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Take Shelter 2011
I love this movie so much, save for that one Oscar-baity scene where Shannon has a breakdown in front of a bunch of people.
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End of Watch 2012
With some fish-eye shots and the general mash-up of various digital cameras (many of them diegetically placed), END OF WATCH aesthetically feels like Neveldine/Taylor in first gear, hyperactive but not transgressive. That the direction ends up almost working is a testament to how much its ADHD surprisingly gels with the actors' superbly scripted conversations. These cops are not allegorical, nor must they wrestle with the entire moral guilt of the streets. They seem a bit too sharp in their comebacks…
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John Carter 2012
Don't understand the pile-on for this. If you can get past the admittedly ill-advised burst of exposition that opens the film, it becomes a genuinely rousing, giddy old-school adventure epic that is refreshingly free of irony and cares for its characters. It invests so much of them, in fact, that I was sad to think that they almost certainly won't make a franchise of this. At least I can read the books to see their further adventures.
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TRON: Legacy 2010
How can a film this utterly lame be so watchable? I don't even think the Daft Punk score is that amazing, at least when not married to those empty but shiny effects.
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Burn After Reading 2008
I sincerely love this film. The Coens' ultimate shaggy dog story.
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Blue Valentine 2010
Every flashback or flash-forward timed to cut at the exact nadir or zenith of the preceding scene so that aborted sex in the present becomes playful consummation in the past, or an admission of love slams into the end of it. The climactic intermingling of elopement and dissolution makes the finale of The Godfather look spontaneous. The film is schematic to the point of cheap exploitation, which blunts its improv mumbles with thudding scenes of scripted thematic statement that bring…
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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone 2001
So clumsy. Will never understand how Columbus became one of Spielberg's big protegés. Well, maybe I can: Columbus plays like the tagalong kid brother of Steve and George, all candy colors and whimsy without Spielberg's capacity for elegance or even Lucas' brand of blockbuster assault. Shit, even the John Williams score feels like warmed-up leftovers of his most overbearing work, making for a loud, clanging score that sounds like someone stuck a microphone in the gears of a music box.…
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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2004
The books quickly moved beyond the early sense of giddiness that informed Rowling's world, but that whimsy only ever creeps into the movies that adapt the darkest of the series. Cuaron's palette is significantly more muted than the brighter candy colors of Columbus' films, yet he takes the time to truly explore Hogwarts, to dart through its giant tumblers and vast corridors, to establish the sanctity and shelter offered by the castle grounds that is roughly violated by both criminals…
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Jack Reacher 2012
Dull as dirt twist-plotting visible from miles away, enlivened only by the occasional wry violence and the head-trip of seeing Werner Herzog as the villain. Reacher is presented as Sherlock-esque, yet so many keep getting the jump on him that his level of all-seeing omniscience appears to be tied to sheer plot convenience. Still, (bitten-off) fingers crossed for a Herzog commentary track for the DVD.
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Death Proof 2007
Underrated the hell out of this one. Until Inglourious Basterds, QT's masterpiece. First half straight homage-pastiche, second half feminist deconstruction of same. Displays a patience one does not associate with the ADD director.
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Dark Shadows 2012
The worst thing Tim Burton has ever done. Lacks even the ambition of Planet of the Apes.
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 2005
Easy come, easy go. Granted, this is the most action-centric of the books, but the slide back into purely expository filmmaking, all empty spectacle and fan-pandering inclusions, is depressing. None of the tasks has any stakes, and the climatic confrontation with a revived Voldemort is the highlight by default, though it too lacks the creeping dread the same scene had on the page, that sense of something catastrophically unstoppable about to occur. And did the actors suddenly get worse? Emma…
