Daily Archives: December 28, 2012

  “Liberal Arts” is to Josh Radnor what “The Five-Year Engagement” was to Jason Segel — a big screen extension of his small-screen “How I Met Your Mother” persona. Radnor’s second outing as a writer/director/star has him playing an overly … Continue reading →

They’re young, they’re tourists and they want to go where nobody gets to go, to have an experience to brag about when they get home. Visit Russia and Ukraine? You have GOT to sneak into long-off-limits radioactive dead zone around … Continue reading →

The first thing about “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is that it’s superfluous. The original Swedish films may be subtitled, with actors few outside of Sweden had heard of before they came out. But the shock of discovering the … Continue reading →

For ten years Emma Watson put her real life on hold as played the plucky Hermione Granger in the eight films that brought J. K. Rowling’s wizardly world of Harry Potter to the screen. It made her rich and famous … Continue reading →

Movie Review: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy   In the world of spy fiction, there’s John le Carre, and legions of mere mortals, the men and women who give us “Bourne” this and “Bond” that. And “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” le … Continue reading →

It takes little away from the quirky, deadpan comedy “Sleepwalk with Me” to say it worked better as a stand-up monologue. The monologue was exquisitely-timed and drawn out. The film, for a film, is short and droll. It’s slight. And … Continue reading →

“Sound of My Voice,” earlier this summer, reminded us that time travel is one corner of science fiction where you don’t have to break the bank to tell a convincing, thought-provoking tale on screen. “Safety Not Guaranteed” is a quirkier, … Continue reading →

There isn’t a trace of the ironic hipster in Jack Black’s performance in “Bernie,” the murderous anti-hero of Richard Linklater’s comic retelling of one of the more bizarre pieces of recent Texas criminal history. There’s nothing self-aware about the way … Continue reading →

It begins with a disaster, a huge one witnessed not from a distance, not via the safety of a TV news report, but up close and personal. The horror of the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 is made intimate, so … Continue reading →

It’s something to see, all right — this “Dark Knight Rises.” An epic finale to the Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale “Dark Knight” trilogy, it has the summer’s best effects, the summer’s highest stakes — Gotham City armageddon — the summer’s sexiest … Continue reading →