Reviews

Movies

Failing Well

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Some movies are difficult to criticize. Yes, they’re bad, but they’re well-intentioned and made with a certain amount of skill and ambition. The filmmakers have given the audience credit for being intelligent and open, and viewers ought to re-pay the favor. So it is with May, the low-budget solo debut from writer/director Lucky McKee. The movie is an attempt at a character-driven horror movie, and for that alone it deserves to be seen and praised.

Tagged: Horror, Lucky McKee, May, Reviews
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Best of Culture Snob Movies

The Construction of Memory

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spider-1.jpgAfter watching David Cronenberg’s Spider, I was acutely underwhelmed and disappointed. It could be that the movie’s impact on my first viewing – akin to dropping a light object onto a feather pillow – was a function of overblown expectations. Or it could be that the movie was designed to end with more of a whimper than a bang.

Tagged: Books Into Film, David Cronenberg, Patrick McGrath, Reviews, Spider
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Best of Culture Snob Movies

Truth and Consequences

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If you think the subject of Atom Egoyan’s Ararat is the genocide in 1915 of 1.5 million Armenians by Turks (as most critics seem to believe), you’ll find the movie a confused mess. But reducing the film to that summary is akin to saying the director’s The Sweet Hereafter was about a bus accident, or that his Exotica was about strippers.

Tagged: Ararat, Atom Egoyan, Dramas, Misunderstood Movies, Reflexivity, Reviews
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Movies

Fixing Flawed Films

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Give me a pair of scissors and some tape and I can significantly improve some movies – those whose major flaws are easily corrected with some minor surgery. The movies might not be great when I’m done with them, but they’ll be a hell of a lot better than what I started with. Phone Booth is one example. I watched the movie and thought, “How did they fuck that up?”

Tagged: Filmmaking, Joel Schumacher, Reviews
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Movies

You Wouldn’t Like Me When I’m Bored

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Much of what’s been written about Hulk is true: It’s boring, lead Eric Bana gives a lifeless performance, the titular CGI creature looks more like a rubber ball than several hundred pounds of flesh and bone, and the script has all the sharpness and bite of flat soda. But there is a more fundamental problem with the project: the source material.

Tagged: Ang Lee, Hulk, Reviews, Superheroes
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