Reitman fails to ground himself in reality


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Up in the Air ignores any statutes of limitation on making fun of the American economy and goes straight for the jugular — finding veins of comedy and drama within the plight of the American worker. With a director like Jason Reitman at the helm, Up in the Air is hardly typical as satire, and, […]

Festival celebrates true ‘indie’ films


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In the summer of 2007, Brad Bores, Rich Hooban and two other idealistic filmmaker friends piled into a 1988 Caprice Classic with an Eclair 16mm camera and drove from Ohio to New Mexico filming Soda Can Love. For two weeks, the crew took turns acting (as versions of themselves), filming (on re-canned stock) and watching […]

Instead of new tricks, ‘Dogs’ plays dead


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In comedy, the rule of three proposes that things become funnier if they occur three times. After two successive gags involving golf balls to the groin, one can only wonder if a third would have made any difference. Old Dogs, which opened Nov. 25, fails to learn any new tricks. The film centers upon Dan […]

Adaptation takes viewer down a harrowing ‘Road’


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Often quoted and always relevant whenever the apocalypse enters a discussion, T.S. Eliot wrote in The Hollow Men: “This is the way the world ends/not with a bang, but a whimper.” As seen in the success of Roland Emmerich’s eardrum-shattering 2012, people love a good world-destroying bang. The Road, John Hillcoat’s thrilling, faithful adaptation of […]

Herzog, Cage go off the deep end in ‘Lieutenant’


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Take an eccentric director, add an eccentric star, and what’s the outcome? A truly bizarre film. In Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, the combination of Werner Herzog’s zany, metaphor-rich directing and Nicolas Cage’s over-exaggerated characterization produces a ludicrous yet somewhat fascinating film that both entices and befuddles the audience. Love or hate him, […]
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