The Playlist

Review: 'Winnie the Pooh' Is A Cuddly, Gorgeously Animated Treat

By Drew Taylor
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July 12, 2011 2:01 AM
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2 Comments

There have been a lot of animated movies released this year, but virtually none of them has been any good. The technology, while increasingly sophisticated and skilled at rendering lifelike Easter bunnies and parrots and pandas and oddly anthropomorphic automobiles, seems to be brought to the screen at the cost of a similar sophistication in storytelling. Which is why "Winnie the Pooh," Disney's new take on the beloved A.A. Milne character, rendered, lovingly, in comparatively low-tech traditional animation, comes as such a surprise. It might be the greatest animated feature of the year so far (besides "Rango") – and you don't even have to wear dorky 3D glasses.

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Review: 'Tabloid' Is Documentarian Errol Morris At His Wildly Absurdist Best

By Drew Taylor
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July 11, 2011 7:19 AM
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1 Comment

Lately, documentarian Errol Morris has focused his films on terribly serious subject matter. 2003's "Fog of War" centered on Robert S. McNamara, one of the chief architects of the bloody, morally nebulous Vietnam War, and 2008's underappreciated "Standard Operating Procedure" told the story of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal through the photos themselves. The films were great, but they lacked the playfulness and oddball charm of earlier Morris films like his debut "Gates of Heaven" (about a pet cemetery) and 1997's "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control," about a bunch of weirdos with amazing professions (lion tamer, topiary artist, robotics expert, and a man devoted to blind, mutant-looking mole rats). So it's something of a relief that Morris has largely left the dark stuff behind for his latest film, "Tabloid," a gripping, thought-provoking, laugh-out-loud love story that turns out to be one of the documentarian's very best films.

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Review: ‘The Tree’ Is A Harrowing, Sometimes Drab, Look At Life & Loss

By Matthew Newlin
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July 11, 2011 2:04 AM
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1 Comment

Films about the loss of a loved one – a parent, a child, a partner, a friend – have been a staple of cinema almost since its inception. Our inability to forget or move on with our lives is one of the characteristics that makes us human and filmmakers are always looking for new ways to examine how we cope (or fail to cope) with death. “The Tree” is not exactly an inspired take on the idea, but does have certain elements that make it a very touching cinematic experience. As the old adage goes, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey that counts. This is absolutely true for “The Tree.”

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Review: 'Rapt' Succumbs To Derivative Plotlines & Insubstantial Moments

By Christopher Bell
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July 9, 2011 2:18 AM
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2 Comments

Where do we start with Stanislas Graff? Played with quiet confidence by Yvan Attal, the man is the chairman of a seriously lucrative business, well-respected by his peers. A loving family surround him, fit with two admiring teenage daughters and a wife that doesn't think sleeping in a separate room is a red flag of any sort. In secret, Graff is a heavy gambler and we're treated to a brief snippet of the showboat at a grimy poker game. And, just like any wealthy male in a film like this, he's got a separate flat where he sees whatever mistress he's currently shagging. Director Lucas Belvaux establishes the whole of this guy efficiently, moving along quickly and displaying the character's ability to keep everything separate while also making it feel very routine -- he's a busy man, but he's a comfortable one.

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Review: A Fat Man, Animals That Sound Like Sitcom Characters & The Terrible 'Zookeeper'

By Gabe Toro
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July 7, 2011 5:17 AM
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5 Comments

Early on in “Zookeeper,” Sony’s latest commercially craven piece of garbage from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company, an animal sees two bears fighting. Her response is, “They look like two bean bag chairs!” Ignoring the idea that this character, a giraffe, has probably never even seen a bean bag chair, this is a brilliant line -- mostly because it reveals the true instincts of the six (six!) writers tasked with bringing this story-less hook to the screen.

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Review: 'Ironclad' Is Made Of Flimsy Fabric

By Gabe Toro
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July 7, 2011 3:14 AM
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1 Comment

There have been a wealth of medieval swordplay pictures in the last couple of years. Some have adhered to a jumpcut-heavy editing method to allow these pictures a contemporary feel. Others have taken advantage of more liberal times allowing these films the influx of the blood and guts appropriate to the era. But it’s a good bet that none of these efforts from recent years has nearly the same amount of scenery-chewing as “Ironclad.”

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Review: John Carpenter Retires, Forgets That He Had To Direct 'The Ward'

By Gabe Toro
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July 7, 2011 2:02 AM
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6 Comments

An open field. A girl. A fire. A mystery. Ignoring a brief and ultimately irrelevant prologue, the beginning of “The Ward” immediately pulls us into the story of a classic horror convention, the Survivor Girl. Except, tantalizingly, we don’t know what she’s survived and, given a few orchestral cues, we may even question whether she has survived or not.

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Review: 'Horrible Bosses' Is A Middling, Generic Comedy That Murders Its Own Potential

By Drew Taylor
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July 6, 2011 7:29 AM
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4 Comments

A dark comedies, even a generic, mass-marketed studio confection like this week's "Horrible Bosses," offers the promise of, if not laughs then, at the very least, a kind of dangerous edginess that sets it apart from the bland and safe "Hall Pass"es of the world. Of course, should the conceit falter then you're left with something even worse than the pallidness of a mainstream comedy -- the bad aftertaste of tonal unevenness and missed opportunity. And, sadly, that's exactly what you get from "Horrible Bosses."

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Review: 'The Ledge' Takes Hesitant But Significant Steps Toward Acknowledging Atheism

By Mark Zhuravsky
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July 6, 2011 4:16 AM
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3 Comments

Matthew Chapman’s “The Ledge” is sure to provoke plenty of ire. The film, Chapman’s first directorial outing since 1988’s “Heart of Midnight,” opens as a fairly conventional thriller – Gavin (Charlie Hunnam), stands out on a ledge and threatens to jump while detective Hollis (Terrence Howard) plays negotiator. As Hollis pieces together that Gavin’s not up here by choice, we jump into a series of flashbacks that explore a forbidden romance that takes root between Gavin and Shana (Liv Tyler), the wife of Joe (Patrick Wilson). Here’s the particular draw of “The Ledge” (and a marketing plot that’s been too heavily leaned on) – Gavin is a pronounced atheist, and Joe is a fundamentalist Christian. Their beliefs heavily motivate how the events of the film play out and several scenes are imparted to impassioned debate between the two. Depending on which side of that debate the viewer is on, they may balk at Gavin's aggressive tearing down of any and all religion or Joe's faith-based homophobia and general "holier-than-thou" demeanor.

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Review: Catherine Breillat's 'Sleeping Beauty' Tackles Fairy Tales Through The Prism Of Sex & Class

By Gabe Toro
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July 6, 2011 2:58 AM
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4 Comments

A little girl who dreams of being a boy. A boy who wishes to be seduced by an Ice Queen. High fantasy and tangled sexuality dovetail in “The Sleeping Beauty,” a fantastical retelling of the popular folklore involving the little girl brought to an eternal slumber. Like the original Brothers Grimm fairytale, this version differs sharply from the public’s greater awareness of the Disney-fied version. But where it takes the familiar-seeming tale differs greatly from the source, as it emerges from the fertile mind of French provacateur Catherine Breillat.

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