Review: Notorious

The Biggie Smalls biopic Notorious is, predictably enough, a family affair in numerous ways. Biggie’s mother, Voletta Wallace was involved extensively, even anointing Jamal Woolard as her son in an open casting call. Furthermore, her grandson, CJ Wallace, plays the young incarnation of his father apparently blissfully ignorant of the implications his performance entailed. While it is [...]

Review: Synecdoche, New York

A review of this film would be more inconsequential than usual and mere folderol to the spectacle of it all. Therefore, it is much more prudent to jot down some thoughts had a fair bit ago upon experiencing the piece. After all, Charlie Kaufman himself said Synecdoche is constructed more like a dream than a [...]

Review: Milk

Perhaps the unsung hero in the praised to the heavens Gus Van Sant helmed Harvey Milk biopic Milk is director of cinematography Harris Savides. Bringing the same visual acumen he did to Zodiac, Savides seems to have undeniably mastered the palette of the 1970s. The images he and Gus Van Sant put on the screen [...]

Review: Valkyrie

Bryan Singer had  a lot of potential.
Pretty much everybody who cared enjoyed The Usual Suspects. Everybody praised his take on Marvel’s beloved gang of organized misfits in X-Men. And X2 was well-received, as well.
But he has squandered his talents on his last two films. Superman Returns? No thank you, sir. He can go back to [...]

Review: Gran Torino

It is remarkable to consider the gifts of Clint Eastwood, a man with a near miraculous ability to tap into the ideological mainstream of American life while offering enough of a critique to justify it as art. Gran Torino is focused on the final days of a typical Eastwood character, Walt Kowalski. A veteran of [...]

Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

And what a curious case it is. Very loosely based on an F.Scott Fitzgerald short story of the same name, the film follows the titular protagonist Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) as he lives his life. Button journeys, loves and ultimately mourns just like any other man. The reason why his story is remarkable is that [...]

Review: The Wrestler

Film fans seeking to appreciate the remarkable range of Mickey Rourke, who plays aging wrestler Randy “The Ram” Ramsinski in Darren Arnofsky’s The Wrestler, should view Barry Levinson’s classic debut Diner and note Rourke’s charming performance as Boogie, the charismatic sweet talker always prepared with an anecdote and a wry, knowing smile. Now, Rourke’s face [...]

Review: The Dark Knight

The best comic book adaptation of all time. Heath Ledger is stunning.
-Vman
I agree. Everyone is stunning. The Nolans present a brilliant and dark film. Gary Oldman is great. Christian Bale’s Batman is the definitive screen portrait. His Bruce Wayne is a pitch-perfect playboy caricature. Heath Ledger is creepy, disturbing and utterly brilliant. He is the [...]

Review: The Wackness

A really great movie.
The performances are great. The film often looks really beautiful. There’s one shot, near the end of the film, that is just plain gorgeous. We see the characters of the excellently mopey and teenage Josh Peck and the brilliant Sir Ben Kingsley (Why hasn’t he overtaken Jack Nicholson yet? (or has he?)) [...]

TSV’s Consumer Guide: Summer Movies

In Christgauian spirit, instead of full reviews here are some quick and dirty opinions on the latest cinematic fare:
The Fall: Brilliant, original film-making and an excellent juxtaposition of the dark side of film: a suicidal actor (Lee Pace) with fantastical escapism narrates a story about a motley crew of outcasts taking on an evil governor [...]

Recap: Best Of 2007

If you haven’t noticed, it’s unlikely we will post any more detailed, comprehensive, elaborate posts about the media that appeared in 2007. But there’s this post. Which is slightly comprehensive (at least on the music side of things).
Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters by the Twilight Sad is the best album of 2007. Original, new, brilliant, [...]

Review: In Bruges

In Bruges is one of the most seriously misunderstood and underrated movies in recent memory. Other critics have blasted its misogynistic, racist and xenophobic undertones. What these critics fail to realize is that this is a movie about two Irish hitmen lying low in Bruges,Belgium after a job. The movie, written and directed by [...]

The Oscars are Tonight…

“It’s interesting to be nominated for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Screenplay, but not Best Picture. I don’t know what else you have to do to make a picture.”
- Julian Schnabel, director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. (In good humor he followed with, “But it’s all good . . .”)
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And [...]

Review: 3:10 to Yuma

3:10 to Yuma has two of the finest actors in recent memory, Russell Crowe and Christian Bale bring an intellectual sang froid and a brooding intensity to their respective roles, both delivering Oscar worthy performances. Sadly, this movie does not deserve lead performances of such caliber. Apparently, nobody showed up to work aside from Crowe [...]

Review: There Will Be Blood

There was blood. And great, groundbreaking film making. Paul Thomas Anderson does not make movies, he makes symphonies, scoring themes and grand ideas with his characters and their stories. He is also the farthest thing from a typical Hollywood director, straying from both the lowest common denominator Michael Bay esque school of thinking and the [...]