by HELEN GEIB
A Christmas Carol is the responsibility of Robert Zemeckis, who wrote the screenplay, directed, and chose to make the film using his pet technology of performance-capture animation. He has accomplished the incredible feat of sapping the warmth and spirit from Dickens’ justly beloved story. The visual technique is not the only thing lifeless and cartoonish about this Carol. (more…)
by NIR SHALEV
A Serious Man is directors Joel and Ethan Coen’s contemporary, black comedy re-telling of The Book of Job. Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is their Job. He lives in a 1967 Minneapolis suburb. A physics professor, his blackboard is filled with ridiculously long and confusing equations and calculations. His work life is fine, but his home life is a mess. The Gropniks are the quintessential Jewish suburban family in an almost entirely Jewish neighborhood. His wife drifts apart from him and is suddenly having an affair with his next door neighbor, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed); his son always gets into trouble in school and is growing fond of Jefferson Airplane; his daughter is secretly stealing money from him, little by little to support her future rhinoplasty operation; and his brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on his living-room couch everyday and doesn’t bother trying to find a place of his own. In short, Larry’s family and personal life are falling apart right before his eyes. (more…)
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
Magical ponies, Andy Griffith as a widower-turned-lothario, Coco Chanel and a couple meeting cute, Bollywood style, all feature in movies opening theatrically in central Indiana this week. No, they aren’t all in the same film (we should be so lucky); to see which elements feature in which films, read on below for more. (more…)
by RISHI AGRAWAL
So, I don’t think I watched a single movie in October. But that doesn’t stop me from forming opinions on lots of major films through a cursory glance of film trailers and vague word-of-mouth reviews. In any case, here we go. (more…)
by HELEN GEIB
A Christmas Carol in November? I know the Christmas season isn’t where it used to be, but this is getting ridiculous. Also coming in November: two very different post-apocalypse stories, the second film in the Twilight series (excuse me, “saga”), several comedies, a heartwarming true story, two supernatural thrillers duking it out over the same opening weekend, and a ninja movie. (more…)
by HELEN GEIB
The nation fell back last weekend, an event marked by the associated rituals of forgetting all about it, trying to remember how to change all the clocks, and forcing the internal clock to adjust to the new time without the compensations of travel. In observance of daylight savings time coming to an end for another year, the DVD spotlight this week shines on three movies featuring temporal dislocation. (more…)
by NIR SHALEV
Winner of seven Academy Awards, The Sting reunites Robert Redford and Paul Newman in George Roy Hill’s masterful caper. The film opens with shots depicting the Great Depression and we immediately realize that in these tough times conning others will be tougher than usual. (more…)
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
So the Eagle Highlands will be showing its first (I think) Bollywood film this week, while the Georgetown 14 shows a second-run art film (and a Bollywood film of its own), and the Keystone Arts starts a run of It Might Get Loud, and Mira Nair’s Amelia goes into wider release (and beyond the scope of this column). That sounds like a pretty decent week for Indiana filmgoers to me. (If you disagree, please add a comment below!) For more on the limited release films being shown around the state – along with benefit screenings and other one- (or two-) shot screenings – read on below. (more…)
by HELEN GEIB
I saw Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde the first time as part of a John Barrymore film series. You can read my review in this post, but the gist is that the best thing about the film is the way it’s photographed, followed by the transformation scenes. While that defines the film’s limitations, it’s not a put-down. The transformation scenes are still as creepy as they’re intended to be, and the movie is very well photographed. The lighting, cinematography, staging, and tinting combine to create the illusion that the scenes are source lit by the period-appropriate gas lamps, candles, and hearth fires. It’s a wonderfully atmospheric effect. (more…)
by HELEN GEIB
Where the Wild Things Are is director Spike Jonze’s adaptation of the widely revered children’s picture book by Maurice Sendak. The screenplay by Jonze and Dave Eggers of necessity expands on the 10-line book to fit the storytelling needs and running time of a feature film, amplifying the boy’s adventure among the wild things, delving deeper into its psychological subtext, and contextualizing the fantasy with an extended real-world prelude and epilogue. (more…)
