I will make no apologies: Jordan Belfort is a greedy, shortsighted leech on society, and I hope The Wolf of Wall Street is his swan song. To me, this real-life Wall Street mogul represents everything that can go wrong with the human spirit. To quote him directly, he is nothing but pond scum. And yet […]
12 Years a Slave
For as long as cinema has existed, there have been movies about human atrocity. It’s one of our favorite things to tell stories about. The optimist would say that these films help us to heal wounds, to work through difficult cultural memories by recreating them in a dramatized context. The pessimist would say that these […]
Rush
Rush. A short title. Onomatopoetic, monosyllabic. It doesn’t suggest a specific time, place or personality. It simply evokes a feeling. And at its strongest, Ron Howard’s latest film is just that: an uncomplicated expression of raw emotion. That’s not to say Howard doesn’t do a good job with the rest of the storytelling. Howard and […]
Enough Said
It is sobering to know that this is one of the last times we’ll see James Gandolfini’s big, friendly face in theaters. From meteoric rise in the public consciousness with the HBO series The Sopranos to smaller roles in films like Zero Dark Thirty and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, he never missed a beat, bringing even […]
The Hunt
What would you do if a child erroneously accused you of abuse? Nobody should have to answer a question like this. Unfortunately Lucas (Mads Mikkelsen), the kindhearted protagonist in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, finds himself in this very situation. Following a direct accusation from a young girl named Klara (Annika Wedderkopp) in his kindergarten class, […]
The Way Way Back
I had a much older trombone-playing friend growing up named Stan. He was someone I rarely interacted with outside of music, but I grew into an adult playing my upright bass right alongside him in my temple’s intergenerational klezmer band. Pointing to my now comically small quarter-sized bass, he always used to say, “I remember […]
Much Ado About Nothing
Expectations are a funny thing, and they almost always get the better of us. Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing is a craftily made Shakespeare adaptation with great performances all around, but you would do well to expect more Bard, less Whedon. That Whedon was able to make this adaptation on a micro-budget, film it […]
The Story of Luke
In Alonso Mayo’s debut film The Story of Luke, Luke (Lou Taylor Pucci), a twenty-five-year-old autistic man, grew up never knowing his parents. His mother abandoned him when he was young, and he never knew his father. He was raised and sheltered by his grandparents. After his grandmother dies, he finds himself living alongside his […]
Quartet
Quartet is a quiet drama-comedy that tells the story of four older men and women living at Beecham House, a home for retired musicians, and their struggle to maintain their identities as they reach old age. Well-known as a prolific and successful actor, Dustin Hoffman decided to step behind the camera for Quartet, his first […]
Elza (Le bonheur d’Elza)
Directed and co-written by Mariette Monpierre, Elza (also known as Le bounheur d’Elza) is notable for being the first narrative film by a female Guadeloupean director. The film is a semi-autobiographical independent drama about a young French woman and her search to find her estranged father in Guadaloupe. However, despite the promise of a highly personal, beautifully shot […]
Promised Land
When I saw the first TV spots for Promised Land back in late November, I mostly ignored the actual content of the advertisement in favor of the text that ran right after the title. It looked like this: That list of names got me all hot and bothered. Notoriously hit-or-miss director Gus Van Sant (Good […]
Not Fade Away
While I am an avid HBO original series enthusiast (Rome, Deadwood, etc.), I admit never got acquainted with David Chase’s The Sopranos. I remember the show’s rise and its subsequent immense popularity, but I was too young at the time to start watching and I haven’t found the time to since. In any case, the […]
Cloud Atlas
After seeing Cloud Atlas, I completely understood why it received such mixed reviews from critics. From the moment the film opens, it is immediately apparent that it is no ordinary Hollywood story. But does the risk of “uniqueness” make or break the film? Personally, I believe it was a brilliant choice. I can definitely say audiences […]
Lincoln
Lincoln could have been a terrible film. Steven Spielberg has little left to prove at this point, having directed some of the very best genre films ever made. As if to confirm my fears about the film, the first trailer for Lincoln sported cheesy melodramatic dialogue hammed up by a boring stock orchestral track. Sitting down at […]
The Big Picture
“You can hide from your past, but you can never erase it.” With that simple tagline, it becomes clear that The Big Picture is a movie we’ve seen before: a successful man does something unspeakable, and spends a good deal of time trying to bury his transgression. It is unfortunate that director Eric Lartigau, who […]
Argo
Ben Affleck has had a strange career. As far back as his early films with Kevin Smith (Chasing Amy, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), he’s taken a lot of flack for his acting. But the moment he got behind the camera with Gone Baby Gone, audiences and critics put away their complaints as they […]
Looper
I feel it is only fair to warn you that there are very light spoilers for Looper in the review below. I have seen the movie and can assure you they are absolutely far from important given how complex the film is, but if you’re one of those people who wants to go into the movie completely fresh, I […]
Seven Psychopaths
The McDonagh family has some serious talent. Both Martin, the writer/director of In Bruges, and his brother John Michael McDonagh, writer/director of The Guard, have produced two of the best dark comedies of the 21st century. Martin in particular feels in many ways like a subtler, more poignant Tarantino, combining morbid violence with ingenious dialogue and meaningful emotion. […]
The Master
Paul Thomas Anderson is a director who thrives on being pensive. This, unfortunately, tends to clash with his directorial style. His stories often feel like twigs strewn across a body of water, loosely tied together by vague ideas and tangential connections. Sometimes that underlying body of water is a puddle, shallow and superficial, while at […]
The Intouchables
Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s latest film is a fascinating character study that approaches many of the themes handled in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. And while it doesn’t quite match the dramatic depth or raw honesty of that film, The Intouchables largely succeeds in its marriage of emotion and humor. As a sylistic, feel-good flick with strong individual elements, […]
The Bourne Legacy with Mike and Søren
Here’s how our Dueling Reviews format works: each contributor writes an independent, abbreviated, spoiler-free review of the film. Then, the contributors come together in a podcast and discuss the movie in depth. Mike’s Review A week after I saw The Bourne Legacy, a friend called me up telling me that he was going to see it that […]
The Dark Knight Rises with Søren and Stuart
Here’s how our Dueling Reviews format works: each contributor writes an independent, abbreviated, spoiler-free review of the film. Then, the contributors come together in a podcast and discuss the movie in depth. Søren’s Review At this point, I think that most people are aware that I just plain old didn’t like The Dark Knight. The film won endless […]
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Each time the Sundance Film Festival rolls around, there are two categories of film which make the news: those that are so far off of the deep end that people become visibly upset by what they see on-screen, and those that people view as possible Oscar contenders for Best Picture. Beasts of the Southern Wild, a film depicting […]
Take Shelter
Back in 2011, a little film called Take Shelter made waves in the critical world. Starring Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire) and Jessica Chastain (The Help, Tree of Life), Take Shelter explores one man’s struggle with his responsibilities as a father and a husband. Amidst the drama, a helping of science fiction permeates the landscape and throughout the film, the […]
The Guard by Mike and Søren
This is our first official Movie Fail podcast review. In this segment, Søren and guest reviewer Mike look at John Michael McDonagh’s The Guard, starring Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, and Mark Strong. Listen to the podcast below, or download it here. Mike’s Verdict: Movie Win Søren’s Verdict: Movie Win Score: 95% Update: This post spurred an interesting […]
Drive
Drive is Nicholas Winding Refn’s first return to a crime story since his final installment in the Pusher series, but the director winds up hewing to close to his own conventions to make truly compelling cinema. When I first sat down to watch Drive, I was not entirely sure what I what sort of film […]
Another Earth
On paper, Brit Marling’s Another Earth has an intriguing premise revolving around the possibility of another Earth-like planet suddenly appearing in our sky. This planet is easily within communication distance to our own home world, and the possibilities for a high-concept, low-budget sci-fi film seem endless. Sadly, the film merely implies a lot of squandered potential, a […]
Monsters
Writer/director Gareth Edwards made a big splash in 2010 when he released his first feature-length film Monsters, which he reportedly made for a paltry $500,000. Working with a crew of just seven people that traveled by van around across five countries in only three weeks, Edwards had high ambitions – his mission was to create an authentic romantic […]
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the second film adaptation of the Stieg Larsson novel by the same name. The film follows the story of investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) and hacker Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), and how they get wrapped up in a tangled web of mystery relating to the dreadfully dysfunctional […]
The Artist
At this point, you’ve probably heard that The Artist is a beautifully conceived tribute to the era of silent filmmaking – but I would like to reiterate this fact because of how well writer/director Michael Hazanavicius pulled off this feat. Dealing with emotional themes like failure, change, loss, and growth, the period setting of The Artist allows for […]
A Dangerous Method
As tempting as it is, I will try and get through this entire review without making any bad puns. A name like Jung is just begging for it, but I shall resist. David Cronenberg’s newest film, A Dangerous Method, is an in intriguing portrait of two of the biggest names in psychology and the patient […]
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tomas Alfredson is an incredible director whose other internationally-acclaimed film, Let the Right One In, was easily one of the best movies of the last decade. Well, now he’s back and I am very pleased to say that his latest effort, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, easily matches up to his impressive debut. First and foremost comes […]
Gran Torino with Tim and Chad (Archive)
This is from the archives, back when Movie Fail was just two high school kids and a computer. For this installment, Tim and Chad review Gran Torino, directed by starring Clint Eastwood. The cast also includes Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Brian Haley, Geraldine Hughes, Dreama Walker, and Brian Howe. Tim’s Verdict: Movie Win Chad’s Verdict: Movie Win Score: […]
