New to Blu-ray and DVD after a too-brief theatrical release, the indie drama is reminiscent of 1988’s Clean and Sober, also a sturdy-enough addiction movie that lives and dies on its central performance — in other words, one actor shoulders the entire burden, elevating what is otherwise unremarkable (but not incompetent) material. He or she […]
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The Millennium Bug
For his feature debut, The Millennium Bug, writer/director Kenneth Cran imagines that Something Actually Happened besides a world’s collective “whew!” Taking place on Dec. 31, 1999 (natch), the movie follows the Haskin family, whose three members head for the mountains in order to escape the panic and presumed riots. Instead, the happy campers find trouble […]
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Holy Motors
Now that the French film is out on DVD and Blu-ray, it’s the next best thing to the theatrical experience we were denied. Love it or hate it, Holy Motors is nothing if not an experience. Carax regular Denis Lavant (The Lovers on the Bridge) is front and center of this weird, wonderful ride as […]
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Compliance
In a role that should have earned her an Academy Award nomination (but I suspect the old-fart contingent couldn’t make it through the film, if it tried at all), Ann Dowd (Side Effects) gets the role of her long character-actress career as Sandra, manager of a fictional fast-food restaurant. Her shift at ChickWich starts as […]
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The Master
Up for three Academy Awards on Sunday, all for its main performances, the inspired-by-Scientology-but-not-really drama follows Navy vet Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line) as he returns home post-WWII to find he never really had a home to begin with. He doesn’t “fit” anywhere; his string of tenuous relationships — with women, with jobs […]
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Eastbound & Down: The Complete Third Season
In the longest season yet (eight episodes) of HBO’s raunchiest comedy, the washed-up, pot-bellied, coke-snorting blowhard Kenny Powers (Danny McBride, 30 Minutes or Less) now lives in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The change of locales, however, hasn’t changed him: The minor-league baseball pitcher remains a major-league asshole. In the season opener, an intoxicating reunion with April […]
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An affair to remember … or several
Credit: Brad Gregg “Life is short. Have an affair.” That’s the icky slogan of ashleymadison.com, an equally icky dating site for married people seeking something on the side. According to the company, a lot of folks in Oklahoma City are taking that advice to heart. Ashley Madison recently reported that OKC is the fifth most […]
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Bath Salt Zombies
Set in New York City, the film imagines such a huge crackdown on “bath salts” — a real-life drug currently making headlines for its zombie-like effects on users — that one enterprising chemist has synthesized it in cigarette form. Smoking it, however, proves even more addictive than usual, causing withdrawal symptoms so bad “it will […]
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Seven Psychopaths
Working again with McDonagh, Colin Farrell (Total Recall) is Marty, a screenwriter having troubles on the job — all he has on paper is a title — and at home with his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish, Sucker Punch). These pale to the life-or-death situation his slacker pal, Billy (Sam Rockwell, The Sitter), gets him into, involving […]
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Nobody Gets Out Alive
Good movies, regardless of classification, are going to come from those are filmmakers vs. fans. The current wave from the latter leaves a lot to be desired, as they approach projects from a narrow-focus angle that eschews objectivity and regurgitates a mishmash of titles they’ve seen without adding anything new. Recent offenders include Mimesis and […]