“More canned misanthropy from playwright Neil LaBute, who poisoned arthouse cinemas in the late 1990’s with toxic stunts like In The Company Of Men and Your Friends And Neighbors. LaBute’s schtick is all about men behaving badly, but there’s no sympathy for these devils. His work is just cut-rate Carnal Knowledge.” – Metro, 06/28/2013
Monthly Archives: June 2013
PAUL FEIG
“I’m not militant about it, I just like film. It’s what I was trained on. And I’ll be honest, when you work with women, film is just friendlier. I mean, HD is rough! There’s a texture you get from film that you just don’t get from HD. I don’t know how long we’ll be able to keep the film thing going, but as long as we can do it, I’ll keep using it.” – Philadelphia Weekly, 06/26/2013
TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM
“Full of wondrous musical moments and solo careers that almost—but didn’t quite—happen. Watching this movie feels like finally giving credit where it’s due. Morgan Neville’s jubilant film festival favorite brings the house down while paying tribute to a lost art. Just thrilling.” – Philadelphia Weekly, 06/26/2013
THE BLING RING
“Pouting across the picture in full bitch-goddess reign, Emma Watson tears into every exchange with a vigor that knocks Coppola’s anesthetized aesthetic clear off its axis. She seems to have strutted in from an Election-era Alexander Payne movie that I wished I could have been watching instead.” – Philadelphia Weekly, 06/19/2013
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
“Much Ado shovels mass quantities of iambic pentameter into the mouths of untrained third-string television actors, most of whom appear to have learned their lines phonetically. Not since Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet have I been so convinced that most of the cast had no idea what they were saying..” – The Improper Bostonian, 06/19/2013
SOMETHING TO STRIVE FOR: WHY WE DON’T NEED A “RELATABLE” SUPERMAN
“I don’t go to the movies to see my life reflected back upon myself. I always thought the most wonderful thing about movies is that they allow us to get outside of ourselves for just a little while, to experience different worlds and circumstances that we’d otherwise never know. Superman is an aspirational figure, not a mirror.” – RogerEbert.com, 06/14/2013
MAN OF STEEL
“It comes as a great relief to report that Man of Steel is a genuine Superman movie. The desaturated palate and fidgety handheld camera are obvious concessions to the modern blockbuster era, but such tweaks are merely cosmetic. Directed by Zack Snyder, Man of Steel is first and foremost wonderfully sincere, defined by the decency of its main character.” – Philadelphia Weekly, 06/12/2013