Title: The Perfect Family Director: Anne Renton (‘Love Is Short’) Starring: Kathleen Turner (‘Peggy Sue Got Married,’ TV’s ‘Friends’), Emily Deschanel and Jason Ritter People at times can become so caught up in appearing successful in their personal and professional lives to the outside world that they often neglect to strongly evaluate the differences and imperfections plaguing their families. It can take even the most seemingly perfect event that their families’ opinions greatly differ on to force them to truly acknowledge and embrace their relatives’ true personalities. Such is the case with the main character, Eileen Cleary, in first-time feature film director Anne Renton’s new comedy-drama ‘The Perfect Family.’ Eileen  [ Read More ]

Title: Elles Director: Malgoska  Szumowska Starring: Juliette Binoche, Joanna Kulig, Anais Demoustier, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Pablo Beugnet, Arthur Moncla Billed as “a provocative exploration of female sexuality,” NC-17-rated French import “Elles” is a self-satisfied, ponderous drama that can’t be saved by a characteristically strong and nuanced performance from star Juliette Binoche. A would-be character study desperately in search of interesting characters, director Malgoska Szumowska’s film comes across as a plodding and muddled adaptation of a didactic women’s studies term paper. Binoche stars as Anne, a French magazine journalist in the finishing stages of an article on young women ostensibly subsidizing their higher educations through prostitution. As Anne copes with her looming  [ Read More ]

Everyone waits until the year is over to compile their “Best of whatever” movie lists. This has become a mundane practice. Time for a bit of a change, kids. One would think that a movie that is the equivalent of cinematic ambien for yours truly, would automatically land at the very bottom of this list. Actually, by falling asleep, that response more than likely saved The Pirates! Band of Misfits from earning that dishonorable recognition in some sort of strange way. So in conclusion, the weekend before the 2012 summer movies season ended up being comparable to bland warm-up act for a headlining performer. The new releases for the respective  [ Read More ]

Title: The Divide Directed by: Xavier Gens Starring: Lauren German, Michael Biehn, Milo Ventimiglia, Courtney B. Vance and Rosanna Arquette Running time: 122/minutes, Unrated, Available on DVD Survivors of a nuclear attack are huddled together in an apartment building’s basement, made into a bomb shelter by the superintendent (Biehn) who had initially attempted to lock them all out, but they forced their way in. After a run-in with some men in hazmat suits who weld them in, they slowly descend into madness as they come to terms that maybe they should’ve stayed with those above ground who didn’t get inside. This is one of those movies where I put in  [ Read More ]

Title: Clash of Colors: L.A. Riots of 1992 Director: David D. Kim Twenty years ago this weekend, the not guilty verdicts in the trial of the police officers accused of beating Rodney King sparked rampant looting, violence and arson that would claim 55 lives, leave thousands injured, and result in more than $1 billion in property damage. David D. Kim’s documentary “Clash of Colors: L.A. Riots of 1992″ provides a snapshot of that darkly seminal American event, filtered through the lens of an element not often discussed — the riot’s impact on the Korean-American community, whose businesses bore the brunt of more than half of that damage. Staged in lackluster fashion  [ Read More ]

Title: W.E. Directed by: Madonna Starring: Abbie Cornish, Andrea Riseborough, James D’Arcy and Oscar Isaac Running time: 119/min, Rated R, Available on DVD Wally Winthrop is obsessed with the romantic fairy tale between King Edward III and Wallis Simpson; the king who would give up his crown in order to marry the twice divorced American woman.  After several visits to the Sotheby’s auction of the Windsor Estate, Wally is given the opportunity to read the secret letters between Edward and Wallis. Wally finds her own social status and her quest for love is almost parallel to the famous couple. This film has been a passion project of Madonna’s for many  [ Read More ]

Title: “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” Directors: Peter Lord, Jeff Newitt Cast: Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Imelda Staunton, David Tennant, Anton Yelchin (U.S. version), Selma Hayek, Jeremy Piven “The Pirates! Band of Misfits,” based on the book “The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists” by Gideon Defoe, follows, well, a band of misfit pirates as their leader, the Pirate Captain (Grant) vows to win the Pirate of the Year Award while outwitting the pirate-hating Queen of England, Queen Victoria. Overall, this Aardman Animations/Sony Pictures Animation film is a very harmless film (which is ironic to say since it made Lepra Health in Action angry with its “leper boat” joke); it’s  [ Read More ]

Title: The Raven Director: James McTeigue Cast: John Cusack, Alice Eve, Luke Evans Edgar Allen Poe’s mysterious last few days are unknown to everyone, which only makes his enigmatic, often controversial figure even more intriguing. Full of contradictions, vitriol and self-praise, he was one of a kind. Poe jumped from horror stories with a philosophical spin to everyday mystery novels that could be enjoyed by critics and audiences alike. He spawned a majority of the genres we take for granted today. The Raven is none of these things. It’s even less: Poe is almost like a caricature, despite John Cusack’s acting prowess, which leads me to believe that James McTeigue  [ Read More ]

Title: Safe Director: Boaz Yakin Toward the end of last year, this guy anointed action-star Jason Statham with his own brand of movies; similar to Jackie Chan and/or Adam Sandler. Safe, is yet another patented “Jason Statham flick.” Within the 94 minutes, there’s a working, and semi-intriguing, story being woven that is doused with high-impact action sequences encompassing shootouts, car chases, and graphic hybrid fisticuff battles (a blend of slugfests meets martial arts styles). All of this takes place on the streets of New York City, where the seemingly broken Statham interjects himself in a high-stakes battle between the Russian mafia and the Chinese criminal underworld, with the added angle  [ Read More ]

Title: Restless City Director: Andrew Dosunmu Starring: Sy Alassane, Nicole Grey, Tony Okungbowa, Danai Gurira Strikingly photographed but dramatically inert, “Restless City” chronicles the story of a young African immigrant trying to make it on the mean streets of New York City. In a bit of a case of the emperor’s new clothes, praise for this art-minded cinematic import recalls Andrew Sarris’ “Russian Tea Room Syndrome,” which posits that sophisticated cineastes will willingly accept in a foreign (or foreign-contextualized) film the sorts of lapses in character and story that in an American film they would utterly reject, basically for the sake of appearing cultured. A ”Next” section selection at last year’s Sundance Film  [ Read More ]

Title: People v. The State of Illusion Director: Scott Cervine The new film from the same creative team behind the New Age-y, $16 million-grossing 2004 box office surprise ”What the Bleep Do We Know?”, documentary “People v. The State of Illusion” is a deadly dull treatise on stress and other modern psychological hindrances to health and happiness. Mildly and fitfully informative and stimulating, but also more than a little creepy, director Scott Cervine’s film – narrated in artificial tones by executive producer and motivational speaker Austin Vickers, to whom the phrase “uncanny valley” could be applied — comes across as a Scientology recruitment video awkwardly cross-pollinated with a late-night infomercial. So what is “People v.  [ Read More ]

Title: The Five-Year Engagement Director: Nicholas Stoller Starring: Jason Segel, Emily Blunt, Rhys Ifans, Alison Brie, Chris Pratt, Jacki Weaver, Kevin Hart, Mindy Kaling, Chris Parnell, David Paymer, Mimi Kennedy, Brian Posehn, Randall Park, Dakota Johnson Writer-director Nicholas Stoller and co-writer/star Jason Segel located plenty of comedy in masculine doubt and the difficulty in climbing back up on the romantic saddle in their winning 2008 collaboration, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” A through line of thematic follow-up can be traced to their new work, “The Five-Year Engagement,” a comedy that attempts to chart the turbulent, churned-up period of personal development and possibly divergent professional paths between a young bethrothed couple’s pledge for marriage  [ Read More ]

Tile: The Raven Director: James McTeigue Starring: John Cusack, Luke Evans (‘Immortals’), Alice Eve (‘She’s Out of My League’) and Brendan Gleeson (‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1′) Writers who are often misunderstood and whose work is rarely appreciated during their lifetimes can often create some of the most profound, influential pieces in history. Such is the case with Edgar Allan Poe, whose struggles to find acceptance during his life are chronicled in the new mystery thriller ‘The Raven.’ While many of the events in the film are fictionalized, director James McTeigue gives an intriguing look into how the writer would have reacted if a serial killer admired  [ Read More ]

Title: Headhunters Director: Morten Tyldum Cast: Aksel Hennie, Synnøve Macody Lund, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Julie R. Ølgaard, Kyrre Haugen Sydness, Reidar Sørensen, Nils Jørgen Kaalstad Films tend to define themselves in their opening moments. The photography, the dialogue, the music, and other elements help to establish the tone and style, previewing what’s to come in the ensuing ninety to one hundred and twenty minutes. When a film becomes something entirely different than what it appears to be in its first scene, it can be jarring and disjointed. Yet when a film manages a seamless and subtle transition from one genre to an entirely separate one, it’s disarming in the best possible  [ Read More ]

Title: Penumbra Directors: Adrian and Ramiro Garcia Bogliano Starring: Cristina Brondo, Camila Bordonaba, Sebastian Muniz, Mirella Pascual, Diego Cremonesi, Victoria Witemburg, Omar Gioiosa, Maria Nela Sinisterra An Argentinean import that scared up a big positive reaction at last year’s Fantastic Fest, “Penumbra” is a slick, teasing, well constructed genre offering that rather skillfully exploits audience antipathy toward its bitch-on-wheels protagonist in slowly unspooling the story of a potential cult looking to find a secluded apartment in advance of an extremely rare solar eclipse. A thriller long on suspense if short on eventual explication, the movie is anchored by a fierce performance from Cristina Brondo. “Penumbra” is set in Buenos Aires. After a  [ Read More ]