Leonard Maltin

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film review: 127 Hours

By Leonard Maltin
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November 5, 2010 4:05 AM
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1 Comment

Directors like to test themselves, especially when they’re riding a wave of success. Having enjoyed worldwide acclaim for the emotional and immersive Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle has chosen an entirely different kind of story for his next project that presents a unique series of filmmaking challenges. I’d say he has met them all in 127 Hours, collaborating with key members of his Oscar-winning Slumdog team, including screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, composer A.R. Rahman, and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle (who shared his task with Enrique Chediak).

By Leonard Maltin
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November 5, 2010 4:01 AM
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0 Comments

Zach Galifianakis is a funny guy. Robert Downey Jr. is a superb actor who can play comedy or drama equally well. They deserve a better vehicle than this broad, shameless (and uncredited) rehash of Planes, Trains and Automobiles in which the actors inherit the roles originated by John Candy and Steve Martin, respectively. I’m not sure where homage ends and rip-off begins, exactly, but this movie has the same story beats and, more important,—

By Leonard Maltin
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October 28, 2010 7:51 AM
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0 Comments

Indie and foreign films have a tougher time than ever in today’s marketplace, which is why I want to call your attention to an import that’s truly worth seeing—even though you may not have heard much about it. Nora’s Will has won a number of film festival awards, which got my attention. I also put considerable stock in Menemsha Films, the small, dedicated distributor that has taken on its U.S. release. They tell me that business actually increased after its first week at the Paris Theater in Manhattan because of strong word-of-mouth; now it’s opening at a number of Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles, with other cities to follow in the weeks and months ahead.

By Leonard Maltin
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October 22, 2010 4:00 AM
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4 Comments

For a film that is alternately emotional and cerebral, Hereafter grabs your attention with a scene worthy of a high-end disaster movie: an incredible depiction of a Tsunami. Knowing that it’s coming, as many people will from the previews and advertisements, won’t lessen the impact of this tour de force, which is frighteningly believable in every detail.

By Leonard Maltin
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October 15, 2010 4:00 AM
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4 Comments

I know, I know: this sounds like TV-movie fodder. But Conviction isn’t a formulaic feel-good saga. It is based on a true story that takes many unexpected turns, and I found it quite moving. Hilary Swank plays a working-class Massachusetts woman in the 1980s who vows to go back to school and earn a law degree so she can help her innocent brother beat a murder rap that’s put him in prison for life. Sam Rockwell is the brother, a lifelong hellraiser who can’t believe his sister has that kind of devotion—

By Leonard Maltin
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October 8, 2010 4:01 AM
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5 Comments

The secret of this film’s success is that it isn’t just the saga of a famous, prize-winning horse; it’s also the story of his owner, a suburban housewife and mom who stepped into a man’s world and took charge of an animal she believed to be a champion. It documents a time in the late 1960s and early 70s, when social change was in the air, and women’s roles in society were changing, if slowly. Mike Rich’s screenplay captures the time quite well, as do all the visual details onscreen. Those qualities—plus an exceptionally good cast—lift this above the norm for sports movies and underdog tales.

By Leonard Maltin
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October 8, 2010 4:00 AM
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1 Comment

I saw this film in the best possible way: I didn’t know what it was about before I attended an early screening. I found it to be a moving look at a teenage boy’s struggles with his splintered family in England during the 1960s. When I realized the protagonist was John Lennon, it made even more sense, as I remembered, in sketchy form, the story of his adolescence.

One could easily call this Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, for that’s what it offers us: a look at Lennon’s youthful ways, including his first forays into music, his cultural influences and ambitions, and most of all his relationship with his loving uncle and stern aunt, who raised him, and his absentee mother, who re-entered his life at a crucial moment in his young life.

Aaron Johnson, who played the American hero in Kick-Ass, does a fine job here as—

By Leonard Maltin
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October 8, 2010 3:59 AM
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0 Comments

I’ve been impressed with the filmmaking team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck since I saw their bold, original debut feature Half-Nelson, with Ryan Gosling, which was adapted from a short subject they made two years earlier. Their followup film, Sugar, about a baseball player from the Dominican Republic, revealed that they weren’t one-hit wonders, and didn’t intend to fall prey to formulaic storytelling. Their new film seemed equally promising; while I usually try to avoid trailers I happened to see this one, and it—

By Leonard Maltin
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October 1, 2010 4:31 AM
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4 Comments

The most talked-about film of the season turns out to be worthy of all that chatter, whether it be online or in person. The Social Network is a completely absorbing, high-octane drama about the invention of Facebook, as told from several points of view—and it’s that Rashomon-like approach that makes it especially intriguing.

By Leonard Maltin
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October 1, 2010 4:30 AM
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6 Comments

Let Me In offers an unusual twist on the usual vampire tale. It’s gripping and unusual—unless you happen to have seen the Swedish film that inspired it, Let the Right One In, based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. If you did catch that striking Swedish import two years ago, there isn’t much point to seeing the remake. Writer-director Matt Reeves, who made his reputation with Cloverfield, has wisely followed the original and made only a handful of (mostly inventive) deviations. I admire both his fidelity and his restraint.

If you haven’t seen Let the Right One In, or don’t tend to watch foreign-language films with subtitles, then I wholeheartedly recommend the remake. I usually shy away from—

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film review: 127 Hours

film review: Due Date

film review: Nora's Will

film review: Hereafter

film review: Conviction

film review: Secretariat

film review: Nowhere Boy

film review: It's Kind Of A Funny Story

film review: The Social Network

film review: Let Me In

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