This is a really dumb movie, one of those that wishes it was a comic book – it even has a flashback segment told as a moving comic book! – and which thinks it’s funny. It’s very obviously trying to be a Rodriguez-style action comedy, but it’s got nothing on him. Braugher is horribly miscast …
Tag: 2012
The Act of Killing (2012, Joshua Openheimer, Anonymous, Christine, Cynne)
Western religion, philosophy and even early psychology tells us that the world is made up of good and bad people, and their goodness and badness is based on some a priori concept of good and bad. Of course, this flies in the face of our daily experiences: people we label “bad” do good things (which …
The Master (2012, Paul Thomas Anderson)
This is a fascinating film about personality cults – both the people who are lead them and the people who are drawn to them. It’s kind of hard to talk about the film without talking about Phoenix and Hoffman, both of whom are fantastic (as usual) as the film is primarily about their relationship, whether …
Remembering Glenn Gould (2012) by Colin Eaton
This is a very unusual biography in that it is told by the people who knew Gould instead of by an author who tries to create a narrative of his life. The approach is interesting and, if you don’t like false narratives, it’s refreshing. And certainly there is a lot of information for Gould obsessives …
Treme (2010)
This review of Treme contains some spoilers.
Cloud Atlas (2012, directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski)
Some novels are just plain unfilmable, and sometimes you wonder why people try. But watching this, and not knowing the novel, I’m not sure this one is such an unfilmable novel. (Maybe I’m wrong.)
Total Recall (2012, Len Wiseman)
Let’s get the good of this totally unnecessary remake out of the way: The production design is fantastic, worthy of Blade Runner – which it is (very) heavily inspired by – the Fifth Element, Minority Report and the equal of respected modern sci fi epics like Pacific Rim. It’s better than the original, I would …
Room 237 (2012, Rodney Ascher)
This is a fascinating and alternatively infuriating and hilarious film – depending on your mood, I would think. It’s a film that exposes the problems with the “Close Reading” of texts (books, film, other forms of art) without directly telling you that it’s problematic. (This is, in my mind, one of the film’s virtues). The …
Zero Dark Thirty (2012, Kathryn Bigelow)
Much like Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, this is a film that, at least in part, seems to aim to tell the “human” story – or the “ground truth” – of a particular conflict the US is involved in. In this case though, it’s obviously something of a little more import.
Ives: Four Sonatas (2012) by Hilary Hahn, Valentina Lisitsa
This is an excellent set of Ives’ violin sonatas. The pieces are a little more accessible than some of Ives’ more orchestrated pieces, in part I guess because of the nature of the violin. But the music is still characteristic Ives: challenging yet appealing. And the performances sound great to my ears, though like always …
Battleship (2012, Peter Berg)
I briefly decided to live blog this one twitter, the first time I ever tried, but frankly I just got tired. It’s hard to know what to do with this film, produced by a toy company, “based” on a board game, and full of every single Navy movie cliche in history.
The Factory (2012, Morgan O’Neill)
This is one of those “inspired by true events” movies where you know the screenwriters found out about a case with the “factory” of the title and then wrote their ‘idiot plot’ (to steal a phrase from Ebert) all around it. So we have the typical tired, spent cop pursuing a case that nobody else …
Stolen (2012, Simon West)
This is a very stupid movie that tries to mash two genres together – the bank heist movie and the kidnapped child movie. The writer spent very little time worrying about whether or not the plot made much sense and the director doesn’t make the script any more convincing. (I would expect nothing less from …
Breaking Bad (2008)
This review obviously contains spoilers.
30 Rock (2006)
When Seinfeld ended, I was done with the sit-com. I honestly didn’t see what it could possibly offer me any more. Television was getting smarter – and would get significantly smarter over the next decade – and I just couldn’t handle being told when to laugh or having to suspend my disbelief to laugh at …
The Faming Lips and Heady Fwends (2012)
I want to make some kind of Supernatural joke but I can’t come up with one because I don’t watch the show.
Freelancers (2012, Jessy Terreo)
This may be the worst cop movie ever made.
El Alcalde [The Mayor] (2012, Emiliano Altuna, Diego Enrique Osorno, Carlos Rossini)
This a challenging but confused film that begs the question, ‘what is more important to you, peace and security or freedom, transparency and accountability?’ This is an especially poignant question in Mexico, which experiences its share of violence.
Double Exposure (2012) by John Pizzarelli
Pizzarelli appears to me to be almost like the Eric Johnson of jazz: a great guitarist who has absolutely no taste in music. Well, he thinks he has taste, but his taste is that of my dead grandma. (Actually, my dead grandma would probably be put off by at least some of this music, but …
Fight Like Soldiers, Die Like Children (2012, Patrick Reed)
First off, I have not seen Shake Hands with the Devil, but I feel as though I should have.
The Apostles (2012) by Edward Elgar, performed by Halle
This is, to my ears, quite superior to the followup, the Kingdom. The music is more interesting and compelling, and this is also a little shorter (I think). I still don’t know why someone would opt for this over, say, a Bach, but it’s well done decent enough. 8/10
Chimes of Freedom: the Songs of Bob Dylan (2012) by Various Artists
This is, I guess, a fitting tribute to the greatest English-language singer-songwriter of the second half of the twentieth century (of the whole century? of any language?). It is extremely vast, though that is appropriate, as there are over 70 songs. The problem with all tribute albums, but especially one that attempts to deal with …
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012, Timur Bekmambetov)
Based on the title and on some moderately positive reviews I read at the time of its theatrical release, I was actually kind of looking forward to this despite – perhaps because of – its poor box office performance. But I don’t really know where to begin.
String Quartets Nos. 1-4 (2012) by Michael Tippett, performed by the Britten Quartet
This is certainly my king of music. I do prefer it a little more out there, but this is still pretty great stuff. 9/10
Django Unchained (2012, Quentin Tarantino)
As Inglorious Basterds was a somewhat delirious revenge fantasy about Nazism, Django is a somewhat delirious revenge fantasy about slavery. As with Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained is not Tarantino’s best movie – it’s a little too cartoonish and a little too schizophrenic for that – but I think Django Unchaine is slightly superior to Inglorious …
The Campaign to Fire Brian Burke: Lockout to Lockout
Only one team in the entire 30 team NHL went from the last lockout (2004-05) to this one without a single playoff appearance: the Toronto Maple Leafs. Only four teams missed the playoffs at least 5 times: the Oilers (6 times), the Islanders and the Thrashers. One of these teams has a pretty good excuse: …
‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! (2012) by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
I love this, and so I have a dilemma.
The Slow Death of Precedence-Based Democratic Safeguards in Canada
A prorogue is a device: the suspension of parliament, traditionally at the end of that parliament’s “legislative business,” with a planned date of resumption. It was intended to allow parliaments to take breaks without calling an election. The first problematic prorogue occurred in 1873, when John A. McDonald prorogued parliament not because their legislative business …
Jack White live at the Sony Centre, October 3, 2012
The opener was Pokey LaFarge and the South City Three. They play a mixture of pre-rock and roll styles of music including things like Western Swing and jazz and other styles from that era. The band is very solid – especially his guitarist – and as a singer he is definitely authentic, but this is …
The Dark Knight Rises (2012, Christopher Nolan)
Please note that if you are one of the few who haven’t seen this movie, like I was yesterday, this review contains some mild SPOILERS.