DARK SHADOWS (2012, directed by Tim Burton, 113 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Eyebrows were raised when it was announced that Johnny Depp would be fulfilling a life-long dream by portraying Barnabas Collins in a film version of the late 60’s soap opera Dark Shadows directed by his longtime collaborator Tim Burton. The hypnotically-turgid Gothic soap opera is loaded with nostalgic appeal to baby boomers, who were a little aghast when the trailer arrived and revealed that Burton and Depp had turned the drama into an Addams Family-style comedy. Resigned to the fact the source of my […]
CINEMA: Supercallifragilistic
THE AVENGERS (2012, directed by Joss Whedon, 142 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Like an asteroid headed straight at earth, the unavoidable, unstoppable Avengers movie has finally made impact and resistance is futile. Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D has been making post-credit appearances in the Marvel super hero films for four years now, hinting at the arrival of the all-star super hero team. The Avengers is meant to top all the previous Marvel blockbusters of the past decade and it does that with the sheer scope of the frenzied destruction that, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk […]
CINEMA: The Unkown Soldiers Of 20th Century Pop
BY JONATHAN VALANIA A little known fact outside of musician circles is that the instrumental tracks of many of the most beloved and iconic pop songs of the 1960s — The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations.” The Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me,” The Mamas & Papas’ “California Dreamin’,” The Monkees’ “Mary Mary,” Elvis Presley’s “Viva Las Vegas,” The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson,” Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night,” Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” to name but a few — were not performed by the artists credited. […]
CINEMA: The Craven
THE RAVEN (2012, directed by James McTeigue, 110 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK At one point in the silly speculative fiction fantasy that is The Raven, a character is describing the town drunk Edgar Allan Poe. When he is asked about what kind of writing Poe contributes to the newspaper he replies, “Criticism, you know the easy kind.” Critics learn to take such passing jibes in stride, but you can see why The Raven’s writers are so touchy on the subject, at every turn their film is preposterous in ways sure to wake the film critic in everyone. Not that […]
CINEMA: Stooges, Bullies And Monsters
CABIN IN THE WOODS (2011, directed by Drew Goddard, 105 minutes, U.S.) BULLY (2012, directed by Lee Hirsch, 90 minutes, U.S.) THE THREE STOOGES (2012, directed by Bobby & Peter Farrelly, 92 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The buzz has been reverberating for a while about Cabin in the Woods, the rare literate, fresh take on the horror genre, and one that is rife with surprises. We don’t need to discuss those surprises to discuss the film, but from the opening scenes we know that the five young college students (two couples and a goofy sidekick) who are […]
CINEMA: The Anchorman Cometh, Again
WASHINGTON POST: Will Ferrell, dressed as the mustachioed newsman Ron Burgundy, made a surprise appearance on “Conan” Wednesday night to make dirty jokes, play the flute and tell O’Brien he looks awful. (“You look like someone put a bright red fright wig on a skeleton and chucked it out of a helicopter.”) Oh — he also announced that a sequel to “Anchorman” is in the works. Few details are available. But, according to the Associated Press, Paul Rudd and Steve Carell are expected to return, as are director Adam McKay and producer Judd Apatow. Deadline reports that David Koechner is […]
CINEMA: Game Changer
BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Better than a stuffy old press screening, I experienced the full dystopian impact of the Hunger Games by attending the Thursday night midnight debut of the anxiously-awaited adaptation of the juvenile fiction favorite. Even more than the movie itself, the horrendous pre-show advertising made me feel that I’m living in some Sci-Fi author’s nauseous future with ads encouraging impressionable young audiences to join the Marines and march proudly into a desert dust storm, watch mean-spirited TV comedies, and, in a seemingly counter-productive move for theaters, endless commercials inviting the assembled crowd to stay at home […]
SIDEWALKING: Sweet Jane
Cleveland, November 3rd, 1970, by Cleveland Police Dept. RELATED: The actress had just finished working on Klute – hence her distinctive haircut – when she was arrested at an airport in Cleveland on November 3, 1970. The customs officers wrongly accused Fonda of drug smuggling after finding vitamins labelled b, l and d (breakfast, lunch and dinner) in her bag. Known for her political activism, her arrest over something so innocent as vitamins was a sign of the paranoia of the time. At the time, the actress was on her way back from speaking at an anti-Vietnam war fundraiser in […]
CINEMA: House Of Pain
2011, directed by Lynne Ramsay, 112 minutes, U.K.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The opening image in director Lynne Ramsay’s suburban nightmare, We Need To Talk About Kevin, is of household curtains blowing in the dark, accompanied to the sound of a sprinkler’s rhythmic spraying, with the image ultimately burning out into white light. The natural elements, water, air, and light should all be comforting but something foreboding is behind that curtain, something that we won’t see until the final act of this grim domestic horror story. Similarly, the bond between mother and child is sacred part of life, yet […]
CINEMA: ‘A Heavy Metal Grey Gardens‘
TIME OUT CHICAGO: Like a heavy-metal Grey Gardens, the film depicts the scraggly-headed and scabby-armed singer as a ghost forever haunted by drug abuse and an arena glory that never was. But in a happy twist, the underground metal legend has exorcised enough demons to revive his band and spellbind a new generation with darkly poetic confessions, bug-eyed stage antics and seminal, doom-ridden grind. MORE INQUIRER: Don Argott and Demian Fenton’s Last Days Here is a rock documentary by the Philadelphia filmmakers who created the Barnes Foundation argument-starter, The Art of the Steal. Their new film focuses on Bobby Liebling, […]
CINEMA: Dumb And Dumberer
CITY PAPER: Just about every bodily liquid and its corresponding sound effect is given screen time. So are a lot of the tics familiar to fans of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!: cringeable minor roles filled by odd-looking old people, repetitious dialogue, glitchy editing tricks, sudden earnestness, sudden shirtlessness, computer graphics from bygone times, infomercial-ish asides, uncomfortable yelling and mugging and hugging and breathing all over each other. If you don’t like that stuff, your disgust will delight those who do. This movie needs to exist, serving the same sociological purpose as 2 Girls 1 Cup, a post-mod […]
CINEMA: Who’s Afraid Of Dr. Seuss?
MOTHER JONES: What to make of the far-left agenda of Illumination Entertainment‘s adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax? For starters, the new animated film promotes a worldview that elevates the Earth above man and private industry. Economic growth is maligned as a force for evil, while those so-called Truffula trees are put on a fluffly, polychromatic pedestal. Successful businessmen are demonized as Orwellian overlords and planet destroyers. And the movie even has the gall to glorify—gasp!—single moms. These are some of the ways in which the inevitable conservative freak-out will manifest. Lou Dobbs on Fox Business has already started being a […]
WES ANDERSON: ‘Baby, Step Inside My Hyundai’
RELATED: Moonrise Kingdom Trailer PREVIOUSLY: The Magnificent Anderson DAN BUSKIRK: In past films Anderson’s childish, self-involved characters could be frustrating as they moped around his immaculately dressed rooms yet this sort of navel-gazing magically transforms itself when transposed to sweet little woodland creatures. And thankfully Roald Dahl’s original novel (adapted by Anderson with The Squid and the Whale‘s Noah Baumbach) gives them enough to do as they tunnel, fight and argue through their battles against the evil farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. Some of the film’s funniest moments are when the kvetching ends and the characters briefly behave like the […]