Category Archives: Movie Review

2014 Oscar Nominated Shorts — Animated: Drawing together witches and robot dogs

ROTB_STILL_04_S1

The “2014 Oscar Nominated Shorts — Animated” collection opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. Not rated, 85 minutes, three and a half stars out of four.

Animated features in 2013 tend to look about the same — computer-animated, big stars, in 3D wherever possible. But flying below the radar, the animators of short films tend to have a little more leeway to try some different techniques — like drawing! — and the result in this year’s batch of Oscar-nominated animated shorts is a delightful collection that varies in style as much as theme.

Continue reading →

“Gimme Shelter”: I’ve made up my mind, I’m keeping my baby

GIMP00178.jpg

“Gimme Shelter” opens Friday at Point Cinemas. PG-13, 1;40, two stars out of  four.

It barely looks human, this feral creature in a gray hoodle. Look closer, the face tattooed, bruised and scratched, eyes red-rimmed, short, dirty hair falling everywhere, and you can tell it’s human, but can’t tell whether it’s male or female.

And then comes the biggest shock of all for an audience watching “Gimme Shelter” — not only is it a girl, but it’s a girl played by teen queen Vanessa Hudgens of “High School Musical” fame.

Continue reading →

“Camille Claudel 1915”: They tell you how to behave, behave as their guest

camille-claudel-1915-13-03-2013-6-g

“Camille Claudel 1915” has its only Madison screening at 7 p.m. Friday at the UW-Cinematheque, 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave. Not rated, 1:37, three stars out of four.

At some point during the making of “Camille Claudel 1915,” writer-director Bruno Dumont surely must have considered featuring Juliette Binoche’s face in extreme close-up for the film’s entire running time. It’s a marvelously expressive, endlessly watchable face, and in the film’s many close-ups Binoche takes us from burning rage to crushing sadness to irrational joy. “Camille Claudel 1915” seems to be that rare film where there seems to be less happening on screen the more people we see.

Continue reading →

Sundance Film Festival: David Cross delivers a flurry of “Hits” to fame-obsessed culture

The Frozen

“Hits,” “Mr. Show” co-creator David Cross’ first film as a writer-director, plays like a feature-length episode of “Mr. Show.” And that’s a good thing. “Mr. Show” mixed inspired silliness and vicious satire in equal measure, and “Hits” sustains that formula for 90 gloriously nasty minutes.

Continue reading →

Sundance Film Festival: “Life Itself” says farewell to Roger Ebert

ebert-award

“For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy.” — Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was a great film writer for many reasons, but one of them was that he wasn’t just writing about movies when he was writing about movies. Read through his reviews, and you’ll find political arguments, philosophical musings, remembrances of his boyhood in Champaign-Urbana. He believed that the beauty and the power of a great movie didn’t stop at the concession stand, but extended out the front doors into — life itself.

Continue reading →

Sundance Film Festival: “Song One” hits a lot of familiar notes

songone

Even for a film that’s literally about the healing power of music, “Song One” is awfully hokey. The drama from first-time writer-director Kate Barker-Froyland boasts a great soundtrack, featuring original songs by Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice and cameos by Sharon Van Etten, Dan Deacon and the Felice Brothers. Music in some form or another informs almost every scene in the film.

Continue reading →

Sundance Film Festival: “Boyhood” took 12 years to make, and is worth every second

sundanceday3 023

You could rate Richard Linklater’s new film “Boyhood” strictly on degree of difficulty, like it was an Olympic diver. Linklater has been making “Boyhood” since 1991, visiting the same group of actors each summer, adding more scenes as they grew older.

Ellar Coltrane was six when he was hired, Lorelei Linklater (Richard’s daughter) was eight. The film is built around Ellar, and Linklater had no way of knowing what kind of actor he’d grow up to be. Embarking on such a project was a tremendous leap of faith for all parties.

Continue reading →