Daily Archives: December 29, 2012

What makes a film a classic? What causes a movie, in an age when nobody watches old movies, to grow in esteem, to become timeless, to burn itself into world culture as a legendary work of art? Sometimes, it’s an … Continue reading →

To the uninitiated, the British TV comedy “The In Betweeners” is but a “horny teenager” movie writ large, peppered with the foulest British slang, a short series stuffed with jaw-dropping vulgarity and craven crassness. Every boys-on-the-make cliche under the sun … Continue reading →

Celeste of “Celeste & Jesse Forever” is a professional trend-watcher, someone who can size up people, ideas and “brands” based on demographic data and simple observation. One trend she might pick up on is the one “Forever” represents. In a … Continue reading →

Gritty, gory and violent, “Machine Gun Preacher” is a better action picture than it is an uplifting story about a violent man who found religion and a cause and became better for it. Because that, this Marc Forster film suggests, … Continue reading →

  “The Sessions” is a sentimental, feel-good romance about pity sex.That’s not how it’s pitched, of course. The story of a paralyzed polio victim/journalist/poet (John Hawkes) who engages a sexual surrogate — a therapist who teaches him how to have … Continue reading →

“Oh yes, he is wounded,” the war hero’s mother exults at the news her son is returning home. “I thank the gods for it!” Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave, fierce and feral) proceeds to list her offspring’s many cuts and injuries gained … Continue reading →

In a corner of Tokyo’s Ginza subway station sits a simple little restaurant of white walls and blond wood and just ten seats –Sukiyabashi Jiro. And in it, presides the oldest chef ever to earn a three star Michelin rating … Continue reading →

Every movement has its founder, its days of working out its sacred text and its first fanatical acolyte. And it doesn’t matter if the founder is Mary Baker Eddy, Joseph Smith, Ayn Rand or Mohammad, the details are going to … Continue reading →

It’s a standing joke in the music industry, an artist, frustrated by the lack of success in North America, hearing the consolation prize from an agent or record producer. “But you’re HUGE in Australia” or Korea or Brazil or wherever. … Continue reading →

The heady Christmas Day opening of “Les Miserables” spiked it to a nice lead in the box office for the week, but Friday night — the night when fanboys and single guys hit the movies the movie — pushed “The … Continue reading →