Film/TV

671 results
Page 54
DeHaan: The meek shall be avenged?

'Chronicle' vs. Plato's 'Republic'

What Plato could learn from teenagers

Plato suggested that even just men will be corrupted by unchecked power. Chronicle, a new teen fantasy flick, takes a different tack: Even the most just among us, it implies, have scores we're itching to settle, if only we had a magic wand or potion.
Jim Rutter

Jim Rutter

Articles 4 minute read

"Take Shelter' (2nd review)

Stormy weather

Take Shelter is a movie well worth experiencing for yourself before reading any commentary— including this one.
Judy Weightman

Judy Weightman

Articles 4 minute read
And Joan Didion thought she had problems.

'The Grey': Man against nature

Kingsley Amis would have loved this

Stop searching for deeper meanings and just give yourself over to this surprisingly affecting film about seven oil grunts fist-fighting wolves for survival in the frozen north.
Jake Blumgart

Jake Blumgart

Articles 2 minute read
Kibbutzniks, circa 1950: Utopia, or 'Lord of the Flies'?

"Inventing Our Lives' and the kibbutz movement

Old wine in new bottles: The kibbutz faces the future

Israel's struggling kibbutz movement, once a utopian communal ideal of the left, is struggling for survival today. But with a little imagination and flexibility, it could provide a potent counterweight to Israel's increasingly violent right-wing settler movement.
Jake Blumgart

Jake Blumgart

Articles 4 minute read
Streep as Thatcher: A Shavian heroine for reactionaries.

Phyllida Lloyd's "The Iron Lady'

The lioness in winter

Like Clint Eastwood's recent J. Edgar, Phyllida Lloyd's biopic of Margaret Thatcher tries to humanize a polarizing figure seen by many as a villain. This reviewer, who remembers admiring Thatcher's panache while hating her politics, remained unpersuaded despite Meryl Streep's finely crafted performance.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 8 minute read
Reilly, Foster, Waltz, Winslet: Civilized indigestion.

Roman Polanski's "Carnage' (2nd review)

Fear and loathing in a Brooklyn livng room

Roman Polanski's Carnage is, for him, a minor chamber piece, but focused with his usual unerring eye for human weakness and absurdity. It's also a reminder of the judicial farce that has barred the celebrated director from America for more than 30 years.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 4 minute read

"War Horse': Animals as friends

A four-legged friend goes to war

In northern California, where I live, War Horse touched a special chord. Many of our families depended on horses not so long ago, and we learned to respect them.

John L. Erlich

Articles 2 minute read
Strong as Prideaux: Minor character, or central?

"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' (3rd review)

Seduced (by James Bond) and abandoned

The misunderstood Tinker, Tailor is certainly a tale of a stagnant elite obsessed by its declining international prestige. But it's also about the toll of a profession that we spy fans— and spies themselves— try to imbue with a glamour that quickly turns to dross in the sunlight.
Jake Blumgart

Jake Blumgart

Articles 4 minute read
Dunst: The opposite of method acting.

Lars von Trier's "Melancholia' (2nd review)

GÓ¶tterdÓ¤mmerung, Danish style

In Lars Von Trier's quasi-operatic Melancholia, a wedding party by way of Bergman and Woody Allen gives way to a meditation on the end of the world, courtesy of an approaching rogue planet. As a disaster film, it's unclassifiable, but it does invite us to ponder our destructive social and psychological mores.
Robert Zaller

Robert Zaller

Articles 8 minute read
Benedict Cumberbatch, Gary Oldman: Great expectations, great letdown.

Alfredson's "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' (1st review)

Lost in the Cold War

Am I unreasonable to expect a movie to make sense without significant advance preparation on my part?
Judy Weightman

Judy Weightman

Articles 3 minute read