Say what you will about J.J. Abrams’ vision of the “Star Wars” universe, it was nothing if not lovingly nostalgic. Even if that nostalgia meant the story was somewhat recycled, this was done with care, making it an apt celebration of the past as well as a look to the future of a galaxy far far […]
Review: “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” Read More »
Honorable Mentions: “Argo” – Ben Affleck continues his career resurgence in front of and behind the camera with the year’s best crowd-pleaser. Centering on the true story of how the C.I.A. extracted several Americans from Tehran during the Iran Hostage Crisis posing as a film crew, “Argo” manages to be an affectionate satire of Hollywood
James Frazier’s Top 10 Films of 2012 Read More »
Rian Johnson’s “Looper” is a phenomenal science-fiction film, full of tantalizing ideas and, more importantly, confident about how to use them. Its story centers around time travel and the violent intersection of an assassin and an older version of himself, a conflict captured through an insidiously clever scenario that allows for alternating scenes of thrilling
Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office grosses. I may not have been successful across the board last weekend, but I was one of the few prognosticators to correctly predict that “End of Watch” would outperform expectations by a good margin and that
Box Office Beat: Weekend of September 28 Read More »
Embedded above is the new international trailer for Rian Johnson’s “Looper,” which lets the viewer in on quite a bit more than the domestic version. However, if you’re already sold on the movie, Johnson recommends via Twitter that you refrain from viewing the spoiler-containing video: “If you’re already set on seeing ‘Looper,’ I’d avoid any
New international trailer: “Looper” Read More »
Rian Johnson, one of the great young technicians of cinema (see “Brick” and “The Brothers Bloom”) wrote a blog post today about 3-D that is particularly insightful, a respite from the usual black-and-white assessments of the now common technology. You’ll have a hard time not reading on after this seemingly contradictory thesis: One of the most
Rian Johnson waxes thoughtful about 3-D Read More »
I wrote earlier about how so heavily scrutinizing the first trailer for Rian Johnson’s Looper was destroying the mystique that the movie’s success depends upon, but poring over photos is a bit different — they give away next to nothing, thereby even strengthening said mystique. The photo above had already been released by distributor Film District, so
New photos from Rian Johnson’s Looper Read More »
Last week, the trailer for Rian Johnson’s (Brick, The Brothers Bloom) highly anticipated new film Looper hit the web. I watched once out of curiosity and it solidified the movie’s place on my personal list of Fall must-sees. I was prepared to not think any more of the trailer — after all, why should I? The purpose of a trailer is to convince you to buy a ticket and this assemblage of Looper did exactly that for me.
But over the next few days, it seemed like my Twitter and Facebook feeds were crowded with nothing but re-posts of said trailer, with friends and colleagues practically analyzing it frame-by-frame. At the very least, some had watched it dozens of times. My big question was: Why? Surely, the trailer is expertly edited enough that it gets your adrenaline pumping as you watch it… But don’t repeat viewings of promotional materials ultimately take away from the experience of watching the movie once it’s out?
Trailer Overkill: Taking the Mystique out of Looper Read More »
