When Ben Affleck was filming Argo, the story of six Americans hiding out in Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, he had no idea he was also virtually making a movie about current events.
“I was stunned to see that the research that I looked at from 30-plus years ago all of a sudden [...]
Short reviews of films from this year's DC Shorts Film Festival
The trick with short films is that filmmakers don’t have time to flesh things out, but they risk rushing the story or being too vague. It’s a problem that pops up often throughout Showcase 16, with several of the entries lacking clarity or sufficient depth. There [...]
Reality, oddities, stress, and seeming superhumanism coexist in Showcase 5, which offers a few pretty-goods among the mostly mehs. If animation’s your thing, you’ve got a couple of highly original works here; if you’d rather see confrontation, there’s that, too. And one winner actually profiles a winner.
A Morning Stroll: Nominated for a Best Animated Short [...]
Short reviews of films from this year's DC Shorts Film Festival
There’s some serious star power in Showcase 3, but even without A-list elevation, most of these selections are top notch. You’ll laugh, get spooked, be touched, and the misfires are over quickly. How many features can offer that?
A Short Film About Ice Fishing: This short is [...]
Playwright, actress, and screenwriter Zoe Kazan has been seen—or not seen—in blink-and-you-missed-them indie films like Meek’s Cutoff and Happythankyoumoreplease. But the 28-year-old Los Angeles native is also the granddaughter of famed director Elia Kazan, which just about makes her Hollywood royalty. (Her parents are in the biz as well.)
Now she’s written her first movie, Ruby Sparks, [...]
It is flawed.
Yes, fanboys and -girls, The Dark Knight Rises is epic. And, yes, it ultimately provides a satisfying conclusion to Christopher Nolan’s stand-up-and-cheer trilogy. But it falls decidedly short of the magnificence that is its predecessor, The Dark Knight.
Oh, come on: Why so serious? You’ll still have a good time, and you’ll still be [...]
Sarah Polley’s second feature as a writer-director, Take This Waltz, is a quiet and at times aching look at depression, dissatisfaction in marriage, and what happens when something new comes along. Michelle Williams, continuing her streak of portraying unhappy women, gives another impressive performance as the melancholy, 28-year-old Margot, alternately looking radiant and weary as [...]
Steven Soderbergh knows what women want—and what dudes don't. His latest feature, Magic Mike, is an, ahem, intimate look at the world of male strippers. Obviously, the very subject potentially alienates a large segment of the population. Obviously, this is not what a director aims for.
And yet: “I think it’s not for men,” Soderbergh admits [...]
You’ll require the kiss of a prince to awaken you from the slumber induced by Snow White and the Huntsman, a dark but at times torturously dull retelling of the classic fairy tale. Though no one wanted a repeat of Mirror Mirror, the sillier Snow White film from earlier this year, Huntsman director Rupert Sanders [...]
The Kid With a Bike, by brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, is a slight story the makes a sizable emotional impact. There’s not much more to the plot than the title tells you: Young Cyril (Thomas Doret) is freaking out at the beginning of the film, refusing to accept that his father not only moved [...]
