November 2011
10 posts
4 tags
The Week In Review: "My Week With Marilyn"
J. Edgar, Clint Eastwood’s ponderous biopic about FBI founding director J. Edgar Hoover, trips up in trying to cover the entire span of its subject’s career, from his early days at the Department of Justice to his last hard-boiled breakfast. My Week With Marilyn, the season’s other major biopic, wisely takes a more focused approach with its treatment of Marilyn Monroe. Where Eastwood tried...
23 tags
Love and Undeath: "Twilight," Misandry, and the...
With a sense of trepidation and mild disbelief, I bought myself a ticket on Monday to see Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part One, with the idea that I should see what all the fuss is about. I emerged two hours later, rueful, even a little shell-shocked: there really are some things that you’ll never be able to un-see, and Twilight, as it turns out, is one of them.
The important question, though, isn’t...
12 tags
The Week in Review: "The Descendants"
The medium of film, in being both narrative and visual, is uniquely equipped to satisfy our fascination with the unknown. That’s why people love science fiction and fantasy movies, set in the far reaches of space or worlds that bear no resemblance to our own. It’s why we have so many movies about people on the margins, priests and prostitutes both, who exist to most of us as fascinating...
19 tags
Film Favorites: The Other "The Three Musketeers"
First in an occasional series in which I’ll break down why I love some of my favorite movies. A few weeks ago, I went to see Paul W. S. Anderson’s new version of The Three Musketeers, which was predictably loathsome. For me, its awfulness was a bit of a relief, because, as I mentioned in my review, my favorite movie of all time is probably the 1993 adaptation of the same story. In that...
17 tags
The Week in Review: "J. Edgar"
If there is such a thing as a ‘prestige’ picture, J. Edgar must be its apotheosis, a biopic focusing on a controversial, influential figure in 20th century history, directed by the iconic elder statesman of American cinema (Clint Eastwood), and starring the actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is at this moment the biggest movie star in the world. It’s the sort of movie that gets made in order to win...
5 tags
Jacobean Jentleman on Google+ →
The Jentleman is now on Google Plus. Follow him there if that’s easier for you.
14 tags
A Possible Future of the Movies
Last weekend, I went down to Boston’s waterfront district to get lunch with my father and a family friend at the Institute of Contemporary Art, a vaguely Lego-like building that represents the modernist vanguard in a city that tends towards artistic conservatism. After lunch, we decided to wander around the museum; in so doing, I came, eventually, to video artist Isaac Julien’s “Ten Thousand...
13 tags
The Week in Review: "Tower Heist"
When I first heard about the project, my considered opinion was that Tower Heist had only one possible outcome: disaster. The premise smelled like a watered-down rip-off of Ocean’s 11, and its two biggest stars (Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy) haven’t exactly been making quality pictures lately. Even worse, it’s helmed by Brett Ratner, a director who’s justifiably earned a reputation for being one...
12 tags
Men Against a System: "In Time" and the Hollywood...
At a cultural moment when Occupy Wall Street has income inequality squarely in the public eye, last weekend’s flop of In Time seems hard to fathom. Rarely does a movie intersect so deftly with the immediate preoccupations of the day: New Regency’s sci-fi thriller is set in a world where time is literally money, with society structured so that the rich can live forever while the poor die young as...
10 tags
The Week in Review: "Martha Marcy May Marlene"
The narrative that Fox Searchlight has fashioned for Martha Marcy May Marlene is that it’s a ‘star-is-born’ vehicle for Elizabeth Olsen, younger sister of Mary Kate and Ashley. That makes sense in the grueling in-or-out fall movie season, where everything is either some sort of Oscar contender or falls totally off the radar; FS is doubtless looking to secure a Best Actress nomination for Olsen...
