The praise critics have showered on Todd Haynes’s CAROL gives me pause. Have I seen an entirely different film or is there something in this one that escapes me? A. O. Scott of the N.Y. Times sees CAROL as “fetishistically precise in its recreation of the look and sound of the past.” Sorry, but the fingernails with their bright red polish, the lips with their bright red lipstick, the ... more >
ARCHIVES
CAROL, polished and polite doth not a good film make
CAROL premiered at the 2015 Cannes Festival
Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara and Kyle Chandler
Directed by Todd Haynes
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
[Aug. 16th, 2013; IFC Films]
Rooney Mara, Casey Affleck and Ben Foster
Directed by David Lowery
Should art challenge us? Can we just let ourselves be taken by its emotional implications? These are some of the questions that revolve around "Ain't them bodies saints," a picturesque, if sometimes vexing, new film headed for the cineplex next Friday. The seventies somewhere in Hill Country Texas; grasslands, the occasional canyon, cities. Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara play the outlaw Bob ... more >
Side Effects
A strong final bow for Soderbergh?
Channing Tatum and Rooney Mara
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
In addition to being his supposedly last theatrical film director Steven Soderbergh, for a while, would have you believe “Side Effects” could be his best—a complex thriller about psychiatric drugs—only to lose its focus almost entirely and make you wish screenwriter Scott Z. Burns took a shot of Ritalin. Martin and Emily (Channing Tatum and Rooney Mara) are a New York couple with issues. He has ... more >
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Another American remake D.O.A
Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara
Directed by David Fincher
I’ve seen The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo twice, now, in both the Swedish and Hollywood version. English doesn’t improve it. Given that it has the same flaw--a glacial, hard-to-edit first chapter shocked to life by a gripping second--it appears to be a problem with the story, or at least how the enormously popular Stieg Larsson best-seller travels to the screen. I prefer the Swedish version, ... more >