[7] Jesse Eisenberg and Alessandro Nivola star in this pitch-black comedy about a socially awkward young man (Eisenberg) who joins a karate class after he’s assaulted in the street one night. His instructor (Nivola) is a curious character who at first inspires Eisenberg’s character to ‘man-up’ and take charge of his life. But as Nivola’s tactics become more questionable, Eisenberg starts to wonder if his …
[8] Warren Beatty co-wrote, directed, and stars in this dark comedy about a suicidal politician who puts a hit out on his own life before ending his political campaign with a blunt truth-telling tour that enrages his donors but thrills the general public. When he changes his mind about dying, he spends the weekend evading his anonymous assassin by hiding out in dangerous neighborhoods, all …
[2] The days become unnaturally long in the town of Centerville, where two cops played by Adam Driver and Bill Murray drive around protecting the community. But when zombies begin roaming the streets, they find themselves in over their heads with only a strange new Scottish mortician (Tilda Swinton) to help them… or not. In any case, as Adam Driver’s character says throughout the movie, …
[8] John Cusack stars as a comically suicidal teen who doesn’t think he’ll ever get over being dumped by his girlfriend (Amanda Wyss). As he trains to beat a douchebag high school ski captain in an upcoming downhill race, he starts to find love again with a French foreign exchange student (Diane Franklin) who is dealing with her douchebag host family. Writer/director Savage Steve Holland …
[3] Stephen Dorff (The Gate, Cecil B. Demented) stars in this satiric story of a convenient store hostage survivor who can’t come to grips with his cult celebrity status after he learns the 36-day siege was televised. While Reese Witherspoon’s supporting character, also a survivor, talks about the experience in honest, dramatic ways on every imaginable TV show, Dorff’s character is amused and bewildered to …
[8] Writer/director Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri) explores the human side of hit-men in his darkly comic, occasionally horrific feature film debut. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson star as hired guns waiting in idyllic Bruges, Belgium, for their next assignment. Farrell’s character is reeling from accidentally killing a child in his last assignment. He hates Bruges and bickers with Gleeson’s character, who is …
[6] Julie Andrews, William Holden, Richard Mulligan, Robert Preston, and Robert Webber star in Blake Edwards’ (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Thoroughly Modern Millie) ensemble comedy about a film producer who goes suicidal after his latest G-rated family film turns out to be a bomb. Desperate to turn things around, he decides to reshoot the film, making it more erotic and promising the public the lead star …
[6] Writer/director Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck, Glee) brings Augusten Burroughs’ memoir to the big screen. Joseph Cross plays young Burroughs, a thirteen-year-old whose emotionally unstable mother hands him off to her therapist. Running with Scissors is primarily about Burroughs trying to fit in at the therapist’s bizarre household while learning to accept that his mother will never be what he needs her to be. Annette Bening …
[5] Tim Burton’s big-screen adaptation of Dan Curtis’ cult TV show Dark Shadows wants to be a comedy about a vampire transplanted from centuries past into the 1970s. That movie – one that focused on the vampire’s relationships with his surviving relatives, perhaps gaining their trust by helping them financially — could have been a good one. And thirty minutes into the movie, it looks …
[8] Jamie Bell (Billy Elliott) leads an all-star ensemble in this surreal, satiric look at the breakdown of suburban existence. The Chumscrubber is an ambitious conceptual piece, not unlike American Beauty in tone and style. But where American Beauty centered on one character’s shaky morality and lost me, The Chumscrubber stems more confidently from one of my favorite thematic tropes — human beings’ desperate need …
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