Monthly Archives: July 2014

There’s something about a good spy novel that says “fall,” and the best films in that genre reflect this. The skies are overcast, a sort of pale gun-metal grey. Everything is rain and shadows, all the better for skulking about … Continue reading →

  The Alamo Drafthouse down Austin way has long had a way with PSAs asking patrons to STFU or face the consequences. Here’s Richard Linklater, the Godfather of Austin’s slackers and indie film scene, giving advice on how to deal … Continue reading →

  Rare is the weekend when every single new movie opening carries no bragging rights or “fresh” ratings on Rottentomatoes or passing grades on Metacritic. I liked “Wish I Was Here” more than most. Here’s a movie being criticized for … Continue reading →

The clever conceit behind James DeMonaco’s 2013 sleeper hit “The Purge” was not that American society had resolved its crime/inequality/population problems with an annual free-pass-for-murder “purge.” It was that this hell night came home to roost on isolated, gated suburbanites, … Continue reading →

The unholy bond between religion and politics is the background for “Persecuted,” a confused and confusing thriller about a TV preacher ruined by a sinister government plot.Written and directed by Daniel Lusko, who has Christian documentaries among his credits, and … Continue reading →

　 “Sex Tape” is not quite the train wreck its TV ads make it out to be. Which turns out to be the good news as far as this last and least of the big R-rated comedies of summer goes. … Continue reading →

“Planes: Fire & Rescue” is roughly twice as good as its predecessor, “Planes,” which was so story-and-laugh starved it would have given “direct-to-video” a bad name. Yes, there was nowhere to go but up.The sequel’s story is about something — … Continue reading →

I was finishing up an interview with “Control” and “The American” and “A Most Wanted Man” director Anton Corbijn, and we’d switched to just chatting about his current project, “Life,” a movie about a photographer for Life Magazine (Robert Pattinson) … Continue reading →

Zach Braff’s “Wish I Was Here” is a sweet and jokey feature film that is so at home in the punchline rhythms of TV sitcoms that you may think to yourself, “When’s his best friend/former “Scrubs” co-star Donald Faison showing … Continue reading →