Movies


The Town

The Town

The Town, directed by and starring Ben Affleck:  go see it.  It’s a great movie.  I give it four stars. Set in a section of Boston that produces more bank robbers and petty criminals than just about anywhere in America, this is a dramatic thriller like nothing you’ve seen before.  You’ll find yourself cheering for […]

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Get Low

Get Low, starring Robert Duvall

Felix Bush is a cantankerous recluse about whom swirls all manner of unsavory stories.  After forty years of self-imposed exile, he decides to stage his own funeral, ostensibly to learn what people are saying about him.  In reality, he wants to reveal the reason he’s chosen to cut himself off from civilization. Duvall’s performance is […]

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Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Steig Larsson

Roger Ebert gives this movie 4 stars, his highest rating.  I’ll give it five.  It’s over two hours long, it’s Swedish, and it has subtitles, but it’s absolutely wonderful. It takes a while to realize the movie is really about Lisbeth Salander, played by Noomi Repace.  Lisbeth is a 24 year old punk computer hacker […]

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A Serious Man, the Coen Brothers

A Serious Man, the Coen Brothers

Seeing Ethan and Joel Coen’s latest movie, A Serious Man, is like descending into a deep, dark, swamp.  Larry Gopnik’s wife is in love with another man.  She wants a Jewish divorce so she can marry a totally ridiculous man who insists on hugging Larry every time they meet.  The three Rabbis Larry seeks out […]

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Amelia, Hilary Swank

Amelia, Hilary Swank

Someone please tell me Amelia Earhart didn’t do a photo shoot in which she touted the virtues of a waffle maker.  Cigarettes, luggage, clothing, I’m okay with all that, but a waffle iron?  That’s not okay.  It’s a jarring moment in the movie.  Amelia, the feminist who bobbed her hair and wore aviation pants, the first […]

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Whip It

Roller Derby Movie

Ellen Page’s new movie, Whip It, is a lot like her previous film, Juno:  young girl trying to find her way in a confusing world, to honor her emerging sexuality, and to hold onto old relationships while forging new ones.  Not to mention the need for some new life skills if she’s to survive in today’s world. Bliss […]

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Capitalism: A Love Story

Capitalism: A Love Story

Capitalism is not like any of Michael Moore’s other movies.  It’s more thoughtful, and more thought-provoking.  It does not rely on anecdotes and heartbreaking stories like Sicko does.  The stories are there, and they are heartbreaking, but the tone is one of near-despair. For the first time, Moore talks of the moral aspect.  Is it right […]

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