A couple of days after his unarmed teenage son was shot to death in a dispute over loud music, Jordan Davis’ father received a text.
“I just want to welcome you to a club that none of us want to be in.” It was from Trayvon Martin’s father.
Category Archives: Movie Review
“The Equalizer”: The old man and the C-4
“The Equalizer” opens Friday at Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema and Sundance. R, 2:11, two stars out of four.
“Training Day,” the first collaboration between Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua, was a live wire of a movie, a nervy character drama masquerading as a thriller. We hadn’t seen this dangerously unpredictable Denzel before.
“Alive Inside”: For them, the music never stopped
“Alive Inside” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. Not rated, 1:14, three stars out of four.
“We are made to age,” filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett says about halfway through “Alive Inside,” which may be the most radical statement you’ll hear in a movie theater all year. As Rossato-Bennett correctly points out, modern American culture thinks of adulthood as the apogee of the human condition, while growing old is considered nothing more than an inexorable deterioration of that perfect state.
“Love Is Strange”: After “I do” comes the hard part
“Love is Strange” is now playing at Sundance Cinemas. R, 1:38, three and a half stars out of four.
Ira Sachs’ “Love is Strange” begins with a shot of hairy legs, intertwined in a bed. They belong to a longtime gay couple, Ben (John Lithgow) and George (Alfred Molina), who sleep together in a bed that’s much too small for them. It’s a shot of casual, taken-for-granted domestic bliss. In public, the couple are more discreet, walking a few feet apart on the street. The world may be changing, with gay marriage now legal in their native New York City, but they’ve lived long enough to know it doesn’t change that fast.
“Tusk”: My, what big teeth you have now!
“Tusk” opens Friday at Point, Eastgate and Star Cinemas. R, 1:42, two and a half stars.
“Tusk” is basically a horror movie Kevin Smith made on a dare. He came up with the idea on his podcast with his partner Scott Mosier kind of as a joke, and when his legions of fans pushed him, he went ahead and made the movie.
It sounds like the worst sort of fan service — Movies Made To Order! — but there are moments in “Tusk” that represent some of the most assured filmmaking the “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy” writer-director has ever done. And when it sticks to that “do it on a dare” spirit, especially in its absolutely bonzo third act, “Tusk” can be a lot of fun.
“Walking the Camino”: And I would walk five hundred miles
“Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. Director Lydia B. Smith will host post-show chats after the 6:55 p.m. Saturday show and the 1:50 p.m, 4:20 p.m. and 6:55 p.m. screenings on Sunday. Not rated, 1:17, three stars out of four.
“Walking the Camino” is, as the title suggests, a film about walking. No running, no driving, no thrills of any time. About the only drama that comes along is a painful blister on the bottom of a foot.
“Only Lovers Left Alive”: One last drop of the good stuff
“Only Lovers Left Alive” has its Madison premiere on Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, 227 State St. FREE for museum members, $7 for all others. R, 2:02, three and a half stars out of four.
They’re a middle-aged married couple who enjoy reading a great book, listening to rock on vinyl, and the occasional glass of a full-bodied red.
You can keep your buff, brooding bloodsuckers of “Twilight” and “True Blood.” The vampires in Jim Jarmusch’s “Only Lovers Left Alive” are Madison’s kind of vampires.
“The Drop”: One last round with James Gandolfini
“The Drop” is now playing at Sundance and Eastgate Cinemas. R, 1:46, three stars out of four.
I had thought “Enough Said” was the late James Gandolfini’s final role, so it was a welcome if poignant surprise to see his graceful bulk move through one more movie, Michael Roskam’s crime drama “The Drop.” He plays Cousin Marv, a small-time Brooklyn hood who got pushed aside when the much nastier Chechen terrorists moved into the neighborhood.
Now, Cousin Marv sits in the bar he used to own, drinking and reading the paper, but Gandolfini puts the glint of what-might-have-been frustration in his eyes. Like Gandolfini, Cousin Marv bears watching.
“The Trip To Italy”: Been there, done that, ate this, imitated him
“The Trip to Italy” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. Not rated, 1:48, three stars out of four.
Ever been on a fantastic vacation? Ever go back to the same spot the following summer?
Not quite the same, is it? You can still have a good time, but a great vacation is more than just location — it involves your state of mind, the time, the people you’re with, and often the essential newness of the experience. Hard to exactly replicate that again.
“Frank”: How to get a head in the music business
“Frank” is now available on iTunes and VOD. R, 1:35, three and a half stars out of four.
The old rule in Hollywood is that if you have a handsome movie star in the lead role, don’t obscure his features. No mustaches, no beards, no fake noses.
And one would presume that a giant papier-mache head would also be right out.
Madison Movie 