Review: 'Margin Call' a Savvy Look at Wall Street Heroes & Villains as They Crashed
October, 20, 2011 11:00 am | Comments On #Demi Moore, Margin Call, Movies, reviews, Zachary Quinto
If you want to understand why the financial crisis of 2008 happened and the causes behind it, you should watch the 2010 Oscar-winning documentary, “Inside Job."
If you want to understand what the people working at the giant Wall Street monoliths might have felt and been doing as their empires came crashing down --soon dragging the nation with them -- consider seeing “Margin Call.”
This savvy and involving indie by first-time feature director J.C. Chandor follows the fortunes of a handful of employees and...
Read MoreReview: Cage, Kidman's 'Trespass' a Sadistic Trifle
October, 13, 2011 10:32 am | Comments On #Leah Rozen, Movies, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, reviews, Trespass
Here’s hoping that stars Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage have their Best Actor Oscars tightly clutched in their hands when forced to watch “Trespass.”
They will need the golden reminder that they’ve done better work and appeared in more engaging and challenging films than this putrefying piece of genre junk.
“Trespass” is a...
Read MoreReview: Even Hugh Jackman Can't Save the Gooey, Clanky 'Real Steel'
October, 06, 2011 9:21 am | Comments On #Hugh Jackman, Movies, Real Steel, reviews
Cross watered down versions of “Rocky” with “Terminator 2” and “Transformers” and you get “Real Steel,” a clanking yarn about a man, a boy and their boxing robot.
Really? Is this what mass appeal movies have come to?
Even Fred, my 11-year old consultant on family fare who would seem to be the target audience for the film, took a pass on accompanying me to a screening. Having viewed the trailer, he pronounced, “It looks cheesy and sentimental.”
He got that right.
Which is...
Read MoreReview: Roman Polanski's 'Carnage'-- Just a Fang-Less 'Virginia Woolf'
September, 30, 2011 10:48 am | Comments On #Carnage, Christoph Waltz, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winselet, Leah Rozen, Movies, new york film festival, review, Roman PolanskiFans of high class scenery chewing will enjoy “Carnage,” director Roman Polanski’s acrid comedy about two bourgeoisie couples battling it out over a long weekday afternoon in Brooklyn.
Adapted from “God of Carnage,” French playwright Yasmina Reza’s recent Tony-winning stage comedy, the movie will have its premiere Friday night as the opener at the 49th annual New York Film Festival in Manhattan. (Sony Pictures Classics releases “Carnage” in theaters on Dec. 16.)
...
Read MoreReview: Cancer Chances = '50/50'; Movie's Prognosis Even Better
September, 29, 2011 9:23 am | Comments On #50/50, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Movies, reviews, Seth RogenAdam, a producer at an NPR radio station in Seattle, is out for a jog. While waiting for a stoplight to turn green, he reflexively reaches behind him to rub a sore muscle in his back.
But it’s not just a temporary ache. Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) soon learns that he has a rare form of cancer on his spine. His prognosis isn’t great, maybe 50/50 at best. He’ll have to undergo radiation to shrink the tumor and then a risky operation to remove it.
Adam is 27.
That’s the set up for “...
Read MoreReview: Even With Robert De Niro, 'Killer' Isn't So Elite
September, 22, 2011 10:16 am | Comments On #Jason Statham, Killer Elite, Leah Rozen, Movies, reviews, robert de niroA routine action thriller which occasionally hints that at some point in its road to the big screen it may have aspired to be more, “Killer Elite” centers on Danny (Jason Statham), a highly skilled, international paid assassin.
Early in the movie, he yanks open the door of a car containing a powerbroker target and, to his horror, realizes that a young child is sitting alongside his intended quarry. This is the straw that brakes Danny. Fed up with all the occupational carnage, he quits the hired killer racket, retiring to rural Australia where he hopes to lead a quiet life.
...
Read MoreReview: Sarah Jessica Parker? I Really Don't Care How She Does It
September, 15, 2011 11:08 am | Comments On #I Don't Know How She Does It, Leah Rozen, Movies, reviews, Sarah Jessica ParkerTiming is everything. Allison Pearson’s pointedly comic novel about a frazzled working mother trying to juggle home, marriage and a high-pressure job in high finance in London, “I Don’t Know How She Does It,” was published in 2002.
One worldwide economic collapse later, the movie version seems like a relic from a bygone era.
Oh, look, it’s rich people in beautifully appointed houses and they’re worried that the nanny might not arrive on time for them to make important morning meetings at work.
Boo-...
Read MoreReview: Cough and the World Coughs With You in a Taut 'Contagion'
September, 08, 2011 11:08 am | Comments On #Contagion, Jude Law, kate winslet, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Movies, reviews, Steven Soderbergh
The world doesn’t end with a bang but rather a cough.
At least, that’s what almost happens in “Contagion,” director Steven Soderbergh’s intellectually stimulating new drama about the terrifyingly rapid spread of a lethal virus.
Before there’s even a picture on the screen, moviegoers hear a slight cough -- really more of a throat clearing -- on the soundtrack. Then Gwyneth Paltrow shows up -- she’s the one who coughed and, yikes, she does it again -- as a woman grabbing a bite at a Chicago airport on her way home to Minneapolis from a business trip to Hong Kong....
Read MoreReview: 'The Debt,' a Taut Thriller Well Worth the Wait, Ushers in Fall Season
August, 30, 2011 3:42 pm | Comments On #Helen Mirren, indies, Jessica Chastain, Leah Rozen, Movies, reviews, Sam Worthington, The DebtUsually when a movie’s release is delayed by nearly a year, warning signals go off that it may be turkey time.
That’s not the case with “The Debt,” an intriguing thriller that was slated to open in late 2010 but got lost in the corporate shuffle when Disney sold Miramax. It’s finally showing up in multiplexes now, and was worth the wait.
“The Debt” is a taut spy thriller that’s an English-language remake by director...
Read MoreReview: Hallelujah for the Non-Preachy But Spiritual 'Higher Ground'
August, 25, 2011 12:24 pm | Comments On #Higher Ground, Leah Rozen, Movies, reviews, Vera Famiga
Actress Vera Farmiga (“Up in the Air”) makes a heavenly debut as a director with “Higher Ground,” a compelling drama about a woman’s spiritual journey.
Farmiga has done that rare thing: make a movie about religion that is neither condescending, preachy nor satirical but rather looks at an evangelical Christian community with an open and a (mostly) nonjudgmental eye.
...
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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.
