Review: Meryl Streep's 'Iron Lady' Is Margaret Thatcher as King Lear With a Wink
December, 29, 2011 11:08 am | Comments On #iron lady, Leah Rozen, Meryl Streep, Movies, reviewsIn interviews, star Meryl Streep and director Phyllida Lloyd (“Mamma Mia!”) have joked that “The Iron Lady,” their film about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is the girl version of “King Lear.”
It’s not a bad comparison. Not that anyone will confuse “Iron Lady,” essentially a TV movie blessed with a brilliant and deeply felt performance by Streep, with “Lear.”
The movie may lack the eloquence and depth of William Shakespeare’s drama about an aging king heading...
Read MoreReview: 'Extremely Loud' and Incredibly Healing
December, 22, 2011 5:18 pm | Comments On #Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Max Von Sydow, Movies, reviews, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks
Oskar Schell is on a quest. The boy has found a key belonging to his father, who perished in the World Trade Center towers on 9/11. The key was in a small envelope on which the word “Black” was written and Oskar believes, if he can just find the lock to which the key belongs, he will discover a secret message from his dead dad.
He spends long months traveling far and wide across New York City’s five boroughs, methodically tracking down persons named Black, hoping to find the one who will know where the key belongs and Oskar’s father’s connection to it.
That’s the basic plot of...
Read MoreReview: Angelina Jolie's Wartime Romeo & Juliet Tale Long on Earnest, Short on Art
December, 22, 2011 9:51 am | Comments On #Angelina Jolie, In the Land of Blood and Honey, Movies, reviews
When actors decide to direct, it’s often a dicey proposition. Some are naturals (Clint Eastwood) but others turn out films that are unwatchable, self-indulgent hokum (anyone else sit through Nicholas Cage’s “Sonny” in 2002?).
So how does Angelina Jolie do with “In the Land of Blood and Honey,” which marks her feature directing-screenwriting debut and landed her on the cover of Newsweek? It’s a respectable first effort, longer on earnestness than art, though much of that is due to her choice of topic material.
“Blood and Honey” is a drama set in Bosnia during and...
Read MoreReview: Madonna's 'W.E.' Should Have Been Called 'Whiny Wallis'
December, 08, 2011 12:09 pm | Comments On #Madonna, Movies, reviews, W.E.
No matter her audacity, the Material Girl is only as good as her material, and Madonna has only half a movie here.
“W.E.” is the second film that the singer (and sometime actress) has directed. It’s a definite leap forward from 2008’s “Filth and Wisdom,” her mangy maiden directorial effort, but suffers from a faulty structural conceit that undercuts and fatally weakens the movie.
(“W.E.” opens tomorrow, Dec. 9, in Los Angeles for a one week, Oscar-...
Review: Even With All That Sex, 'Shame' Will Leave You Unsatisfied
December, 01, 2011 9:58 am | Comments On #Carey Mulligan, Michael Fassbender, Movies, reviews, sex, Shame, Steve McQueen
“Shame” is the movie in which Michael Fassbender gets naked and lets it all hang out.
And yes, he, ahem, measures up impressively. The movie, less so.
Co-written and directed by British artist-turned-filmmaker Steve McQueen (“Hunger”), this is an undernourished drama likely to leave most viewers muttering a puzzled “huh?” as they exit the theater.
...
Read MoreReview: Scorsese Gets 3D Right -- It Adds Real Depth to 'Hugo'
November, 22, 2011 9:53 am | Comments On #animation, family films, hugo, Hugo Cabret, Martin Scorsese, Movies
Just when moviegoers were ready to give up on the 3D revival as a gimmick used primarily to justify higher ticket prices, master director Martin Scorsese comes along with “Hugo” to show how it should be done.
His brilliant family film employs 3D imaginatively, evocatively and judiciously, using it to add depth, both literal and metaphorical, enriching the story that he is telling.
“Hugo,” based on “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” a Caldecott Medal-winning, 2007 children’s novel by Brian Selznick, is in many ways a love letter to the movies and film preservation, the...
Read MoreReview: Way Too Many Happy Feet in Penguin Sequel
November, 17, 2011 10:32 am | Comments On #animation, Elijah Wood, Happy Feet 2, Leah Rozen, Movies, reviews“Happy Feet Two” may be set in Antartica, but it's only a lukewarm effort.
In this 3D sequel to the Oscar-winning, 2006 animated hit, the lesson all the characters learn, no matter their species, is that only when they all work together can problems -- including a shift in the glacial landscape that threatens the penguin community’s very existence -- be overcome.
Or, as I seem to recall learning years ago while watching “Sesame Street,” the word for the day is cooperate.
"Two" introduces a new...
Read MoreReview: No, Zeus, 'The Immortals' Isn't Supposed to Be a Comedy in Leather
November, 10, 2011 10:59 am | Comments On #Henry Cavill, Immortals, Leah Rozen, Movies, Relativity, reviews, Tarsem Singh
Somewhere, the gods are laughing.
That would be the Greek gods, Zeus and his crew, who must be enjoying the folly and folderol that is “Immortals,” a silly, would-be swords-and-sandals epic set in ancient Greece.
The movie, as directed by Indian-born stylemeister Tarsem Singh (“The Cell”), is full of ravishing images and makes effective use of its 3D -- lots of swords, arrows, blood and severed body parts coming right at you -- but its characters and story are as dull as modern day particle board.
“...
Read MoreReview: 'Another Happy Day' = Another Unhappy, Weepy Weddding
November, 03, 2011 10:49 am | Comments On #Another Happy Day, Ellen Barkin, Kate Bosworth, Leah Rozen, Movies, reviews
Weddings are the new funerals.
If a movie wants to really stir the pot, showing family members and friends weeping and wailing as they hash over old grievances and inflict new ones, it seems there’s no better setting than a wedding and the days leading up to it.
Consider such recent films as “Rachel’s Wedding,” “Bridesmaids” and “Melancholia” (which opens in theaters Nov. 11 but is currently available via VOD). The latest entry in the weddings as warfare category is “Another Happy Day” -- the title is obviously sardonic -- in which the bride herself has...
Read MoreReview: Yo-Ho-Ho, Johnny Depp Phones It In for 'Rum Diary'
October, 27, 2011 10:58 am | Comments On #Johnny Depp, Leah Rozen, Movies, reviews, Rum Diary
Besides being the familiar appellation for a potent alcoholic liquor, the word “rum” can also mean -- it’s a colloquial Briticism -- that something is a little off, a tad peculiar.
Both definitions of the word apply to “The Rum Diary,” a meandering comic drama based on an early, semi-autobiographical novel by legendary gonzo journalist and hard drinker Hunter S. Thompson.
Johnny Depp, who produced and stars in the...
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Description
Leah Rozen was the film critic at People Magazine for thirteen years, until she decided that seeing six to eight movies a week was cruel and unusual punishment. She has also written for the New York Times and such still lamented though long departed publications as Spy, Manhattan Inc. and New York Woman.
