I’ve written previously about my connection with the Girls’ character Hannah. It is not a connection I made up – I have literally received phone calls and texts from many people after a given episode, so amazed are they by the connection. It’s not entirely flattering: she’s a chubby, semi-unemployed, self-important whiner. But neither is […]
I’ve read a lot of reviews that describe Gangster Squad as all style, no substance. I think that’s being too kind. The style of gangster squad isn’t up to par either. The costuming is a feat of nature, the make up spot on, and the set dressing is some of the most gorgeous I’ve ever […]
Top 10 lists are marvelous beasts, revealing substantially more about the reviewer than they do about this year in filmed fiction. It’s one of my favorite reasons to do them – each year’s Top 10 List serves as a tiny autobiography of this year in Me. Without further ado, here’s my Top 10 Films for […]
When Jennifer Lawrence was first selected to play Katniss in The Hunger Games, I hadn’t seen her in anything. I wanted to avoid seeing her in anything AFTER as well, but the nerd in me couldn’t avoid X-Men: First Class (nor could the Michael Fassbender addict). I thought she was pretty “meh” in First Class, […]
I was having a tough day at work today. Like one of those “I wish I hadn’t worn eyeliner because my discrete bathroom crying is going to be WAY more noticeable” kind of days. And I did what I always do when faced with an intractable problem: ask myself what Leslie Knope would do. So […]
Looper, the newest sci-fi thriller from wunderkind director Rian Johnson, is a rare thing: it’s a perfect movie. By that I don’t mean it’s the world’s best movie, or even the year’s best. What I mean is that Johnson and his crew created a movie that manages to perfectly embody its own story and […]
When I was a kid, my first superhero love was Spiderman. In his cartoon incarnation, he was a wise-cracking, semi-nerdy photographer who just seemed to stumble into crime fighting. He was good-hearted and goofy, and he earned his super powers by supplementing with scientific curiosity and goodwill. When Sam Raimi’s version of the character came […]
I have very little patience for movies with plots fueled solely by one character inexplicably not telling another character a key piece of information. My patience is particularly tested when the information in question actually isn’t very damaging. And so this week’s feature, People Like Us, was kind of an exercise in patience. The central […]