Film section: Metro Weekly

Fly Guys

In ''Chronicle,'' rookie director Josh Trank chains himself to a distracting gimmick

Published on February 3, 2012, 3:31pm

There's not much depth to Chronicle. In spite of a unique take on the traditional superhero origin story, rookie director Josh Trank and screenwriter Max Landis fizzle out by chaining themselves to a documentary-style gimmick that's both unnecessary and distracting. Fueled by anger about his drunken dad and terminally ill mom, Andrew (Dane DeHaan) buys a video camera and starts to record every minute of his life. When he gets yanked to a high-school rave with his cousin Matt (Alex ...[more]

Review: The Innkeepers

With ''The Inkeepers,'' Ti West provides minimalist horror with slow-burning scares and unbearable tension

Published on February 3, 2012, 9:12am

The Innkeepers, like all of Ti West's horror, is an exercise in slow-burning scares. He short-circuits nerves with anxiety, using sober creeps to ratchet up tension to an unbearable degree, then tacks on a few more for good measure. His is a throwback style, a minimalist horror that's inspired by Stanley Kubrick, but not ashamed to pluck anything else that came before it either. If nothing else, that method is good for great horror. West's The House of the ...[more]

Man Power

Glenn Close and Janet McTeer give Oscar-worthy performances in the gender-bending Albert Nobbs, so why isn't the film any good?

Published on January 26, 2012, 4:22am

Albert Nobbs should work. Hell, it already did work on stage thirty years ago when Glenn Close raked in off-Broadway acclaim and first aspired to put the story on film, so why not again? Close is a brilliant actress, working with a familiar role in a familiar medium. Shouldn't that enough to get Nobbs good? Guess not. ALBERT NOBBS Starring Glenn Close, Janet McTeer Rated R 113 Minutes Opens Friday E Street Cinema Close ...[more]

Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

''Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'' suffers a fate of its own cloying, manipulative design.

Published on January 20, 2012, 11:48am

I can't give Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close a chance. It's bullheaded and downright selfish of me, but I just can't do it. Seconds into the film's opening credit sequence, when a falling man flails in slow motion against a clear blue sky, any possibility of my evenhanded criticism vanishes. I won't abide Sept. 11 exploitation in art – and this damn thing leads with it. Adapted from the Jonathan Safran Foer novel of the same name, the film follows ...[more]

Review: Corman's World

A new documentary celebrates the legendary filmmaker Roger Corman, who launched some impressive Hollywood careers

Published on January 12, 2012, 4:31am

If Jack Nicholson and Martin Scorsese trash a director's films, saying that ''nobody was trying to make them good,'' or that ''taste was out of the question,'' odds are that the guy won't last long in Hollywood. But for Roger Corman, the master of all things exploitative, it's high praise that explains an oddly prolific career. Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel never stops tickling itself about that success. Focused on the first half of Corman's career, director Alex ...[more]

From Short to Feature

For years, Dee Rees honed her craft, resulting in a critically acclaimed film, ''Pariah,'' about a young black lesbian's coming out

Published on January 5, 2012, 5:13am

''I set out to write well-rounded characters,'' says Dee Rees of her filmmaking debut, Pariah. ''Each one has their own wants, their own needs, their own dreams. They don't just exist to make [the main character's] life hard or help her along the way.'' That kind of thoughtfulness about character imbues Pariah with a common poignancy. As Adepero Oduye, the actor who plays the budding lesbian Alike, explains, it helped her understand what's fueled the movie's growing popularity. {'Pariah' director ...[more]

Coming Out

Personal, stirring and poignant, ''Pariah'' is the finest coming-of-age movie to find its way into theaters in years

Published on January 5, 2012, 5:10am

In the wrong hands, Pariah could have easily settled as the sum of its parts. Its premise -- a poignant look at a black teenage lesbian's life in Brooklyn -- was catnip for the festival circuit when it landed at Sundance last year. With that appeal, plus executive producer Spike Lee's backing and a sprinkle of luck, the movie sounds like a tidy, by-the-numbers introduction for writer and director Dee Rees. Under Rees's careful eye, however, Pariah is anything but. ...[more]

The Best and Worst Movies of 2011

The year gave us a bounty of film magic, as well as cinematic sore points

Published on December 29, 2011, 2:11am

The past year has been fantastic for moviegoers. More so than any other year in recent memory, the best films of 2011 are incredibly different – in tone, in style, and in direction. Sure, there were duds too. But in between, a handful of directors took risks and played against type to create things thoughtful, compelling and wholly entertaining. The Best 1. Drive -- Ryan Gosling and Nicolas Winding Refn distill the action drama to its coolest core with Drive, ...[more]

Tattoo Paradise

David Fincher has put his personal stamp on a compelling murder mystery, ''Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,'' delivering a film that's exceptionally thrilling to watch

Published on December 22, 2011, 5:35am

I might as well admit it -- I've never read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. When I sat down to watch director David Fincher's film, itself a remake of a Swedish adaptation, I knew next to nothing about Stieg Larsson's mega-hit novel. Perhaps Law and Order: Scandinavia? With a pierced, neo-goth heroine? And Nazis? For that ignorance, I'm quite thankful. Dragon Tattoo, without prior conceptions of its characters and their stories, is downright thrilling to watch. (Or, considering the ...[more]

Nostalgic Adventure

Spielberg delivers a Tintin for the 21st century with nostalgia for the initiated, thrills for the newcomers

Published on December 22, 2011, 5:31am

Of those heading to the movies this holiday season, plenty should find their way to The Adventures of Tintin. After all, the days off and family overload make the multiplexes very tempting. Add to that the Steven Spielberg directing credit and the motion-capture 3D magic, and it's no wonder the Ubisoft video-game version hit the shelves before the movie hit the screens. In those theater seats, a quick and dirty distinction is that some will be new to Tintin, some ...[more]

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