Dad’s Dead: Sad, Squabbling Siblings In ‘This Is Where I Leave You’ & ‘Skeleton Twins’

“Dad’s dead.” These are the first words of the book This Is Where I Leave You, spoken by Wendy Foxman. How does she say it? “Offhandedly, like it’s happened before, like it happens every day. It can be grating, this act of hers, to be utterly unfazed at all times, even in the face of […]

The Best Revenge: ‘Blue Ruin,’ ‘Grand Piano,’ & ‘Neighbors’

Here’s the sad fact: the more $200 million blockbusters make their money back, the less we see studios willing to spend $20 million, or $10 million, or even a lousy $1 million on a smarter movie that’s aimed at a smaller audience. Thus, the independent’s revenge. If smaller, smarter movies want to be made, they […]

The Not-Oscars 2013

It’s the morning of the Oscar nominations, and I’m not upset. This is weird. All the films I wanted to see nominated for Best Picture are. All the actors I hoped to see receive nominations for this year’s performances were. Compare and contrast to last year’s fatal omission of Kathryn Bigelow as Best Director, or […]

Top Ten Films: 2013

Hollywood is obsessed with money, I say. Duh, you think in response. But hear me out. In 2013, Hollywood was particularly obsessed with money. Not just with making money, but with telling stories about making — and losing — money. In my Top Ten list last year, I named Zero Dark Thirty my favorite film […]

The Great ‘Beyond’: An Epic Triptych

Is there a male star more objectified than Ryan Gosling? One or two, maybe, but none with as much cred. Ryan Gosling is an Oscar nominee — but possibly not as many times as he should be, in roughly the same position Leonardo DiCaprio was a few years back. Admired and almost respectable enough for […]

Sun, Moon, & Stars: Wes Anderson’s A-List ‘Kingdom’

Is there a director with a more distinct signature than Wes Anderson? His meticulous mise-en-scene has spawned a slew of copycats; the word “twee” might have been created specifically to refer to his brand of filmmaking. Fantastic Mr. Fox was one of my Top 10 Films of 2009, but beyond that, the Anderson ouvre has […]

The Chicks: A Cinematic Bad Girls’ Club For 2011

(Films discussed in this post: Young Adult, Bad Teacher, Tabloid, The Roommate, The Help, Bridesmaids.) It’d be nice to think that we’re in a day and age where women headlining a film doesn’t matter. But it does. Unless the film is geared specifically toward a female audience, you won’t often see a Thelma & Louise-type […]