The Barsanti Nexus

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:27:00 +0000

In Theaters:
Avatar

Avatar is the prototypical Cameron event-film. It’s a story of cataclysmic battles and personal revelations, punched through with exclamation marks and related via ground-breaking special effects that work overtime to heighten the emotional impact of the primal drama on display. It’s also—more uniquely to this entry in Cameron’s oeuvre—a metaphor for our society’s benighted state, where uploading one’s consciousness into a grander, more worldly and aware creature, serves as the ultimate escape from a venal and polluted (in every sense of the word) present reality...

Avatar is playing, in 3-D and regular old 2-D all around eveywhere now. Read the full review at the Short Ends & Leader blog.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:18:00 +0000

In Theaters:
The Lovely Bones

In The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson may have left Middle-Earth behind for the potentially less magical realm of 1970s small-town Pennsylvania, but the characters inhabiting this land of modest, shag-carpeted split-levels and bustling shopping malls are hardly less mythical. There's a sprightly girl of elvish features, a good-natured father who can be pushed into acts of righteous bravery, a slithery villain hiding in plain sight, and a magical landscape just beyond our own where wonders abound. It's all much more corduroy and sideburns than glinting chain mail and delicate silver tiaras, but the landscape of this film's conflict is so riven with mythic echoes that one wouldn't be surprised to see somebody bury a broadsword in an orc's head...

The Lovely Bones is playing most everywhere now. Read the full review at filmcritic.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:23:00 +0000

In Theaters:
A Serious Man

You could say that A Serious Man, with its blankly boxed-up suburban streets, is the film that Joel and Ethan Coen always meant to make. Raised in the Minneapolis suburbs during the ‘60s, they went on build up and tear down one film genre after another, from westerns to screwball comedies to noir. Their first return to the land of their youth, Fargo, was a chilly comedy, peeling back the stolid veneer of Minnesota nice to find both heartfelt decency and baleful madness beneath. It had its moments, but there was something of the vengeful adolescent in its humor...

A Serious Man is still playing in theaters here and there. Read the full review at PopMatters.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:15:00 +0000

In Theaters:
The Last Station

In an earlier epoch, The Last Station is the kind of movie that some striving studio mogul would snap up, stock with the best performers on his payroll, and assign to an A-list director, in order to play in packed theaters of adoring fans, and finally to triumph in the hallowed hall of the Academy Awards. Today, however, Jay Parini’s novel about the final days of Leo Tolstoy’s life has come to movie screens with less fanfare. These are different times, for better and—when it comes to films about dead artistes acted by quality thespians—for worse...

The Last Station is playing now at finer theaters near you. You can read the full review at PopMatters.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:25:00 +0000

In Theaters:
Me and Orson Welles

You never really know why high school senior Richard Samuels (Zac Efron) wants so badly to be in the theater. Me and Orson Welles offers no scenes of him struggling mightily to get there, or being harassed by his parents to take something, anything, seriously so that he might be able to have a career some day. He just knows that his unnamed and mostly unseen hometown, just a quick train ride from the beaming spotlight of Manhattan, has nothing for him. But once we see Richard enmeshed in an all-consuming and all-too-brief adventure, there’s also no reason to ask why he desires it so powerfully. Anybody who would need such a question answered in detail, likely wouldn’t understand the answer anyway...

Me and Orson Welles is in theaters now. You can read the full review at PopMatters.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 15:58:00 +0000

In Books:
Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

It’s always good to have at least one skunk at the garden party, particularly when its Barbara Ehrenreich. The author of Nickel and Dimed and numerous other exposes on the many deficiencies inherent in the modern American workplace has gone a little farther in her newest bit of reality-checking—and occasionally too far, in the wrong direction...

Bright-Sided is available in fine bookstores now. Read the full review at PopMatters.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:11:00 +0000

In Theaters:
Up in the Air

A dramatic comedy of dislocation that, fittingly enough, never finds its moorings, Up in the Air sends George Clooney jetting about between the great aerial transport hubs of American flyover country, young ward in tow, as he tries to teach her the ropes of his grim business: firing employees whose bosses don't have the guts to do it themselves...

Up in the Air opens limited on Friday and expands nationwide later in the month. Read the full review at filmcritic.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:38:00 +0000

In Theaters:
The Road

Images can only do so much, even in film. When director John Hillcoat and writer Joe Penhall decided to turn Cormac McCarthy's grim fable The Road into a film, they were setting themselves up for failure. When the Coen brothers filmed McCarthy's previous novel, No Country for Old Men, they had a property just begging to be filmed: Its drumming plot and sawed-off dialogue were like a primitive projection system unspooling in the reader's mind...

The Road opens in limited release today. See it if you dare. Read the full review at filmcritic.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:54:00 +0000

In Theaters:
(Untitled)

In Jonathan Parker's spry and spiky satire (Untitled), the composer in question, Adrian, is played by Adam Goldberg as a black hole of self-fulfilling failure. When first spotted, he's riven with conflicting jealousy and disgust over the success of his brother Josh's (Eion Bailey) art. Josh sells tonally neutral paintings to hospitals and hotels looking for soothing, repeatable pieces that don't conflict with the décor. As comfortable as Josh is with his success, Adrian is torn apart by his lack of it -- he performs atonal noise-explosions that seem designed to drive away listeners, even though bemoans his lack of success...

(Untitled) is playing in extraordinarily limited release now but is worth seeking out. You can read the full review at filmcritic.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:01:00 +0000

In Theaters:
The End of Poverty?

Recently the poor seem to have lost their status as a subject of interest for the Western creative class. Once upon a time, the writings of Jacob Riis and Michael Harrington, WPA documentation, and even Preston Sturges’ films made the struggles of the poor (working or not) a constant and difficult-to-ignore pop-cultural theme. The hobo, a poignant representation of those millions made homeless by the Great Depression, became such a stock in trade during the 1930s and afterward, that he became a cliché...

The End of Poverty? is in limited release now. You can read the full review at PopMatters.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:21:00 +0000

In Theaters:
The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Harkening back to the joys of their first collaboration, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach's script for their stop-motion animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's novel The Fantastic Mr. Fox brings a wry and mature sensibility to the story, enhancing the original's larkish fun. Although it may initially seem to be yet another kids-film-for-adults of the kind the industry has been pumping out of late, Mr. Fox manages to be something else entirely. Pandering to neither audience, it remains true to its story's vulpine nature...

The Fantastic Mr. Fox opens tomorrow and shouldn't be missed. Read the full review at filmcritic.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:52:00 +0000

In Books:
The Death of Conservatism

The Death of Conservatism.. For Now would have been a more apt title for Sam Tanenhaus’ book, but any editor worth their salt would have lopped that dangling ellipse of prevarication right off. It has the zing and jab of the political potboilers that increasingly crowd the bestseller lists and display tables at airport newsstands. But the boldly declarative title doesn’t do justice to the nuanced argument that lies behind. This is a book that doesn’t describe the end of an ideology so much as it explains the ideology’s current state of tail-eating suicide as a low point in a long historical trajectory of ups and downs...

Tanenhaus' book is in stores now. You can also see his interview with Bill Moyers here. Read the full review of the book at PopMatters.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:20:00 +0000

In Theaters:
Endgame

The great events of history have a tendency to collapse into a few melodramatic snapshots that hardly do justice to the real thing. Just as the collapse of the Berlin Wall was precipitated by a more complex chain of events than Ronald Reagan snapping his fingers at Mikhail Gorbachev, so too apartheid’s end was brought down by more than the stubborn persistence of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela. Endgame crafts a crackling thriller out of the tangle of crafty maneuvering and happenstance that put a stop to South Africa’s longstanding official segregation...

Endgame is in limited release now and should be on DVD soon -- make sure to check it out. Read the full review at PopMatters.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:36:00 +0000

In Theaters:
Disney's A Christmas Carol

If watching goony-faced animatronic creatures cowering in terror or delivering Christmas cheer as if with a cudgel is your idea of a good time, then Disney’s A Christmas Carol should be right up your alley. (Those who enjoy virtual roller-coaster rides and long falls from high places are also encouraged to attend.)...

A Christmas Carol -- the 3D CGI version -- opened everywhere Friday. You can read the full review at PopMatters.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:11:00 +0000

In Theaters:
Gentlemen Broncos

A pustulant piece of work whose better moments mostly involve Jemaine Clement’s channeling of insufferable condescension, Gentlemen Broncos represents a sort of nadir of comedy, where even meager jokes die sad and unmourned deaths. Like director Jared Hess’ first film, Napoleon Dynamite, it will win points from certain quarters for its faux-naif characterizations and time-warp outfits. But Broncos has none of that film’s gangly punchiness or heartfelt sense of rebellion. Here, it’s all pose, with hardly a laugh in sight...

Gentlemen Broncos is playing now in a few, sad theaters across the land. Read the full review at filmcritic.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:09:00 +0000

In Theaters:
New York, I Love You

Chalk it up to one more cultural artifact lost in translation. The 2007 portmanteau film Paris, Je T'aime was a collection of 18 short films intended to function as a movieland map to the City of Lights, each one tracing a different neighborhood via a brief, usually romantic, little tale. The results were uneven, but more often than not, the film succeeded. A couple years later New York's horning in on the idea, with producer Emmanuel Benbihy already planning future editions for Rio de Janeiro, Shanghai, Jerusalem, and Mumbai. If New York, I Love You is any indication, though, Benbihy should probably call it quits before digging himself a deeper hole...

New York, I Love You is open now in limited release. Read the full review at filmcritic.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:55:00 +0000

New on DVD:
Homicide

At the time, it seemed like David Mamet might be slumming. This was back, way back, when his name was still more synonymous with punchy street plays like American Buffalo than it was with script-doctoring Hannibal or primetime dramas like The Unit. When the great Chicago playwright—an artist whose jagged skill with gutter-wise dialogue was almost as prodigiously frightening as his productivity—started getting into movies, it made for a weird transition...

Homicide is now available in a nifty Criterion edition. You can read the full review of same at PopMatters.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:44:00 +0000

In Theaters:
An Education

When Lone Scherfig's wise, colorful coming-of-age tale An Education was making the festival rounds, all points on the buzz compass were aiming directly at its star, Carey Mulligan, and rightly so. Playing Jenny, the 16 year-old clawing at the strictures of her red-brick-drab London suburb, circa 1961, Mulligan exudes a sparkler-like intellectual charm that never quite manages to hide the confused teenager within. It's frankly all that the film, and its occasionally rote story, can do to keep up with her...

An Education is in limited release now. Check it out, at the very least for Mulligan's performance, which will likely be (unfairly) ignored by Oscar voters. Read the full review at filmcritic.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:33:00 +0000

In Theaters:
Good Hair

As he puts it at the start of Good Hair, one of Chris Rock's young daughters one day stumped him by asking, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?" That question -- and its attendant cultural, racial, economic, and historical baggage -- prompted him to find an answer to why she would think her hair wasn't "good" in the best way a performer knows how: make a movie. The result is a quick-witted narrative that refuses to sacrifice thought for humor, even if it never satisfyingly answers the original question...

Good Hair opens tomorrow. You can read the full review at filmcritic.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:18:00 +0000

In Books:
How I Became a Famous Novelist

Pete Tarslaw, the desperately hopeless protagonist of Steve Hely’s bracingly funny debut novel, takes his own sweet time figuring out how to actually do what the title of the book announces. We’re about 50 pages into How I Became a Famous Novelist before Tarslaw gets around to cracking the task at hand. In short, he Googles some stuff and wanders around a chain bookstore before creating a list of rules (“Rule 1. Abandon truth.” “Rule 2. Write a popular book. Do not waste energy making it a good book.” “Rule 6. Evoke confusing sadness at the end”) that will help carry him through...

How I Became a Famous Novelist is in stores now. Buy it and laugh. You can read the full review at PopMatters.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:12:00 +0000

In Theaters:
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

Just about as abstruse in conception as his infamous gargantuan novel Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews with Hideous Men features a string of literate, unrelenting, and often savagely honest monologues by (frequently disturbed) men identified only by number, speaking to some unnamed interlocutor located somewhere behind the reader's eyes. Its verve and wordplay make for dazzling reading, but it’s all set at a critical emotional remove, as though written with gloves on. As source material for a film, it would seem sheer death...

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men opens today in limited release. You can read the full review at filmcritic.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:08:00 +0000

In Theaters:
Paris

Dancers, immigrants, attitudinal intellectuals, models, harassed bureaucrats, brawling market workers, and snippy shopkeepers make up the patchwork of characters whose lives gloriously sprawl through the neatly orchestrated tragicomedy of Cédric Klapisch's Paris. Instead of contemplating the whorls of Gauloise smoke hanging between their eyes and a rain-dappled window in one of the fancier arrondissements, as proper cinematic Parisians should, writer/director Klapisch's characters rail, pout, and flail at the strictures of their lives. Some are in love, some are dying, and others are just floundering in frustration, but almost every one of them is straining for something better. What with all the fatal accidents, deadly diseases, bar fights, and virtual stalking going on, this could almost be an American film...

Paris opens in limited release tomorrow. You can read the full review at filmcritic.com.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:00:00 +0000

In Books:
The Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard

In J.G. Ballard's stories, the world is always ending. No surprise, given that the late author (who died this past April at the age of 78) spent several years as a boy in a Japanese prison camp outside Shanghai...

The long-needed Complete Stories of J.G. Ballard is in stores now. You can read my full article about it at The Barnes & Noble Review.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 10:29:00 +0000

In Theaters:
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

After seeing Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's earnest, smart documentary about Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers controversy, viewers not old enough when it unfolded might wonder why the story has played such a minor role in popular histories of the era. This informative account deserves more than the very limited theatrical release it's likely to get...

The Most Dangerous Man in America opens tomorrow. You can read the full review at The Hollywood Reporter.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 14:41:00 +0000

In Theaters:

Crude

The story behind Crude, Joe Berlinger's documentary about the fight to bring an oil company to justice, is unfortunately a pretty simple one: corporation pollutes, people die, corporation refuses to take responsibility. What lies behind this formulation is infinitely more complex, of course, but Berlinger's film never loses sight of that awful calculus...

Crude is in limited release now. Try and seek it out now before the Chevron lawyers get to it. You can read the full review at filmcritic.com.