Glass Case of Emotion

by Ryan Syrek

DVD Discovery: Fish Tank

If Miley Cyrus were around 12 times as edgy as her calculatedly smutty videos suggest, Mia Williams (Katie Jarvis) would still eat that priss for breakfast and put a cigarette out on her eye. With a tongue that links staggering expletives into a nonstop chain of filth, Mia is 15-year-old trailer-trash living in an Essex estate in not-so-great Britain. Dispelling the concept that the...

German Engineering

by Ben Coffman

Unknown

Forget Harley-Davidsons and 20-something girlfriends — the newest trend for male leads having their second mid-life crisis is action films. Two years ago, 50-something Liam Neeson starred in the surprisingly OK Taken, a high-body-count revenge flick that had him practicing his “combat roll and reload” sequences. His latest foray is Unknown, a good-enough-for-February film that doesn’t...

Death and Debt

by Justin Senkbile

Biutiful

Set in a dismal-looking Barcelona and following a character with amazingly bad luck, Biutiful slathers on the misery like few other movies do. But misery is nothing new for its director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, the man behind several other bleak pictures, including Amores Perros and 21 Grams. Biutiful is a big movie that's slightly overloaded with ideas and impressions but held together...

Monsters Vs. Illegal Aliens

by Ben Coffman

DVD Discovery: Monsters

Don’t let the generic title of Monsters fool you — it’s really a pretty unique film. With an estimated budget of $800,000, which is the latte and donuts budget for most Hollywood movies, Monsters offers some surprisingly big-time special effects. But the real story behind the film’s creation is its super-cheap on-location guerilla shooting style, in which the film’s crew (one...

Just Get it Over With

by Justin Senkbile

Just Go With It

Just Go With It is the latest Dennis Dugan–directed Adam Sandler vehicle. Standing at the ticket counter, the title reads more like a desperate plea for audience members. That probably isn't the case, since it was basically designed to make lots of money. But it’s such a benign and unnecessary movie that it's nice to imagine.

It takes a while to get to the meat of things, but the idea is...

Less Than Some

by Ryan Syrek

Somewhere

Devoid of music or dialogue, the opening frames of Somewhere capture a sports car driving repeatedly in a circle for, like, a really long time before the car stops and an obvious douchebag exits the vehicle and stands there … for, like, a really long time. Had writer/director Sofia Coppola rolled credits immediately thereafter, the experience of Somewhere wouldn’t have changed an iota. The...

Don’t Laugh at Tiny Projections

by Ryan Syrek

Oscar pleasure is usually reserved for grouches or award show addicts. As both, one of my favorite weekends has finally arrived: Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater (FilmStreams.org) presents its annual screening of the year’s Oscar-nominated short films. These proud members of the itty-bitty cine committee are pint-sized powerhouses proudly packaged together for ease-of-viewing on the big...