FILM: Review: Hanna

Apr 19, 2011 No Comments by

Jason Bourne and Beatrice Kiddo have a Finnish baby daughter who, big surprise, was conceived as some sort of super soldier but is now being sought for elimination by the very agency who created her, thus prompting her to cut a bloody swath of independent vengeance up to the front door of the secret program’s director (directrice, in this case), eh? Well, we’ve already played it out in our heads, but, sure, we’ll buy it. Of course, we will. Formulaic, but it’s the formula for awesome, so sign us up.

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FILM: Review: Catfish

Mar 07, 2011 No Comments by

The way everything unfolds in Catfish is riveting. Nearly unbelievable. In fact, that’s the real question everyone is asking. How much (if any) of this was contrived? If this is true, it’s one of the most remarkable films ever made, and a must-see for the contemporary world. And if it’s fake (even partly), then it’s still a really good film, but it also has no soul.

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FILM: Review: The King's Speech

Jan 06, 2011 2 Comments by

Every few years a film comes along, inspired by real events, that makes me ask the question, “Why don’t I already know this?” Sometimes a real life story can be so unusual, so inspiring, so unexpected that it seems as if it should be common knowledge. This year seems to be a particularly strong year [...]

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FILM: Review: Black Swan

Jan 04, 2011 8 Comments

Black Swan is the latest cinematic opus offered by Darren Aronfsky, a still-young director who is definitely keeping on his toes. And here’s the thing about Aronofsky (and I hope he would hear this as the high compliment I intend it to be): I am never in the mood to watch his films, yet they win me over every single time.

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FILM: Top 10 Movies of 2010 — and Many More

Jan 03, 2011 3 Comments

Rhombus’ resident film critic Jordan Petersen reveals his top ten movies of 2010 — along with a smorgasbord of other year-end lists that will make your head spin. They’re all here: the good (and the really good), the bad (and the really bad), and the ugly (and yes, even the really, really ugly — after all, it’s Hollywood.)

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FILM: Review: TRON: Legacy

Dec 29, 2010 6 Comments

When I was a kid, TRON stood out as one of those landmark movies that shaped the way I thought about some things. I imagined that if you could get inside a computer, that was pretty well what it might look like. And the film transported my young mind to an entirely different world. The emotional impact was deep enough that I’m pretty sure it had a hand in convincing me, much later down the road, that I wanted to be a computer engineer.

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FILM: Review: Inside Job

Dec 17, 2010 No Comments

With a name like Inside Job, the tone of the film really shouldn’t shock me. Yet I’m still caught off guard when, in the middle of an interview, the voice behind the camera interrupts the Columbia economics professor with “You’ve got to be joking me!”

I, the viewer, already know this professor is covering his tracks. I know he’s a Wall Street villain. I know he is, in part, responsible for the collapse of the American economy. The filmmakers spent the previous 90 minutes of the film showing me all this. They don’t need act so unprofessional in interviews.

It happens many times throughout the film. The subjects — Wall Streeters, members of the Bush administration and other presumed wrong-doers — grow increasingly angry with the interruptions until they explode and demand the camera be turned off. I eventually side with the “villains,” because at least make an initial attempt to follow conversational etiquette.

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FILM: Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Dec 13, 2010 No Comments

In the third installment of the Narnia series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we once again meet up with Edmund and Lucy Pevensie, who have been trapped in the real world since the second installment. Surrounded by logical (a.k.a. boring) people doing logical (a.k.a. boring) things, these two find themselves frustrated and highly suffocated by the mundane nature of their lives and the contempt with which their peers esteem them.

But not to worry, this liminal phase only lasts about ten minutes before Edmund, Lucy and their obnoxious, know-it-all cousin Eustace Scrubb are transported to the magical land of Narnia and find themselves in the company of Prince Caspian aboard the Dawn Treader.

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FILM: Review: The Company Men

Dec 09, 2010 No Comments

The Company Men works sort of like a guy’s take on a Lifetime Original Movie. It’s sappy, it’s sentimental, and it’s superficial. But instead of serving as a resume line for some unknown actors, this glossy fiasco unfortunately drags some big-name talent through the muck of its pandering, self-important script.

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FILM: Review: 127 Hours

Dec 08, 2010 9 Comments

Deep breath… Okay.

This is such good filmmaking. I could go on and on about how great and amazing and whatever Danny Boyle is, but that would be foolish. Instead, I’ll do my best to try to capture with words and sentences some part of how I felt about his latest film.

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