The image of a squarefaced old man dragging his hovering house behind him through a dreamscape jungle feels pulled straight out of the deepest Fruedian recesses of the unconscious. Pixar’s latest triumph, Up , is packed with such images, along with the considerable voice talent Ed Asner as the old guy, Carl Fredrickson.
It’s hard for me to remember a film with as divergent a critical response as Synecdoche, New York which made many reviewers best and worst films of 2008 lists at the end of the year. I can sympathize with those who didn’t enjoy the film – to its credit it never even tries to meet [...]
Like it’s title, The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford can feel like too much on the plate, let alone the movie theater marquee. Truth be told, on my first attempt to watch it the sonorous narration, beautiful photography and leisurely pacing conspired to lull me into a sound sleep. Not a [...]
Marvel Comics has a habit of adding nifty adjectives to it’s characters names – The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, the…uh, Fantastic Four. So it should be noted that the movie The Incredible Hulk isn’t necessarily bragging about it’s own quality relative to Ang Lee’s still warm Hulk. It is the better film though, despite [...]
In Bruges finds its central metaphor in a Hieronymus Bosch vision of purgatory, a crazy mishmash that’s beautiful, disturbing, funny, and ultimately a way station to the next plane of existence for those depicted. As is Bruges itself in the skewed vision of writer/director Martin McDonough, reteaming Brendan Gleeson, star of his first feature Six [...]
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