http://grouchoreviews.com/ Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:21:13 GMT Film/DVD reviews, interviews and features. http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3533 /reviews/3533 Wondrous, weird, and sweetly innocent, Ponyo is a tale bursting with love, which is recommendation enough for the young and the young at heart. Sun, 14 Mar 2010 15:37:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3721 /reviews/3721 Serves up soldiers, spies, politicians, reporters, and Iraqi civilians who speak almost entirely in clichés. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:27:37 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3720 /reviews/3720 Only slightly edgier and no more sensible than a Nicholas Sparks story. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:08:59 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3713 /reviews/3713 The sort-of picture-perfection of the suburban home...is a tenuous cover for the unpredictability of life, the short distance between the American Dream and the American nightmare. Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:13:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3717 /reviews/3717 Malik’s boxed-in circumstances certainly press ethical questions for the viewer, but in Rahim’s psychologically acute performance, Malik is never less than understandable…more often than not, he’s disturbingly sympathetic. Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:01:22 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3715 /reviews/3715 More tiresome than entertaining, especially with mind-numbing CGI exhaustion setting in early. Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:51:14 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3714 /reviews/3714 The director’s shrewd and witty approach to the material demonstrates his finely tuned sense of the absurd. Sun, 07 Mar 2010 17:44:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3697 /reviews/3697 Multiplex entertainment this distinctive and provocative doesn’t come along every day: it’s a head trip well worth taking. Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:56:33 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3696 /reviews/3696 Conspicuously pointless...an underachieving comedy of awkwardness. Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:51:20 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3650 /reviews/3650 This highly incredible story lives and dies on its leading performances, so it‘s a damn good thing someone hired Jackson and Spacey to go toe to toe. Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:49:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3641 /reviews/3641 Despite its grabber of a premise, Logan‘s Run flaunts poorly developed plot specifics; as such, it‘s terminally silly. Nevertheless, as a camp curio, it still has an odd but undeniable staying power. Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:39:30 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3637 /reviews/3637 A stealth epic, framing an urban jungle and making its own kind of contemporary history by pairing acting giants Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino in what has arguably become the preminent cops-and-robbers movie. Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:26:57 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3673 /reviews/3673 What to make of short-attention-span artists satirizing a short-attention-span world? Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:51:22 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3684 /reviews/3684 Well-mined comic territory...dutifully…and it must be said, expertly…recreates the rough cinematography, cheesy production design...and incidental music that sounds like chintzy soul crossed with a Quinn-Martin TV score. Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:43:16 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3682 /reviews/3682 Any subtlety or implicit social satire to be found in Joseph Ruben‘s original went out with the last neighborhood trash pickup. Too bad the service was canceled before it could haul away this waste-of-time remake. Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:42:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3665 /reviews/3665 There’s absolutely no reason for The Final Destination to exist other than the only one Hollywood studios really care about: a cynical cash grab. Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:40:03 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3692 /reviews/3692 As punchy superhero entertainment for kids goes, this is fairly provocative stuff that should get the young‘uns thinking along with their thrills. Tue, 16 Feb 2010 03:38:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3688 /reviews/3688 Some of the twelve short films are nice enough, some are shaky and a few are outright awful... Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:55:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3693 /reviews/3693 A potent mood piece lifted by gorgeous cinematography, resonant performances and, above, all, Spielmann‘s sensitive filmmaking. Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:19:22 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3592 /reviews/3592 A rather dull and unchallenging account of one woman‘s ambitious social climb in a man‘s world...If Chanel‘s early years were really this boring, why bother with them? Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:52:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/interviews/305 /interviews/305 Logan Lerman: Acting’s the hobby...But the art is in filmmaking...My goal in life is to be a good filmmaker. Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:02:32 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/interviews/304 /interviews/304 I was fascinated by Sky King, until I went to the studio one day with my Dad and met a pudgy little man, who didn’t fit my image of Sky King. But I think that tweaked my interest in the whole business of show business. Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:08:31 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/features/243 /features/243 The Year‘s Best Narrative Films 1. Sita Sings the Blues  Notice a theme here? 2009 was a banner year for animated films, and the most creative was this little charmer written, directed, produced, and animated by Nina Paley (it’s legally available for free online, but don’t be a cheapskate: make a donation or buy the DVD). Paley app... Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:54:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/interviews/303 /interviews/303 [Linklater:] You can feel...him pushing the boundaries or finding maybe there aren’t any boundaries to his own genius and to his behavior and his appetites. You can almost feel them expanding as you watch him. Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:08:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/interviews/302 /interviews/302 There’s so many heroes that I admire, like the one general called Zhao Yun, who is saving a little baby in the middle of all the battles...I used him for Chow Yun-Fat in Hard Boiled. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:08:10 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/interviews/301 /interviews/301 Spike Jonze: ‘That was sort of the goal of the movie, really, just to try and capture the feeling, to make a movie from the point of view of a nine-year-old. So the viewer is for that period of time experiencing the world from that vantage point.‘ Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:58:32 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/features/242 /features/242 The Year‘s Best Films 1. Waltz with Bashir 2. My Winnipeg 3. The Class (Entre le murs) 4. The Dark Knight 5. Doubt 6. Happy-Go-Lucky 7. Synecdoche, New York 8. The Flight of the Red Balloon (Le voyage du ballon rouge) 9. Let the Right One In (Låt de Sat, 20 Dec 2008 12:13:46 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/features/237 /features/237 Goosebump alert: the disc kicks off with one of the all-time great movie themes, the “Raiders March“...a magnificent, brassy piece of music. Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:27:03 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/features/239 /features/239 The definitive book on the Adam West Batman. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:32:35 GMT Peter Canavese http://grouchoreviews.com/features/238 /features/238 Brilliant...essential reading on the modern myth of Batman, its meaning, and its enduring hold on the American imagination. Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:16:00 GMT Peter Canavese