“What Richard Did” doesn’t move in traditional melodramatic directions,
preferring to sustain an air of realism that often results in startling
turns of character. It’s a low-key production, perhaps painfully so to
some viewers, asking those with patience to stick with the relatively
mundane aspects of Irish teen life before it springs an act of violence
that changes the entire rotation of the picture. “What Richard Did”
isn’t shocking in obvious ways, preferring to stun the audience with an
authentic atmosphere of guilt and indecision, investing in the
frustration of delayed response over unapologetic manipulation. It’s a
quiet film, with stillness its secret weapon.
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“Gambit” announces its retro intentions right away, kicking off with an
animated title sequence not unlike those found in the “Pink Panther”
series. Although credited as a remake of a 1966 picture starring Michael
Caine and Shirley MacLaine, the new “Gambit” is more of its own thing,
only retaining the comedic sensibilities of the 1960s, along with a
jazzy score. Colliding into today’s marketplace of irony and
improvisation, and the update’s silly sense of rehearsed humor might
appear ridiculously old-fashioned, yet it works in small doses. The
feature is seldom funny, but it’s consistently amusing thanks to a
screenplay by Joel and Ethan Coen and performances from stars Colin
Firth and Alan Rickman, who appear to enjoying themselves immensely
while the story concocts rising flood waters of humiliation and
mischief.
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The Bert Stern that we know is the legendary advertising and celebrity
photographer, a man with a singular eye for feminine beauty and
unforgettable composition, building his career on iconic pictures, most
notably of Marilyn Monroe just before she passed away in 1962. The Bert
Stern of the “Original Madman” documentary is an older gentleman with
limited patience, allowing his longtime infatuation, director Shannah
Laumeister, to track his life and career, interviewing the subject
seemingly whenever she could find five minutes of his undivided
attention. Candid but cold, “Bert Stern: Original Madman” remains a
riveting sit, granted front-row access to an obsessive mind and a
startling artistic visionary.
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When we last saw Iron Man saving the day, he was a member of the
Avengers, teaming up with his superhero friends to save the Earth from a
city-smashing alien invasion. Unable to topple that mighty achievement,
co-writer/director Shane Black selects an insular path for the arrogant
but lovable Tony Stark, and that unusual mix of spectacle and personal
inventory keeps “Iron Man 3” stuck in neutral, unwilling to soar as
summer entertainment while frustratingly confused with its gratuitously
expansive storytelling. One major sequence nearly saves the whole
endeavor, but what Black has here is flat and overstuffed with contrived
comic book business, feeling about as heavy and immobile as Stark’s
famous armor.
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In 2004, writer/director/actor/producer/composer/editor Shane Carruth
brought “Primer” into view. A no-budget but highly sophisticated picture
that exhaustively explored the elasticity of the time travel subgenre,
“Primer” was appreciated by a cult following that adored Carruth’s
attention to detail and steely moviemaking approach. Nearly a decade
later, the filmmaker returns to screens with “Upstream Color,” out to
top his earlier work in the realm of abstract details and indie cinema
polish. A brain-bleeder with no particular need for an audience,
“Upstream Color” marks a bold creative step forward for the helmer, now
blessed with more forgiving funding to explore his nervy yet calculated
eccentricities.
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Vampire movies have had it rough lately, what with the “Twilight” saga
managing to regress fearsome, sensual creatures into dour Teen Beat
centerfolds, complete with shimmering skin. “Kiss of the Damned” isn’t a
rebuttal to the world of Edward Cullen, but it does a fine job
reminding audiences that bloodsuckers are far more amorous and
reprehensible than popular culture suggests. Stylish and seductive,
“Kiss of the Damned” is more of a macabre snapshot than a cohesive
picture, capturing a specific throb of sexuality that helps to ignore
frustratingly slack storytelling from writer/director Xan Cassavetes,
daughter of famed filmmaker John Cassavetes.
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There are times when “Generation Um…” is an authentic indie production,
and there are moments where it feels like a parody of one. At the very
least, it’ll be the one film this year where the audience is treated to a
sequence comprised entirely of star Keanu Reeves eating two cupcakes.
Perhaps that alone should be a gauge to the must-seeness of the movie.
For those who decide to stick it out, “Generation Um…” doesn’t reward
the patience, supplying a meandering, intellectually shallow inspection
of fried minds attempting to communicate their innermost pain while
bombing around New York City. It’s a patience-tester, salvaged only a
smidge by Reeves’s uncanny ability to remain perfectly still while his
co-stars strap on acting school rocket packs and pinball around the
frame.
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“The Numbers Station” earns points for being a somewhat original take on
the bunker thriller subgenre, using a spy vs. spy world of codes and
assassination attempts to beef up an otherwise simplistic siege story.
While not a terribly convincing picture, “The Numbers Station” has a few
moments of workable suspense and puzzle solving, while star John Cusack
supplies an appealing restless energy to the effort, strengthening
scenes that would otherwise die on the vine. Strictly for fans of the
stars and perhaps those with an insatiable curiosity about career low
points, the feature is certainly digestible, but rarely memorable.
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It’s interesting to consider how some actors find their way into
starring roles. A few years back, Colin Firth won an Oscar for his work
in the worldwide smash “The King’s Speech,” and now he’s found himself
in “Arthur Newman,” which is far removed from the high-profile screen
challenges the leading man has enjoyed recently. Although the material
is threatened with a dark undertow of mental illness, the overall
inertia of the effort comes to rob the film of such intensity,
meandering through misadventures with the two leads instead of attacking
the story at hand. Though Firth and co-star Emily Blunt work to inject
honesty into their performances, the feature doesn’t sustain much
substance deeper than surface ache. It’s more indulgently mournful than
motivated.
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It doesn't take long, perhaps five minutes, before it's abundantly clear
that "The Big Wedding" is going to be of no use. Commencing with vague
introductions, the material is soon asking Robert De Niro to prepare
Susan Sarandon for an impromptu session of oral sex on a kitchen
countertop before Diane Keaton nervously interrupts, resulting in a
touch of physical comedy as the amorous characters try to find their
composure while dealing with dangling underwear and an untamable
erection. It's how the movie begins, folks, and the next 80
minutes aren't an improvement. Unlikable, unthinkable, and unwatchable,
"The Big Wedding" proves that bright stars and a reliable romantic event
is no match for an ugly and tone-deaf screenplay, chased by amateur
direction.
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"My Brother the Devil" has powerful individual moments, truly honest
emotional searching that gives the material depth the movie doesn't
otherwise possess. Though it comes across as yet another inspection of
misspent youth in a rap-saturated council estate setting,
writer/director Sally El Hosaini scratches a little deeper to explore
the bonds between siblings, where influence and approval reign supreme.
Being her first film, "My Brother the Devil" is kneecapped by stiff
scenes and overcooked performances, but as a whole, the picture
introduces the world to a promising storytelling talent with more on her
mind than sneers and straightforward criminal interests.
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The key to 2010’s “Birdemic: Shock and Terror” was its sincerity. It was
a genuinely awful feature from an enormously incompetent filmmaker, a
man who thought he could match his idol Alfred Hitchcock in the suspense
department, only to make a mind-numbingly tedious, technically
disastrous picture about global warming, attacking birds, and young
people dealing with vaguely defined vocational triumphs. Of course, it
was hilarious to watch, leaning into every last creative pothole
writer/director James Nguyen created, studying a movie that had
absolutely no ambition beyond being a movie, and it often failed at
that. Molded into a midnight movie phenomenon, sold on its badness,
“Birdemic: Shock and Terror” transformed into something of a hit. And
with any unexpected cinematic success comes a sequel, whether we want
one or not.
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After the 2011 release of the global blockbuster “Transformers: Dark of
the Moon,” director Michael Bay wanted to challenge himself again. After
years of gargantuan features, “Pain & Gain” represented a return to
roots planted with the 1995 action comedy “Bad Boys,” offering Bay a
chance to cause a comparatively low-budget ruckus in his favorite
filming location: Miami. The robots in disguise are gone, replaced by
equally destructive bodybuilders on the hunt for the American Dream, and
while the potential of this true story is immense, Bay resorts to his
old tricks, making the picture more frustrating and deadening than
raucous. Intentionally ugly and mean-spirited, “Pain & Gain” somehow
believes itself to be a coked-out, body-smashing good time at the
movies. Instead, it’s quite a chore to sit through. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The power of great cinema is a special thing. With “Mud,” the screening
audience I attended the film with fell in love with the picture,
physically and verbally invested in story and character to a degree I
haven’t been exposed to in a very long time. It was a unique moviegoing
adventure for a classically conceived effort, standing somewhere between
a Mark Twain novel and a David Gordon Green feature (at least one where
he’s not trying to be funny). Somber and engrossing, “Mud” is like
paging through a terrific book containing a few dull chapters, with
writer/director Jeff Nichols (“Take Shelter”) creating an evocative
atmosphere of mystery and misfortune, captured through well-rounded
personalities, patient screenwriting, and ace acting from most of the
cast.
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