[6] An prep school teacher tries to set his students on a righteous path in The Emperor’s Club. More like Goodbye, Mr Chips than Dead Poets Society, this flick focuses more on the importance of moral character than inspiration or motivation. (Don’t just seize the day; seize it well?) It’s a low-stakes morality tale, but you find yourself caring because Kevin Kline does. His performance is …
[4] Director Renny Harlin’s cut of this film is more quickly-paced and energetic than Paul Schrader’s (both films feature the same story and most of the same cast), but it has the misfortune of stepping in a big pile of silly toward the end. Is that Beelzebub or Bugs Bunny we’re supposed to be cowering before? Stellan Skarsgard is great as a younger Father Merrin (Max …
[6] Ryan Gosling plays a young prosecutor pitted against slicker-than-snot Anthony Hopkins, representing himself in a trial where he’s accused of murdering his wife. Hopkins is about to get away with everything, but Gosling is determined to poke a hole in Hopkins’ seemingly air-tight alibi. The casting is safe and predictable, but the script is fairly tight and twisty, and kept me engaged to the end. With …
[8] Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro give terrific, Oscar-caliber performances in this film about a widowed mother who invites her late husband’s friend, a recovering drug addict, to stay with her. I was moved by the struggle of two deeply wounded people trying to help each other. Berry’s character tries to help Del Toro’s come clean, and he tries to help her bring her family …
[6] Emile Hirsch (Milk, Killer Joe) stars in this sex comedy about a high school boy who falls in love with a porn star who moves in next door. Talk about a movie constructed around wish fulfillment! Things are complicated when the young woman’s porn producer ex-boyfriend comes looking for her and wants to take her back. For a sex comedy, things get a big …
[7] Elijah Wood and Charlie Hunnam star in this story about a wrongfully-expelled college student who falls into the dangerous British subculture of football ‘hooliganism’. The closest thing we have in America are street gangs, but the British ‘hooligans’ are a little more organized and revolve around football (soccer in America). Wood plays the disenfranchised student while Hunnam plays a higher up in the Green Street Elite …
[7] Across the Universe follows a group of young people who come of age against the turbulent backdrop of the 1960s. The film is set to a constant stream of rejiggered Beatles tunes, which allows director Julie Taymor (Broadway’s The Lion King, Titus, Frida) to cut loose with her trademark visual splendor and poetic license in a wide variety of music video sequences. When the …
[6] Brad Pitt simply isn’t very convincing outside his own time and place. This limitation was used to intentional comedic effect in Inglourious Basterds, and to unintentional effect in Troy. It doesn’t help that his character isn’t the most interesting — that would be Eric Bana’s. It also doesn’t help to have Orlando Bloom in your movie. Pretty much ever (Lord of the Rings being …
[7] Director Bruce McDonald does a commendable job building tension and suspense in a movie that takes place almost entirely in one room with four actors. Think Talk Radio meets 28 Days Later. The film is also a terrific showpiece for character actor Stephen McHattie, who stars as Grant Mazzy, a disgruntled shock radio DJ stuck in a small Canadian town. The film is at …
[7] Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor) takes on the intimate tale of an American student (Michael Pitt) who falls into an intense, unusual relationship with French siblings (Louis Garrel and Eva Green). The sexually-explicit escapades earned the film an NC-17 rating, but there’s an underlying sweetness and shared vulnerability in the direction and performances. I love how Bertolucci embellishes the characters’ shared obsession with cinema …
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