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Joker Review: Empty Jesters

Deirdre Crimmins — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 16:00:05 +0000

Few films this year have gotten as much pre-release buzz as Joker. After all that speculation, we can finally see the already-laureled movie and it’s mostly fine. The DC Comics villain’s latest iteration comes to screen from the director who also brought us Old School, Road Trip, and all three parts of The Hangover saga....

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TIFF Journal: Joker

Jason Gorber — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 20:00:21 +0000

Midway through Joker, Joaquin Phoenix dances as he traipses down a New York staircase, and the soundtrack pounds to “Rock and Roll Part 2,” an anthem played at almost every sports arena for decades. The song’s performer, Gary Glitter, was charged multiple times in the 1980s and ’90s for child porn, abuse, and attempted rape....

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TIFF Journal: The Sisters Brothers

Philip Brown — Wed, 12 Sep 2018 16:00:27 +0000

The Sisters Brothers is another contemporary Western that seems to exist purely to prove that the genre is still relevant while telling a story about the demise of the West. It all started with Peckinpah before Eastwood kept at it for decades and then others followed suit. It can feel frustratingly limited to only explore...

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‘Irrational Man’ Review: Disposable Woody

Philip Brown — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 19:00:42 +0000

It ain’t easy being a Woody Allen fan these days. Aside from being required to ignore any and all news stories about his personal life, you also have to recognize that in order for Allen to maintain his one-movie-a-year schedule, most of them will be pretty bad. The ratio of bad Woodys to good Woodys...

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‘Inherent Vice’ Review: A Hazy Noir Masterpiece

Philip Brown — Tue, 23 Dec 2014 20:00:29 +0000

Set in early 1970s Los Angeles and very much indebted to the auteur-driven masterpieces that came out of Hollywood in that era, ‘Inherent Vice’ is a stoner detective art film. You might even be tempted to call it the first of its kind, were it not for the fact that Robert Altman’s ‘The Long Goodbye’...

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‘The Immigrant’ Review: Turn of the Century Tragedy

Philip Brown — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 16:00:34 +0000

Like all movies by writer/director James Gray (‘The Yards’, ‘Two Lovers’), ‘The Immigrant’ is a melodrama that the filmmaker somehow mines for genuine human emotion. His great talent lies in finding the place where filmmaking clichés and real life meet, and delivering the type of old-fashioned, adult-driven entertainment that isn’t supposed to be made in...

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Now Playing: So Into ‘Her’

Philip Brown — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 17:00:40 +0000

They say all good science fiction is actually about today. In Spike Jonze’s latest wonderful feature, ‘Her’, that feels particularly true. The story feels not merely set 15 minutes in the future, but just one Apple press conference away from reality. The world is one in which the entire population of a rustling city wanders...

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The Trailer Park: Mastering Kryptonite

M. Enois Duarte — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 16:00:51 +0000

Expectations mount for Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest drama about damaged people in a kinda, sorta history of Scientology, while Zack Snyder tackles the ‘Man of Steel’ for a second reboot. ‘The Master’ I’m really excited for Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as a WWII veteran turned drifter, not only because the film in which he stars has...

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Blu-ray Highlights for 11/23/10: What Are You Buying?

Josh Zyber — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 14:00:33 +0000

By volume, the Blu-ray release slate slows down quite a bit this week, compared to the last several. Most of the big day-and-date titles are pretty lousy, too. Even so, there are a couple of major catalog releases that definitely deserve your dollars. Let’s take a look. Here’s this week’s list: ‘America Lost and Found:...

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