http://www.grouchoreviews.com/ Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:42:23 GMT Film/DVD reviews, interviews and features. http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4518 /reviews/4518 On balance, this new cinematic take on a 75-year-old icon constitutes a worthy Superman movie and a modest improvement for a franchise that had creatively stalled. Sat, 15 Jun 2013 01:14:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4526 /reviews/4526 The show continues to grow in dimension and in scope, a reality that‘s also meaningful within its fictional universe. Fri, 14 Jun 2013 19:25:05 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/374 /interviews/374 [Broussard:] I think he was just lost. And he got lost a little more, but at least he was being loved and at least he learned something from that...not only about the consequences but about who he was. And it’s okay to be who you’re gonna be. Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:21:08 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/2317 /reviews/2317 On video, Safety Last! is a certified treat, but in packed movie houses, with audiences invariably gasping and giggling on every cue, it‘s a near-religious experience. Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:33:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4514 /reviews/4514 Whedon goes for a kind of radical naturalism, an understated approach that suggests the characters could be your friends and neighbors. Wed, 12 Jun 2013 22:41:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4525 /reviews/4525 This type of thing has already been diluted by...Funny or Die...The main difference...is that This is The End is profane in the extreme, an R-rated stoner comedy gleefully grafted onto a ‘splatstick‘ horror picture... Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:18:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4524 /reviews/4524 The first major Western in sound...One can occasionally feel the filmmakers showing off the technology, with close-ups of a crying baby or sizzling ham and eggs. Tue, 11 Jun 2013 23:10:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4480 /reviews/4480 Oz the Great and Powerful gets saved from the junk heap by Franco and especially by director Sam Raimi, who happily treats the enterprise as a sandbox. Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:48:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4521 /reviews/4521 By setting the show in the recent past, Sorkin can productively remind or inform a broad audience of the pith of important news we‘ve lived through...a subplot about [NSA] wiretapping...[even] gets ahead of the curve... Mon, 10 Jun 2013 23:02:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4517 /reviews/4517 Once blithely acceptable as American id, McClane‘s become the archetypal American idiot. Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:32:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4520 /reviews/4520 Cannily plays in equal measure to the sci-fi TV crowd and families, to red states and blue states, and it‘s a formula…refined in Season Two…that seems to be working. Sun, 09 Jun 2013 22:11:31 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4519 /reviews/4519 Intrigues not with good guy-bad guy shtick, but with the conundrum of how to live morally in an inherently immoral West. Fri, 07 Jun 2013 06:50:57 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4516 /reviews/4516 Although Vaughn‘s riffing skills remain in fine form, as do Wilson‘s, the story makes every obvious and conventional choice. Fri, 07 Jun 2013 06:40:27 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/373 /interviews/373 [Denisof:] He wanted to bring a feel of the mid-century Golden Age of moviemaking, the noir, romantic noir, comedy: some hybrid of that. So kinda keep pushing the tempo of it a little bit so it stays fast and muscular. Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:25:51 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/348 /interviews/348 [Judy Blume:] My father did die suddenly when I was twenty-one...I really don‘t think I was thinking of that when I wrote the book, but now that I see the movie, I know that it is so much of understanding of loss of a beloved parent...It‘s so hard. Sun, 02 Jun 2013 03:50:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4509 /reviews/4509 So preposterous in its particulars, so ludicrous in its lowdown, that you‘re liable to kick yourself silly for having bothered to play along. Fri, 31 May 2013 00:58:46 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4508 /reviews/4508 What remains most striking about Philadelphia may be the...conspicuous emphasis on intense close-ups. They force an inescapable emotional intimacy in relation to issues the mainstream, at least at the time, would rather have looked away from. Wed, 29 May 2013 20:19:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/2909 /reviews/2909 Distinguished by its thoughtfulness regarding the nature of Western heroism, as defined not only by dead-eye gunplay, but by family, community, and moral rectitude. Tue, 28 May 2013 22:47:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/286 /interviews/286 Everybody goes off and has careers and that kind of thing, so it‘s been a little challenging to schedule everybody together. And, um, but we‘ve all…everyone who‘s agreed to make this movie has agreed to make this movie. Sat, 25 May 2013 22:30:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/interviews/283 /interviews/283 Winkler: I don’t know what happened to me, but when I first read this script, and I went in, I did it with a great calm. I just did him, and I spoke very quietly...he’s always on the verge of possibly crying, it seems like. Sat, 25 May 2013 08:50:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4505 /reviews/4505 Brims with funny ideas both verbal and visual that are finely tuned by Baumbach and his cast, and sharply edited... Thu, 23 May 2013 16:33:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4506 /reviews/4506 Nothing new, but given its solidly built kids‘ adventure, I‘m not going to, y‘know, look down on it. Thu, 23 May 2013 16:26:45 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4507 /reviews/4507 Less like a movie and more like a contractual obligation. Thu, 23 May 2013 16:20:06 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4504 /reviews/4504 The main selling point here…and it‘s a considerable one…is Shannon, who shows new shadings in the role of Kuklinski... Thu, 23 May 2013 13:16:02 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4469 /reviews/4469 The awfulness of the narrative is plain to see, and yet...no one can say Stand Up Guys lacks personality. Thu, 16 May 2013 15:27:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/features/250 /features/250 The Year‘s Best Films             1. This is Not a Film  This is the rare film that is more: a rebellious yawp over the rooftops of the world, a vital social document, a moral but illegal political statement. World-class filmmaker Jafar Panahi (Crimson Gold) has frequently tangled with the... Fri, 21 Dec 2012 20:26:04 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/features/249 /features/249 In the last few years, leaps and bounds have taken The San Francisco Silent Film Festival to new heights of ambition and stature. The 17th San Francisco Silent Film Festival running July 12-15, 2012 at the Castro Theatre bears that out in what has been the institution‘s banner year thus far. The Fest topped itself with its historic presentation, ea... Sat, 07 Jul 2012 06:32:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/features/248 /features/248 The exhibition runs from 11:00am-4:00pm daily; admission is $5 for SFMHS members and $10 for the general public. Tickets also remain available for the Standing Ovations benefit Thu Tue, 12 Jun 2012 00:20:27 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/features/247 /features/247 The San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 19-May 3, and it‘s once again loaded up with intriguing international titles... Sat, 14 Apr 2012 02:26:59 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/features/246 /features/246 The Year‘s Best Films 1. The Tree of Life  No studio release this year was more ambitious, emotional, or elegant than The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick‘s searching epic about our place in a family, a town, a galaxy, the universe. Emmanuel Lubezki‘s innovative cinematography beautifully painted with light and shadow and color, while boy lead H... Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:24:52 GMT Peter Canavese