the driver -- put on a non-emotive, unrevealing mask while killing Ron Perlman's Nino, was an interesting touch.  His character is so seeminly non-plussed, near autistic in the film -- or, that is, you'd be tempted to describe him this way -- but you know there… Read full post »

Andrew O’Hehir at Salon has suggested that Brave, however feminist, doesn’t really undermine patriarchy – the daughter weaves a spell of command and rhetoric to sway them to her side, but ultimately it’s to the men to determine when sharp changes to tradition can be… Read full post »

If you’re like me and you’re beginning to notice a lot of evil being passed off as innocuous, just a joke, or even as good, and you’re wondering why this has become so widespread, why… Read full post »

Adam Sandler deserves credit for being angry that a culture he grew up knowing pleasures from, has essentially been demarcated subsequently as something you can only bring up with shame.  The really quite wonderful Grosse Pointe Blank is, however, an indication of this unfair pattern – the… Read full post »

We're told you're supposed to read history, but I swear you could read a library of books about World War 2, and know an awful lot about narrative pleasures, but not a wit about anything that would help you recognize when conditions for the same are formatting once again.  Peter Fritzsche's… Read full post »

I don't recommend reading Gene Wolfe at some point.  He intuits that if you're still with him, it's because he's charmed you in a way you can't escape, and you're better of figuring out why you keep on coming back to someone who's always teasing but now insists on denying --… Read full post »

1)  "Prometheus" succeeds in showing us that whatever the ultimate secrets of the universe might be, they're going to have to be really something to not instinctively seem less rousing than when a spirited human being is roused into action out of fidelity to a felt truth that she is part… Read full post »

Maria Aspan has written an article praising “Friends with Kids,” and I would feel inclined to do the same if I felt the film began to open up for new explorations what had felt foreclosed in pattern.  But I tend to find that in many films that tip the hat to your preference… Read full post »

Alison Willmore, in her review of “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” aired her humble request to Hollywood that when it makes a film which features a young, precariously situated couple, with no obvious love-bond yet who have conceived a child, that it at least &ndash… Read full post »

Alison Willmore, in her  review of "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," argues that the film "is a precision instrument aimed directly at the heart of its intended underserved older audience," and one wonders if even if its intention was to serve only them, if the reality is that it could and… Read full post »

Recently, Andrew O'Hehir had this to say concerning The Avengers and its (ostensibly) all-male demographic:

 

I don't think I'm breaking any news if I tell you that "The Avengers," Joss Whedon's ensemble action-adventure that unites an entire posse of Marvel Comics superhoes, will be far and aw

… Read full post »

Stephanie Zacharek's review of the film, we note, was very harsh.  It's always great to have her take, but it'd be nice if she'd accord some of her assertions, particularly this one -- "But if you're out to change the face of filmmaking, you have to work much harder at a… Read full post »

Note:  this is a reply to Maria Aspan's discussion of the four key things that worked about the Avengers (at movieline.com).

Re:   The Avengers doesn't try to give equal time to each of the heroes; it might as well be called Iron Man 2.5.  Thor is there to swing his… Read full post »

Note:  this review builds on Stephanie Zachareks' review of the movie at movieline.com

Not to say Loki doesn't have presence, but the story proved to be about the team settling together in a very satisfying fashion, with everything else but interjections to this realization.  

Personally, t… Read full post »

Katniss's district is shown as so drained of vitality, she, Gale, and Peeta come across as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli did when they first entered the no-more-cheer-than-a-graveyard domain of the subjected Horse Lords.  The result is that the Reaping looks like just as good an opportunity to actu… Read full post »

Almost from the start you feel the director's efforts to please the audience's key and only regal lady -- the blossoming young woman, traditionally picked on by patriarchy, and whose current allegiance guarantees you status as a modern man that gets to lubricate with subservience but without any cont… Read full post »

Interns

"Being resilient in crappy times"

First, then second, consideration

Keeping the con alive

When the good-parent Dumbledore is artfully being shown the door

How Should the University Evolve?, part 1 of 2 from BLSCI on Vimeo.

and the Q&A is here:

I’m in the midst of Thanksgiving prep so don’t have time to contribute my own commentary. Basically we… Read full post »

Sauron thrived when things grew dark, too