FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES (1969, dir. by Toshio Matsumoto, 98 minutes, U.S.) THE EMBRYO HUNTS IN SECRET (1966, dir. by K?ji Wakamatsu, 72 minutes, Japan.)   BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Most films series are curated very systematically — movies from the same director or lead actor, etc. What makes the Rotunda’s long-running series Andrew’s Video Vault so consistently rewarding is the more intuitive pairings that are offered monthly. Although tonight’s pairing of two taboo-shattering Japanese films of the 1960s, there are both fascinating similarities and differences between these wild, wild films. Director Toshio Matsumoto’s Funeral Parade of Roses […]

HUGO (2011, directed by Martin Scorsese, 127 minutes, U.S.) THE DESCENDANTS (2011, directed by Alexander Payne, 115 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK  After six years, director Alexander Payne is back with his fifth feature, The Descendants. Payne has written and directed some of the most insightful American satires of the last fifteen years, including Election, Citizen Ruth, and his last film, Sideways. With this tale showing George Clooney as a Hawaiian real estate mogul who through tragedy becomes closer with his daughters, Payne seems to stumble a bit from his high perch. After she is seriously injured in a boating […]

J. EDGAR (2011, directed by Clint Eastwood, 137 minutes, minutes, U.S.) MELANCHOLIA (2010, directed by Lars Von Trier, 134 minutes, Denmark) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC “Clint Eastwood directs Leonardo as Hoover”so perfectly fits the bill of holiday season prestige film, I was worried I would be able to predict, with frame by frame accuracy, the contents of the film before it unspooled.  J. Edgar does have many of the expected contrivances of the historical biopic: stately direction in dark oaken rooms; sexy gossip about public figures; and the singular thrill of seeing attractive young stars covered in liver spots. […]

[Illustrations by ALEX FINE] BY ALEX POTTER Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk has just published his 11th novel, Damned, the first installment of a trilogy that documents a few days in the afterlife of Madison Spencer, the dearly departed daughter of a filthy rich film producer father and narcissistic movie star mother. Madison dies on her 13th birthday in a freak accident that wouldn’t be out of place in the apocalyptic imagination of Tyler Durden. Palahniuk’s luridly cinematic rendering of hell—think screenplay by Milton, based on the novel by Dante and directed by John Hughes—is littered with sticky-sweet Halloween candy […]

BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The Philadelphia Film Festival is celebrating its 20th Anniversary with a festival of over 150 films running through November 3rd. This is the first weekend of the festival and there will be screenings Saturday and Sunday of major new works from The Duplas Brothers, (Jeff, Who Lives at Home with Jason Siegel and Susan Sarandon), the Dardenne Brothers (The Kid with the Bike), David Cronenberg (Viggo Mortensen as Freud in A Dangerous Method), Lar von Trier’s sci-fi apocalypse film Melancholia (with Kirsten Dunst), and Wim Wenders’ new 3-D dance documentary (Pima), plus revivals of the […]

THE IDES OF MARCH (2011, directed by George Clooney, 101 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC    George Clooney has been quite public about his interest in politics and with 2006’s network news drama Good Night and Good Luck, he has already directed one of the best political films in the last decade. Sure, he directed the scoreless football comedy Leatherheads since then, but a full-on political drama from the actor/director sounds like a sure thing. Yet while The Ides of March, co-written by Clooney and his longtime collaborator Grant Heslov, is dependably diverting, it is also a sadly […]

BY ALEX POTTER Two-Lane Blacktop, starring a pre-fame James Taylor and a post-fame Dennis Wilson, has been called the quintessential road movie. The mysterious, stoic and taciturn Driver (the progenitor of Ryan Gosling’s The Driver character in Drive?) is played by Taylor and his equally mysterious and stoic sidekick, The Mechanic, is played by Wilson. Director Monte Hellman, who went on to co-produce such celebrated indie films such as Reservoir Dogs and Buffalo ’66, deliberately selected non-actors to portray the Driver and the Mechanic. Robert de Niro, Al Pacino and James Caan were all interested in the role that the […]

RESTLESS (2011, directed by Gus Van Sant, 91 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC For the life of me, I can’t figure out why this whimsical drama about teens whose lives are touched by death should be given the generic title Restless but it perfectly describes my anxiousness as I slowly accepted that this teen weepie wasn’t going to veer away from its simplistic, melodramatic course. It is only the name of director Gus Van Sant that stirred any optimism for a premise that sounds like a Lifetime Network weeper, but by the halfway mark it became obvious that […]

DRIVE (2011, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, 100 minutes, U.S.) BELLFLOWER (2011, directed by Evan Glodell, 106 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC After the breathtaking car chase that kicks off director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, the soundtrack plays some very 80s retro synth pop as the opening credits glide by in hot pink. The shade of pink brings to mind cotton candy as the summer fades, and like the fluorescent, feathery confection, Drive hits the sweet spot with a sugary rush, a dazzling mask disguising the fact that its nutritional value is near zero. But what kind of […]