Review: Hobo with a Shotgun

Review: Hobo with a Shotgun B+: An all-or-nothing gambit from the title on down.Like last year’s Machete, Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun originated from a fake trailer created for 2007’s Grindhouse. Unlike Machete, Hobo feels like an honest-to-goodness exploitation flick unleashed from the grimy depths of the ‘70s and ‘80s, as opposed to a post-post-modern wink-fest. Better yet, this terrifically mean-spirited and ultra-violent piece of...

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Cannes Review: Midnight in Paris

Cannes Review: Midnight in Paris A: A real treat, a buttery and flaky croissant.Woody Allen’s latest film, Midnight in Paris, opens with a visual love letter to the city. Images of the Eiffel Tower, strolls along the Champs-Élysées, close-ups on the Arc de Triomphe which gracefully segue into the glass pyramids of the Louvre — Allen has thrown in all the iconic imagery that makes Paris as much an ideal as it is a city. It’s also clear from the...

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Cannes Review: Sleeping Beauty Comatizes

Cannes Review: Sleeping Beauty ComatizesD-: A film where nothing ever happens, and yet everything is mean-spirited.Sleeping Beauty was the worst of times, and it was the worst of times. There were many moments I thought it wouldn’t end. But it did end, and perhaps that’s a lesson of hope for us all: No matter how ill-suited you are to any given form of entertainment, it will likely expire before you do. Result! Emily Browning is a poor college...

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Cannes Review: Restless Is Cute with a Dollop of Drama

Cannes Review: Restless Is Cute with a Dollop of Drama B-: Undeniably sweet and tender, a platform for two young and talented actors.We’ve seen it before: boy meets girl while crashing a funeral (you may recall this was Will Ferrell’s method in Wedding Crashers). But in this case the particulars are a little smudged, the boy doesn’t really want to be pursued, and the girl is hiding something. A big spoilery something. They meet, things are alternately...

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Review: Everything Must Go is Serious Yet Likable

Review: Everything Must Go is Serious Yet Likable B+: A confident transitional step for Will Ferrell.Though he has dabbled in light drama, Will Ferrell has yet to try the sort of intensely serious role that many of his comic peers have taken on. Everything Must Go still isn’t his grab for an Oscar (and I’m in no hurry to see him make one), but it is a confident transitional step in that direction, should he decide he wants to pull a Sandler...

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Review: Bridesmaids Is a Treat

Review: Bridesmaids Is a Treat A: A few times the audience laughed so loud you couldn’t hear the next line.At first glance, Bridesmaids might seem like another dopey rom-com movie about weddings, most likely filled with some rehashed predictable dreck. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Bridesmaids takes the old and makes it new again, breathing life back into a genre that had just about been trodden into the ground. Feeling like...

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Review: I Confess, Priest Isn’t Very Good

Review: I Confess, Priest Isn’t Very Good C: A movie about a priest fighting vampires should be less boring than this.This week’s post-apocalyptic movie about the battle between humans and vampires is called Priest. It stars Paul Bettany as a priest who defies his religious superiors to prevent the slaughter of innocents. It is directed by Scott Stewart, whose last film, Legion, was completely different. It starred Paul Bettany as an angel who...

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