Results tagged “davidedelstein”

The Todd Haynes Bob Dylan biopic I’m Not There has gotten so much press for so long we kept forgetting it wasn't actually released until today! The high-concept Oscar contender, for those who haven’t heard a million times already, features six different actors portraying a Dylan-type character at different stages of his career. It opens today at select theaters but film buffs have been cultivating opinions about the polarizing film since it first screened...

. She had this to say on Friday in her column (after offering the caveat that she's not a film critic): "It's lousy. Slow-moving and formulaic....New Yorkers infuse such pain and emotion into 9/11 that, for now, absolutely nothing could project onto a screen what still rips at our entrails. I hoped to speak about this with Oliver, who has always seemed a brilliant moviemaker, but his handlers are moving him around with a tweezer. Must be, like on that actual day itself, they, too, can smell death." Ouch!

Was The Village all it was cracked up to be? And what about the twist? Slate's David Edelstein and the NY Times's A.O. Scott mention that the twist is obvious, yet most moviegoers would reject it. And who knew that movie premieres in Brooklyn existed?

As seen in the video, part of Ferrell's appeal is, as David Edelstein writes in Slate, the fact that he's "not afraid to take a joke to the next level." It's his fearlessness in being silly and goofy - it's totally focused, but still approachable (not scary and manic the way Robin Williams is). A.O. Scott describes the recent Ferrell oeuvre thusly, "'Anchorman,' by indulging Mr. Ferrell's gift for inventive lunacy, is more amusing than annoying. It is not as maniacally uninhibited as 'Old School' or as dementedly lovable as 'Elf,' but its cheerful dumbness is hard to resist." Lunacy, maniacal, demented - that's Ferrell. And the Village Voice (via Chicagoist) language of Ferrell in Anchorman.

David Edelstein of Slate feels there should be more Seabiscuit in Seabscuit. Roger Ebert liked, but not loved, it. Jami Bernard of the Daily News thinks the movie "get it right."

Okay, here's the ultimate double feature for you this weekend: Frothy romantic comedy, Down with Love, and dark window into the human condition, The Shape of Things.