Movie Reviews

(This review was originally published on August 10, 2012 at Reel Film News) My wife told me she thought “2 Days in New York” felt a lot like a dream. I agreed with her, but I think she meant it as more of a compliment than I did. For me, it felt like running into a […]

(This review originally appeared at Reel Film News on August 3, 2012.) Actually, the opening title as shown in the film is P.O.W. Portrait of Wally. P.O.W. could just be the initials of the title Portrait of Wally, or it could stand for “Prisoner of War”, which is how the infamous Egon Schiele painting is […]

(This review originally appeared at Reel Film News on August 3, 2012.) The tagline for the Killer Joe posters reads “A TOTALLY TWISTED DEEP-FRIED TEXAS REDNECK TRAILER PARK MURDER STORY” over a picture of what looks to be a piece of fried chicken in the shape of the state of Texas, with some blood spatter […]

(This review was originally published on August 3, 2012 at Reel Film News) “Portrait of Wally”, which is the collaborative effort of director Andrew Shea (“Forfeit”) and ex-NPR journalist David D’arcy, both of whom wrote and produced the film, comes across more like a commentary-laden case analysis than a documentary.

(This review originally appeared at Reel Film News on July 27, 2012.) Before we start: on behalf of Reel Film News, we would like to offer our sincerest condolences to the victims of the Aurora shooting and their families. I had originally written an overlong piece about the merits of The Dark Knight Rises.  There […]

What happens when you want to make a film with the soul and heart of Zhang Yimou’s Hero, the complexity of Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the family conflict of Curse of the Golden Flower, but generate no spirit of your own?  You wind up with Chen Kaige’s Sacrifice, receiving its US theatrical […]