Rango (2011)
Heroes come in all different colors.
Filmmaker(s): Gore Verbinski
When Rango, a lost family pet, accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt.
10 Feb Rango (2011)
Corpus It is possible to decorate something ugly with beauty. It will still be essentially ugly, but have some attraction. Likewise, it is possible to have an ordinary movie, borrowing from others in an ordinary way, but to have some clever elaborative filmmaking. Verbinski is...
Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981)
Filmmaker(s): Emir Kusturica
A young man grows up in Sarajevo in the 1960s, under the shadow of his good, but ailing father, and gets attracted by the world of small-time criminals.
10 Feb Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981)
The Lost First Time Kusturica is something of a challenge for me to parse. The experience is a bit troubling because it seems so genuine that we should be ashamed for intruding. He does not seem to accomplish this by ordinary means. Yes, the acting...
Happythankyoumoreplease (2010)
Go Get Yourself Loved
Filmmaker(s): Josh Radnor
Captures a generational moment - young people on the cusp of truly growing up, tiring of their reflexive cynicism, each in their own ways struggling to connect and define what it means to love and be loved. Six New Yorkers juggle love, friendship, and the keenly challenging specter of adulthood. Sam Wexler is a struggling writer who's having a particularly bad day. When a young boy gets separated from his family on the subway, Sam makes the questionable decision to bring the child back to his apartment and thus begins a rewarding, yet complicated, friendship. Sam's life revolves around his friends — Annie, whose self-image keeps her from commitment; Charlie and Mary Catherine, a couple whose possible move to Los Angeles tests their relationship; and Mississippi, a cabaret singer who catches Sam's eye.
10 Feb Happythankyoumoreplease (2010)
Shorted Out If you live the life in films that I do, you will be offended when a filmmaker takes his responsibilities lightly. That is what I felt when watching this. The writer of the thing has made himself the central character: a writer who...
For Your Consideration (2006)
Success in Hollywood is as fragile as a rumor
Filmmaker(s): Christopher Guest
The possibility of Oscar gold holds the cast and crew of an independent film in its grip after the performance of its virtually unknown, veteran star generates awards buzz.
09 Feb For Your Consideration (2006)
The Posey Poses Guest has a very narrow vision, so the game is seeing the various ways he can surround it. He and all his friends are performers with at best b-list careers, and mostly less successful. They all have some talent and commitment but...
Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011)
Filmmaker(s): Robert Rodriguez
Eight years after the third film, the OSS has become the world's top spy agency, while the Spy Kids department has since become defunct. A retired spy Marissa is thrown back into the action along with her stepchildren when a maniacal Timekeeper attempts to take over the world. In order to save the world, Rebecca and Cecil must team up with their hated stepmother. Carmen and Juni have since also grown up and will provide gadgets to them.
09 Feb Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World (2011)
Multiple Copies I‘m aware that many people like to encounter films as a small, unchallenging adventure. That isn’t possible with me, but I have something similar: sometimes a simple film is a relaxed encounter with the filmmaker, a sort of illustrated visit in his home....
The President’s Analyst (1967)
Only two people on earth want Sidney Schaefer alive. Sidney Schaefer. And the President of the United States.
Filmmaker(s): Theodore J. Flicker
At first, Dr. Sidney Schaefer feels honored and thrilled to be offered the job of the President's Analyst. But then the stress of the job and the paranoid spies that come with a sensitive government position get to him, and he runs away. Now spies from all over the world are after him, either to get him for their own side or to kill him and prevent someone else from getting him.
09 Feb The President’s Analyst (1967)
Surrogates The gas has cooled on this balloon, and the (political) Earth shifted underneath. But that makes it a bit more enjoyable if you come to this for the structure. The story device is simple: cold war spy versus spy, only to learn that the...
Rubber (2010)
Are you TIRED of the expected?
Filmmaker(s): Quentin Dupieux
A group of people gather in the California desert to watch a "film" set in the late 1990s featuring a sentient, homicidal car tire named Robert. The assembled crowd of onlookers watch as Robert becomes obsessed with a beautiful and mysterious woman and goes on a rampage through a desert town.
09 Feb Rubber (2010)
Erasure I have a hard time with films like this. On the one hand, it explicitly deals with concepts that attract me. It is very clever and well enough put together. But there is balance between art meant to affect you and essays about the...
L’iceberg (2005)
Fiona is the manager of a fast-food restaurant. She lives comfortably with her family in the suburbs. In other words, Fiona is happy... until one day she accidentally gets locked into a walk-in fridge. She escapes the next morning, half frozen and barely alive, only to realize that her husband and two children didn't even notice she was missing. But when Fiona develops an obsession for everything cold and icy: snow, polar bears, fridges, icebergs--she drops everything, climbs into a frozen goods delivery truck and leaves home. For a real iceberg.
09 Feb L’iceberg (2005)
Purity I’ve seen one other project from this couple, ‘Rumba.‘ I liked it, but this one seems so much better, less cute and choreographed. All storytelling is about abstraction. Sometimes that can be done in ways that by agreement, we see as invisible. We think...
Cars 2 (2011)
Take a trip. See the sights. Save the world.
Filmmaker(s): John Lasseter
Star race car Lightning McQueen and his pal Mater head overseas to compete in the World Grand Prix race. But the road to the championship becomes rocky as Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage.
