What begins as a musically animated “March of the Penguins” ends like an after-school special edition of “An Inconvenient Truth.” Audiences going to “Happy Feet” can expect a cute story about a penguin who, though different from all the other penguins, is eventually accepted by his peers and lives happily ever after. But the audience…
Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain” is a vast, insightful and weird drama. Aronofsky’s works (including “Pi” and “Requiem for a Dream”), like those of Michel Gondry (“The Science of Sleep”), linger and haunt the mind long after credits roll. “The Fountain” is no exception. With its constantly evolving characters, vivid settings and philosophy-meets-science-fiction tone, Aronofsky’s latest…
Though the faces and places have changed, the stoner comedy template hasn’t altered much in the past 30 years. The best ones require two things: lots of smoking, and an impossible trek to complete. Whether it’s halting studio production of “Bluntman and Chronic” (“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”), or just heading to White Castle,…
After Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1968, the nation mourned the loss of a brilliant, charismatic politician. The era’s struggles feel sharply relevant to today’s national issues: involvement in an unpopular war, error-prone voting mechanisms and immigration tensions. As politically timely as “Bobby” is, what resonates most from the film is the personal impact…
Christopher Guest and his usual cast of cohorts discover what happens to even the most mediocre independent film cast when some blogger throws out the word “Oscar” in “For Your Consideration,” a hysterical send-up of independent filmmaking’s conventions and character actors. Writer/director Guest is best known for his mockumentaries like “This is Spinal Tap” and…
James Bond walks over to the bar at Le Casino Royale in Montenegro. Frustrated, perhaps about to lose millions in a high- stakes poker game, the world’s most famous secret agent orders his signature drink. A bartender asks Bond if he would like his vodka martini shaken or stirred. As the audience is about to…
Unlike the slew of disappointing horror releases this fall, including Sarah Michelle Gellar’s other release, “The Grudge 2,” “The Return” brings back traditional elements of quality horror. The film begins with a flashback, the first of many, in which Joanna (Gellar) remembers a traumatizing experience at a carnival. The film flashes forward to the present,…
