TOY STORY 3 (2010): two movies in one
Dir. Lee Unkrich
Alamo South Lamar, 6/19/10, 1:45pm
Increasingly, the discourse surrounding Pixar films suggests that they truly are “family” movies, in that they contain something for the kids and something for the adults in the audience. To a certain extent, this has been true of films like Finding Nemo and Up, which featured heroes for [...]
Please see PLEASE GIVE (2010)
Dir. Nicole Holofcener
Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, 6/12/10, 9:45
I am hard on the Summer months when maybe I shouldn’t be. Yes, it is the worst part of the year cinematically, with the possible exception of Spring. The saving grace of the March-to-May period is that the tiny independents that premiered during the Winter in [...]
A tragic realization upon seeing GET HIM TO THE GREEK (2010)
Dir. Nicholas Stoller
Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, 6/5/10, 11:05am
Well, it’s early June, and that means that comedy fans are at their yearly crossroads. The TV season is over. That means that sitcoms and cartoons are done until September, and the boob tube is a wasteland of nothingness. Where can we, as a nation, [...]
Better Than Worse: Reviewing BEST WORST MOVIE (2010)
Dir. Michael Stephenson
Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, 4/24/2010, 10:30pm
I’ve been seeing goblins around town lately, big-eyed, snarl-toothed, potato sack-wearing (sometimes, bikini-clad) goblins. This can only mean that Best Worst Movie, the documentary about the famed film flop turned cult classic Troll 2, has come back to Austin. BWM had its world premiere at last year’s SXSW [...]
THE GHOST WRITER (2010) will haunt you for days
Dir. Roman Polanski
Alamo South Lamar, 3/07/10, 12:30pm
In my review for Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, I mentioned Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and its strong influence on the Von Trier film. Now it’s time to refer to another Polanski masterpiece, Chinatown, with regard to another new classic, this time Polanski’s own latest effort The Ghost Writer. [...]
Burton’s ALICE, A Not-so-Wonder(ful)land – Reviewing ALICE IN WONDERLAND (2010)
Dir. Tim Burton
Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, 3/6/10, 10:00pm
Just a few weeks after declaring myself a Burton and Depp nut on assignment #4 I found myself face to face with one of my most anticipated films of 2010. Tim Burton’s latest fairy tale is yet another remake of a beloved childhood adventure. He’s done Dahl. He’s [...]
SHUTTER ISLAND (2010) a film not without its flaws
Dir. Martin Scorsese
Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, 2/19/2010, 10:10pm
Remember back to 1974. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway stand toe to toe, stitched nose to button nose, in a sun drenched LA living room. Nicholson’s JJ Gittes has had enough, and he’s determined to slap the identity of a mysterious young blonde out of Ms. Dunaway’s Mrs. [...]
Pixar rubs in its superiority in the 2010 OSCAR ANIMATED SHORTS PROGRAM (2010)
Dir. Various
Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, 2/19/10, 10:15pm
In the 2010 Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts program, now playing in Austin at the Alamo South Lamar, Pixar’s most recent short Partly Cloudy makes an appearance despite not actually having been nominated for an Oscar. And it’s the best of the bunch. Though the short’s visual style may [...]
The water’s fine in the HOT TUB TIME MACHINE (2010)
Dir. Steve Pink
Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar, 2/15/10, 7:30pm
There are a few moments in popular cinema history when titles are so perfectly transparent, so ridiculously stupid, and so unpretentious that popular culture recognizes them as genius. The perfect example is the 2006 aviation-thriller Snakes on a Plane, but other recent examples include Harold and Kumar [...]
SAINT JOHN OF LAS VEGAS (2009) is much less than the sum of its parts
Dir. Hue Rhodes
Alamo South Lamar, 2/5/10, 2:00pm
The trailer for this film, probably not coming to a theatre near you, makes it out to be an indie version of The Hangover. A sassy, edgy comedy set in Las Vegas featuring Sarah Silverman and starring Steve, ain’t nobody more indie than me, Buscemi. Oh no, [...]
