While movie studios the world over scramble to create their own answers to the cultural/financial juggernaut of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, M. Night Shyamalan, the much-beloved, often-maligned creator of highly personal and unapologetically idiosyncratic thrillers, has managed it on his own, entirely. Shyamalan has finally completed his Eastrail 177 Trilogy, nineteen years in the making, ... more >
ARCHIVES
“Glass”
Comic book mythology writ large
Samuel Jackson, Bruce Willis and James McAvoy
Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Looper
One of our favorite sci-fi films this year
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis
Directed by Rian Johnson
In 2005 writer-director Rian Johnson made a memorable film called “Brick” which combined the private eye-crime noir genre with a high-school setting and made us start to wonder if Joseph Gordon Levitt was going to have a career past being the alien teenager on “3rd Rock from the Sun.” Now no one is wondering anymore as Levitt teams up again with the director for “Looper,” the year’s most ingenious ... more >
Toronto | OPENING DAY
Joseph Gordon-Levitt opens the fest
The Toronto Festival launched yesterday with Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt on hand to promote “Looper,” screening out of competition (the fact that Gordon-Levitt, virtually unknown internationally, is first to walk the Toronto steps is noteworthy. Just when we thought Jeremy Renner was squarely in the leading-man chair, Gordon-Levitt swoops out of nowhere to steal the spotlight--good on ... more >
Red
Doesn't get out much
Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman
Directed by Robert Schwentke
They were trying to sneak that one past me. The first Bowen Rule of Cinema: There has never been a good movie that contains the phrase “Copy that.” But what if they say, “roger that,” instead? What then? Does the rule apply? Let’s face it: from the first spunkless assault-team cliché amid Bruce Willis’ suburban Christmas decorations “Red” had ‘copy that’ written all over it. But it took awhile ... more >