Reel Love

Time Investment: 108 min.
Return on Investment: 65 min.

The idea of Tim Burton adapting Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney Studios) makes a kind of sense but still raises mixed expectations. Will the visionary add anything new to the tale? continue reading »

Time Investment: 140 min.
Return on Investment: 125 min.

Some things never change. Ethan Hawke is still trying to convince us he’s a bad boy, Richard Gere still likes making prostitutes feel like his girlfriends and director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) is still making movies about good cops going bad—and that’s a good thing in his newest film, Brooklyn’s Finest (Overture). continue reading »

Time Investment: 138 min.
Return on Investment: 100 min.


“We all go a little mad sometimes,” Norman Bates says in Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological masterpiece Psycho. But exactly where does going “mad sometimes” end and insanity begin? The blurry line denoting the edge of sanity is at the core of Martin Scorsese’s own Hitchcockian thriller, Shutter Island (Paramount). continue reading »

Time Investment: 86 min.
Return on Investment: 50 min.
 
The most dangerous subject a documentarian can choose is him or herself. Objectivity is naturally compromised and there’s a high risk of alienating those closest to you. What’s more, when looking into the metaphorical mirror it’s hard to differentiate one strand of your life from another. This is the problem that plagues Prodigal Sons (First Run Features), the debut effort from transgender filmmaker Kimberly Reed. At the outset, it appears Sons will recount Reed’s transformation from male to female as she returns to rural Montana for her 20th high school reunion. But as the story unfolds, we learn Reed’s  struggle is less with her classmates than with her adopted brother, Marc McKerrow, who was left emotionally and mentally unstable after a serious car accident in his early 20s. Marc’s outbursts have soured his relationship with Kim, their mother, Carol, and his own wife and child. Then we learn about Marc’s birth family—a surprise twist—and Sons veers into another direction. continue reading »

Time Investment: 95 min.
Return on Investment: 75 min.
 
Having seen Mitchell Lichtenstein’s first feature, the vagina dentata horror flick Teeth, one is not sure what to expect from this pop artist’s son who turned from acting to directing. This sentiment continues to hold true, perhaps more so, for Lichtenstein’s second feature, Happy Tears (Roadside Attractions). continue reading »

Time Investment: 90 min.
Return on Investment: 45 min.
 
The Good Guy (Roadside Attractions) is a curious film. Set up like a clichéd New York romantic comedy—the characters live in too-perfect apartments, the guys are too nice to girls they like and the supporting cast is just funny enough to not steal scenes from each other—the film and its title are misleading. And purposely so. The Good Guy isn’t actually a romantic comedy at all—it’s an exploration in untrustworthy narrators, a fact that makes it somewhat hard to like. continue reading »

Time Investment: 90 min.
Return on Investment: 20 min.
 
Probably the best thing one can say about Valentine’s Day is that it’s not as bad as it looks. An ensemble rom-com from Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) with a no-brainer title doesn’t inspire the highest expectations. The appealing cast—everyone from Julia Roberts and Shirley MacLaine to Jennifer Garner and the Taylors (Swift and Lautner)—is all that salvages this well-intentioned heap of mediocrity. When the script isn’t eye-rollingly cheesy (“Your dad sure knows how to juggle,” quoth Patrick Dempsey’s cheated-on wife in one of the bigger groaners), it’s just plain banal. There are also far too many characters: only a few storylines manage any resonance. (The Taylors’ “arc,” for instance, is pure fluff, and Kathy Bates is wasted in only two scenes.) continue reading »