CINEMA: Nowhere Man

GREENBERG (2010. directed by Noah Baumbach, 107 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Greenberg is a very funny new character study about an improbable man.  Ben Stiller is ingeniously cast to bring to life Roger Greenberg, a man who seems to have found every experience in life so disappointing that his world has come to a halt.  He washes up rootless in his old hometown of L.A. after living in New York City for years.  While house-sitting for his brother’s family he reconnects with all the old friends he has alienated and starts a very unromantic romance with his […]

Cinema , NewsPosted on:

CINEMA: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

DAN DELUCA: If you’re a fan of the indomitable Canadian rocker – high-pitched voice, proto-grunge guitar, total immersion in the music – then you want to see Neil Young Trunk Show on the big screen, for sure. That’s because the concert film was shot in 2007 at two shows at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby – particularly great shows, even by Young’s no-holds-barred standards. Trunk Show takes a nearly opposite approach from the beautifully becalmed Heart of Gold, filmed in Nashville in 2005, a short time after Young had suffered a brain aneurysm. Heart of Gold had the feel […]

Cinema , NewsPosted on:

OBITUARY: Sneak Previews

BY JIM DOOLITTLE Mom’s Italian. 100%. And while she could have poured the over-exuberant passion that is the genetic cross my people bear into anything obvious – food, language, Catholicism, music, Sophia Loren – she opted at an early age to funnel my genetic disposition into her love for the cinema. We’d go every week, right after church, our reward for the penance that was 10AM mass. And without cable television, without a VCR, my cinematic cravings were only sated on the homefront via the weekly sit-down with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. Fortunately, they were accessible via rabbit ears. […]

Cinema , NewsPosted on:

JUDGE 2 PARENTS: Only You Can Prevent Flash Mobs

DAILY NEWS: Over two days of trials, 29 youths have been convicted for participating in flash mobs. All juveniles found delinquent yesterday face up to four years in a state facility, but most who pleaded guilty were sentenced to four weekends at a Poconos boot camp, 60 days of electronic monitoring and two years’ probation, and were ordered to take biweekly drug tests and to attend school every day on time. Those with prior convictions or other glaring problems in their backgrounds were sentenced to state facilities. Dougherty got creative with two teenagers who gave cops a hard time while […]

215 , Art , Cinema , Culture , Gossip , Media , Music , News , PoliticsPosted on:

CINEMA: Cherry Bomb

THE RUNAWAYS (2010, directed by Floria Sigsmondi, 109 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Thirty-five years after their formation, The Runaways moment has finally arrived.  Widely mocked, derided as puppets and mostly ignored during their musical run between 1975 and 1979, the band’s story is now mythologized for the big screen, starring two of the most popular actresses in Hollywood.  There seems to be an authentic buzz at the possibilities of a Runaways bio and I’ll admit a critical desire to see them knock this hard rockin’ story out of the park. It gives me no pleasure to instead […]

Cinema , NewsPosted on:

CINEMA: Fulsome Prison Blues

A PROPHET (2009, directed by Jacques Audiard, 155 minutes, France) RED RIDING:1974 (2009, directed by Julian Jarrold, 102 minutes, U.K.) RED RIDING: 1980 (2009, directed by James Marsh, 93 minutes, U.K.) RED RIDING: 1983 (2009, directed by Anand Tucker, 100 minutes, U.K.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC When we first meet Malik, the lead character in Jacques Audiard riveting new crime drama A Prophet, it does not seem like he could possibly be the titular character. Questioned upon entering prison for assaulting a policemen, the 19- year-old Malik professes no religion. In fact he seems like a vulnerable blank slate; […]

Cinema , NewsPosted on:

CINEMA: Steal This Movie

THE ART OF THE STEAL (2009, directed by Don Argott, 101 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The Art of the Steal is nothing if not bold; it calls out Governor Ed Rendell, The Annenbergs and The Pew Charitable Trusts on charges of greed, conspiracy and vulgarism.  EvenInky reviewer Carrie Rickey has been sited with charges of conflict of interest since the film opened.  Passions run high when discussing the Barnes Foundation and its treasure trove of Impressionist and Modern Art and it gives the film a sense of urgency similar to those newsy documentaries about he folly of […]

Cinema , NewsPosted on:

CINEMA: I Walked With A Zombie

THE CRAZIES (2010, directed by Breck Eisner, 101 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSIKIRK FILM CRITIC This latest cycle of films about the End Times has no end in sight.  Was it the 2002 film from Danny Boyle, 28 Days Later that got this zombie apocalypse ball rolling?  I can’t remember, its been a blur of flesh-eating zombies and doomy-gloomy conclusions for years now, and hopefully there will come a day when we’ll look back at the genre and it will look as quaint and reassuring as a 1950’s Western. Taking it on the chin this week is the All-American town […]

Cinema , NewsPosted on:

CINEMA: No Man Is An Island

SHUTTER ISLAND (2009, directed by Martin Scorsese, 138 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC I’ve never heard anyone accuse Martin Scorsese of coasting, even his least successful films show stretches of inspiration that raise them above mere journeyman work.  His latest, an adaptation of Dennis Lahane’s best-selling Shutter Island is a gorgeously-produced, well-acted film but is unlike nearly anything is Scorsese’s filmography: a predictable thriller’s whose biggest mystery is exactly what attracted Scorsese to it to begin with. Going deep into M.Night Shyamalan territory, Shutter Island is one of our most idiosyncratic director’s least personal films yet. Scorsese continues […]

Cinema , NewsPosted on: