While you’re at it, give Magic Magic credit for being something different, even if it ultimately proves a disappointment. Written and directed by one Sebastián Silva, the Chilean-set chiller sends Alicia (Juno Temple, Killer Joe) on her first trip outside the United States. She joins cousin Sarah (Emily Browning, Sucker Punch) and a few of […]
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Posted inArts & Culture
Amour
In other words, the guy is definitely not the lovey-dovey type. But that unblinking, cold-blooded aesthetic is largely what makes Amour, coming to home video after an Academy Award win for Best Foreign Language Film, so remarkable. In its depiction of an elderly Parisian couple coming to terms with illness and looming death, the film […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Dark Angel
Oh, well. At least it’s finally available on Blu-ray, so I can ditch the MGM burned-on-demand DVD (an overdue 2011 release that finally allowed me to ditch my VHS — Google it, kids). Any Dolph Lundgren fan worth his weight in protein powder knows how welcome this high-def release from Shout! Factory is. In a […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Disorderlies
While most of it is my fault, I like to take comfort in the idea that I was doomed from the get-go: • Blame a Depression-era father who forced me to clean my plate through shame and guilt.• Blame a public school free-lunch system that taught gravy as a food group.• Blame cable television for being so […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Errors of the Human Body
Fresh from relishing villainy in The Call, the near-unrecognizable Michael Eklund cleans up nice as Dr. Geoffrey Burton, a reluctant geneticist specializing in embryonic abnormalities for very personal reasons. He leaves the University of Massachusetts behind to continue his controversial research in Dresden, Germany — a far less-politicized environment. But Eron Sheean’s film is not […]
Posted inNews
Clear History is a feature-length showcase for the comedian’s masochism.
BY DEAN ROBBINS All of us Curb Your Enthusiasm fans were suspicious when writer-star Larry David suspended the series to work on an HBO movie. But we needn’t have worried. Clear History is like an extended episode of Curb, with even bigger and better humiliations for the Larry David stand-in (Saturday, 8 p.m.). Here he […]
Posted inMusic
Them Hounds — Them Hounds
Given the parameters of what actually constitutes the blues, it’s easy to see why: There just aren’t that many variations of the genre’s 12-bar framework that retain that “bluesy feel.” Instead, its divergences usually come in the form of vocal variance and guitar solos, and Them Hounds thrive within these confines. Two things immediately jump […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Call
Halle Berry (Cloud Atlas) leads the show as Jordan Turner, a veteran 911 operator in Los Angeles. (If anything, she should dial 911 for help with her distracting hairdo.) In the prologue, she’s giving questionable advice to a girl who calls about a prowler, resulting in the teen’s death. Six months later, Jordan is still […]
Posted inArts & Culture
This Is the End
I wasted so much of my 20s hanging out with these 420-types, sitting bored in their thrift-store-furnished living rooms, desperately looking at my watch while the person who was usually my ride sank deeper and deeper into the couch as the thick whiffs of chronic sunk deeper and deeper into their lungs. They were all […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Dead Souls
Steve Niles’ Remains comic-book miniseries is terrific; Michael Laimo’s Dead Souls novel was average even by horror-paperback standards. Both resulting movies were directed by Colin Theys and written by John Doolan (the team behind Chiller’s inaugural telepic, Alien Opponent, not considered here because it’s not based on pre-existing material). Both also reside on a similar […]