- Film critic
Ty Burr
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In 'Made of Honor, originality left at the altar
I never thought it could happen, but I'm starting to miss Patrick Dempsey the Early Years. Remember him? The little pisher who starred in late-'80s comedies like "Loverboy" and "The Woo Woo Kid"? Back then, Dempsey was a jug-eared Jon Cryer-wannabe, likable and sharp but no one's idea of a dreamboat.
Holding them responsible
In ‘‘Standard Operating Procedure,’’ Errol Morris does something inconceivable and, at first glance, ill-advised. He gives the US soldiers of Abu Ghraib back their humanity.
The kick of 'Kingdom' is in its stars
With a combined 133 movies and 72 years in the business between them, Hong Kong action superstars Jackie Chan and Jet Li have put off appearing in a film together for far too long. Even the idea of them sharing the screen gets your neck hairs pricking. Li's mercurial grace and Chan's comic daredevilry, the ways in which each man ...
In 'Sarah Marshall,' a breakup that will break you up
The movies that come out of the Judd Apatow comedy factory are the real revenge of the nerds. In them the human male at his most woebegone manages to score with women who in the real world wouldn't touch him with a pair of tweezers. The heroes are pudges, mouthbreathers, loners, stoners - the average guy on a less-than-average day. ...
Childhood floats away in 'Red Balloon'
Hovering just out of sight throughout "Flight of the Red Balloon," like a memory of childhood on a busy day, is Albert Lamorisse's 1956 Oscar-winning short film "The Red Balloon." That magical classic is referenced by one of the new film's characters early on, and at times we glimpse the balloon itself, bumping against a window casement or ghosting along ...
Lost souls share sweet treats on the road
"My Blueberry Nights" is Wong Kar Wai's first English-language movie. Perhaps not coincidentally, it's also his worst movie. If you're in the mood for love and for this director's luxuriant self-indulgence, though, it's a tonic nonetheless - a gorgeously shot road-movie trifle that requires some of our better-known actors and singers to swoon through Wong's relocated wonderland.
'Heart' gives new meaning to old-time rock 'n' roll
The premise of "Young@Heart" sounds much too cute to tolerate. A documentary about a choir of old-timers bashing out rock songs like the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated" and Radiohead's "Fake Plastic Trees"? Good for a quick ironic horselaugh on YouTube, maybe, and then it's time to move on.
Hey, kids! Subtitles!
Want an entertaining and bonding family experience? Here's an idea: Watch a foreign-language movie with your children.
Tale of isolation doesn't get to heart of the matter
"Dark Matter" is partly a victim of circumstances - but only partly. Based on the 1991 shootings at the University of Iowa, in which a Chinese graduate student named Gang Lu killed five people before turning the gun on himself, the movie appeared at the 2007 Sundance film festival only to be shelved in the wake of the Virginia Tech ...
Classic 'Contempt' gets a new life
Certain films are worth returning to periodically, the way a pilgrim would visit a shrine. Either they cut to the heart of the matter or they conjure up the passions of one's youth, when it felt as if a movie or a pop song or a book could re-orient the entire universe.
A shallow romance in a 'Priceless' setting
"Priceless" is a bauble - an art-house diamond made of paste that somehow still gives you good glimmer for the money. If you think about the movie for even a minute, you'll realize you've been had. If you sink into it like a hot bath, you may end up sighing with pleasure.
A bitter comedy gets lost in 'Chaos'
Ryan Reynolds's makeover continues. The onetime snarkmaster of rude college farces like "Van Wilder" and "Waiting. . ." is hitting 30, and his smooth spray-on tan is beginning to look unbecoming - the mark of an ageless oddity like George Hamilton rather than a smartly shallow frat-boy hero.
What ever happened to Bette Davis?
Bette Davis turns 100 on Saturday. You're saying, of course, that she would have turned 100 Saturday, since conclusive evidence exists that the legendary actress passed away 19 years ago at the age of 81. She's still here, though - looking around and muttering "What a dump." The unique personas hammered out by the stars of Hollywood's golden age don't ...
She did what?
When is a media bad girl not a bad girl? When she's an excellent example.
Spandex wears thin in 'Superhero' parody
How can you tell the target age for "Superhero Movie" is exactly 13 1/2 years? Because most of the jokes are Internet-related.
'Flawless' proves it takes a pro to pull off a good heist (movie)
The values of competence seem greater during dire movie seasons. "Flawless," a diamond heist flick set in 1960 London, isn't close to the best film I'll see this year, but it's assured and neatly crafted - the time zips by while you're watching it.
Back from Iraq, but not feeling at home
"Stop-Loss" is co-produced by MTV, and the soundtrack consequently works overtime. Heavy metal, alt-pop, southern rock, orchestral swells, wailing Middle Eastern tunes all vie for our attention, but none of this noise drowns out the sound of good intentions twisting themselves into an impotent knot.
'21' doesn't exactly bring down the house
Movie critics have their own way of counting cards. When characters in a Hollywood movie do something that feels true and freshly observed, the count goes +1. When they behave tritely, spout cliches, and generally act as if the screenwriters understand life only from other movies, we're -1. A lovemaking montage that dissolves from one gauzy, disembodied limb to another? ...
Split personality meets 'The Browns'
In his quest to make the perfect movie for African-American church ladies, writer-director Tyler Perry is inching closer and closer to the mark. He's getting cannier in the casting department as well. "Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns" doesn't so much star Angela Bassett as adores Angela Bassett, partially because it knows we do, too.
Training-film spoof takes a shot at the Iraq war
Lurching into town like the ghost of midnight movies past, "Military Intelligence and You!" is nothing if not cheeky. Writer-director Dale Kutzera has lovingly crafted an entire fake World War II training film with the intent of skewering attitudes surrounding the Iraq war, and the result is (or wants to be) a remixed "Reefer Madness" for our age of mass ...
For Minghella, compassion was a cinematic signature
It has been a strange year for left-field losses in the movie industry. Heath Ledger, now Anthony Minghella - both creative forces in their primes, here one minute and inexplicably gone the next. Let us hope the rule of three doesn't apply.
Romance played to a slow stalemate
Any appreciation of the films of Jacques Rivette tends to be binary: Either you get it or you're out the door in less than 30 minutes. The least-celebrated director of the French New Wave, the 80-year-old master has been cranking out long, elegant, discursive meditations on life and artifice for almost half a century.
'Funny Games' plays violent game of truth or dare
A friend who works at a local independent cinema recently forwarded me an e-mail from a customer who'd caught a trailer for the upcoming "Funny Games" and was desperate to keep the film from opening at his theater.
CGI redo nearly true to the Whos
I'm probably being overly kind rating "Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!" as more than strictly average computer-animated kiddie fare, but two things swayed me. First, it's a relief not to have to put up with Mike Myers as a cretin in a cat suit. Second, after the Saturday morning screening I attended, every 4-year-old stood and applauded. With a ...
Secrets and lies in a slice of life from Brazil
"Alice's House," about a working-class Sao Paolo woman in a family of men, is a quiet, observant slice of life that blows sensually hot and witheringly cold. Like a Brazilian telenovela unfolding in real time, the film fans its cards out slowly until we can see for ourselves the deck is stacked.
'Married Life' delivers more mood than mystery
The first minutes of "Married Life" are a barrage of cheeky Eisenhower-era advertising images, very much like those Anne Taintor postcards that combine martini-sipping hostesses with riot grrl taglines ("Make your own damn dinner"). The opening pumps you up, promising a smart, retro good time that the movie only partly delivers.
'The Counterfeiters': A Holocaust tale of forgery and survival
Some movies rest on an actor's face, and "The Counterfeiters" has a great one. Karl Markovics has knocked around the Austro-German movie scene for 15 years, first coming to fame supporting a police dog on a popular Austrian TV show called "Kommissar Rex." He has the weary look of a man relegated to playing brutes and morticians; with his skewed ...
An unsettling development
As frustrating as it is welcome, Laura Dunn's "The Unforeseen" is an appeal to our emotions on a subject that needs the coldest, hardest facts.
Yabba-dabba-don't
Came a time, saith the old tales, when the great ice sheets retreated and early man advanced upon the earth — a new man, named Homo Hollywoodus for the stylishness of his dreadlocks (extensions by Trog) and for the perfection of the teeth of his women (caps by Dr. Gnar of Beverly Hills). And, lo, these new people did hunt ...
