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Written by Mike Schulz
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Sunday, 29 January 2012 15:38 |
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THE GREY
Whenever I watch a movie such as Alive or The Thing or director Joe Carnahan’s The Grey – especially in January – I ask myself the same question: Is it worth it? I know about cinematic sleight-of-hand, of course, and that the performers and crew aren’t enduring anywhere near the nightmarish conditions suffered by the characters on-screen. I also presume that a fat Hollywood paycheck instantly makes any location shooting, including The Grey’s outdoor shoot in wintry British Columbia, a lot more bearable. But still, all that ice and wind and trudging through thigh-deep snow ... . Is any movie experience worth spending three months in fear of losing your digits to frostbite?
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Written by Mike Schulz
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Monday, 23 January 2012 09:38 |
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THE ARTIST
In the spirit of Michel Hazanavicius’ extraordinary silent-film celebration The Artist, I considered offering a review that, likewise, didn’t offer much in the way of verbal language – just a smiley-face emoticon in the biggest font possible. And after two viewings (so far) of this intimate yet grandly ambitious comedy, I’m still not sure that a review filled with actual words will offer a more thorough expression of the rapturous pleasure it fills me with; upon leaving Hazanavicius’ exhilarating experiment in black and white, both times, I haven’t felt the urge to talk about it so much as sit back and reflect on it with a huge grin plastered to my face.
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Written by Mike Schulz
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Monday, 23 January 2012 09:34 |
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EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE
The protagonist of director Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close – based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s famed 9/11/01-themed novel and adapted by screenwriter Eric Roth – is Oskar Schell, an 11-year-old Manhattanite who tells a new acquaintance that he was once tested for Asperger’s syndrome, but that “the results weren’t definitive.” My first thought upon hearing that admission was that Oskar’s folks really should’ve sought a second opinion, because with young actor Thomas Horn tearing through breathless reams of stream-of-consciousness dialogue, his condition seemed definitive as all-get-out. My second thought, which I only fully composed during the end credits, and which I apologize for in advance, was that watching Extremely Loud was like watching a movie while an 11-year-old with Asperger’s yammers in your ear for 130 minutes.
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Written by Mike Schulz
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Sunday, 15 January 2012 15:20 |
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THE IRON LADY
It’s hardly a newsflash that over the past several years – well, forever, really – Meryl Streep has treated us to a run of extraordinary performances, and her Margaret Thatcher in the screen biography The Iron Lady is one of the most extraordinary of them all. Yet the vexing question regarding Streep’s indelible work of late isn’t “How does she keep doing it?” It’s “How does she keep doing it with so little help from her directors?”
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Written by Mike Schulz
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Monday, 09 January 2012 09:36 |
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TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
You know that handy, lame, relationship-ending sentiment “It’s not you; it’s me”? That’s what I feel like saying to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the new adaptation of the famed John le Carré novel. I readily concede that director Tomas Alfredson’s spy thriller is beautifully made, boasting engaged, cagey performances and a number of superbly shot set pieces. But for all of the film’s merits, I found myself hugely relieved when its end credits rolled, because Alfredson’s intensely complicated endeavor appeared so much smarter than I am that I took almost no pleasure from the experience. My issue isn’t that the movie is a dog. It’s that, for most of Tinker Tailor’s 125 minutes, I felt like a dog watching a movie.
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More Articles...
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A Good Movie? Aye. A Great Movie? Neigh.: "War Horse," "We Bought a Zoo," "My Week with Marilyn," and "The Darkest Hour"
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Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Loathe Them: “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” “The Adventures of Tintin,”and “Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked”
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Choose to Accept It: "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," "Young Adult," and "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows"
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War, Strife, and the House of Payne: "The Sitter," "Like Crazy," "Margin Call," "The Descendants," "New Year's Eve," and "Dog Jack"
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Hoofin' It: "Arthur Christmas"
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Play the Music! Light the Lights!: "The Muppets" and "Hugo"
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Bella / The Brawl: "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1" and "Happy Feet Two"
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Secrets and Lies: “J. Edgar,” “Immortals,” and “Jack & Jill”
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Haul on Wheels: "Tower Heist" and "A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas"
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Bard None: “Anonymous” and “The Way”
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