Bernie (2012) A Film by Richard Linklater

"You cannot have grief tragically becoming comedy," warns Bernie Tiede (Jack Black), a plump, mustachioed mortician while giving a...

Lincoln (2012) A Film by Steven Spielberg

With Lincoln , Steven Spielberg has managed to supply meaty human drama, unexpected revelations, and even suspense to a historical political...

Anna Karenina (2012) A Film by Joe Wright

The world of Anna Karenina as seen by Joe Wright apparently interpreting Leo Tolstoy is expressed as a large, seemingly expanding and contr...

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012) A Film by John Hyams

In a year that has brought some films of the most damning levels of "self-seriousness" for some ( Cloud Atlas , Prometheus , Compl...

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) A Film by Kathryn Bigelow

The slight but crucial difference in Kathryn Bigelow's directorial approach to the sensitive issues of the war on terror between 2010...

Flight (2012) A Film by Robert Zemeckis

For a director who has spent the last decade toiling in the still nebulous terrain of computer generated imagery, Robert Zemeckis' retur...

On Showboating, Oblivion, and Tom Hanks

If you've seen the fascinating disaster that is Cloud Atlas , you may be interested in my new review over at The Daily Notebook. This i...

AFI Fest 2012: Saturday Nov. 3rd and Sunday Nov. 4th

( Disclaimer: These notes were scribbled in between screenings while waiting in line for other films. Only minor editing, for grammatical an...

The Master (2012) A Film by Paul Thomas Anderson

( Warning: Spoilers ahead. ) So often as viewers we forget the craft of good film acting. We take advantage of the fact that there's a d...

Samsara (2012) A Film by Ron Fricke

When deciding whether or not to see Samsara at the Dome in downtown Hollywood – an incredibly vast and immersive movie experience that is e...

Belleville Tokyo (2010) A Film by Elise Girard

The two main characters in Elise Girard's Belleville Tokyo are named Marie and Julien, and the film is a story of them. They're mar...

Magic Mike (2012) A Film by Steven Soderbergh

These days, Steven Soderbergh's career seems to have reached the end point of a slow, insistent turn towards a path rarely traveled in H...