Betsy Sharkey, Film Critic

November 9, 2009

ON FILM

The Cold War's greatest hits

Did you ever think you might actually miss the Cold War? Feel a twinge of nostalgia for a time when we knew exactly who our enemies were? Yearn for those glory days when we didn't question whether we were the good guys, even if we should have?

November 6, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

'The Box'

Have you ever actually tried watching paint dry? A sloth walk? Grass grow? You can have all the "thrills" with none of the chills courtesy of "The Box," the painfully sluggish new sci-fi morality play from "Donnie Darko" creator Richard Kelly.

November 6, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

'Precious' cuts deep

Nothing quite prepares you for the rough-cut diamond that is "Precious." A rare blend of pure entertainment and dark social commentary, this shockingly raw, surprisingly irreverent and absolutely unforgettable story of an obese, illiterate, pregnant black Harlem teen circa 1987 is one that you hope will not be dismissed as too difficult, because it should not be missed.

November 6, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Robert Zemeckis' 'Christmas Carol': Bah humbug. Too many special effects

Have you ever wanted to strangle a ghost?

October 30, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

'Skin'

There is a pivotal scene in "Skin," a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction story plucked out of the mess of South Africa's apartheid, when young Sandra Laing's father shouts the good news to the family -- "She's white again." Surreal and ironic, the moment captures the sensibility of this ambitious if sometimes uneven indie film with its eye always on the larger issues of race to be found within one unusual life.

November 1, 2009

ON FILM

New films are on the serious side

I don't know if you've noticed, but as a nation we've become a very grumpy and discontented bunch. Consumer confidence continues to waver while our anger index (yes, we have one of those) is on the rise. In a world undone, with issues piling up like unread New Yorkers -- unemployment, foreclosures, bank failures, healthcare to name a few -- we've turned into a seething mass on our way to a collective "Network"-style "I'm mad as hell" meltdown.

October 23, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'Amelia'

History can weigh heavily on a filmmaker, and that is what happens with "Amelia," a disappointing rendering of the remarkable life of Amelia Earhart. The pioneering aviatrix lost in flight is a figure so iconic, and director Mira Nair so tentative with her legend, that all the reverence and tiptoeing around grounds a film that should have soared.

October 23, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant'

In the bizarre world of "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," there's a war brewing over, how to put this simply, "portion" control. It seems the truce between those who sip, leaving humans a little weaker but none the wiser, and those who guzzle, gluttons who leave death, destruction and no tip behind, has been on hold for a couple hundred years.

October 20, 2009

CAREER COUNSELING

Vince Vaughn's not invincible

Remember when Vince Vaughn was so money? A long, lean panther in a shiny suit padding through L.A.'s late-night lounge scene stalking beautiful babies? You could sense the uncertainty behind the swagger; the waver behind the cocky wink. The sarcasm that slipped sideways through a half smile was sly, knowing and a shade fearful. ¶ It was 1996 when "Swingers" came along. The film would be the first to define Vaughn for most of us and he would come to embody its vision of retro hip. Other careers would be helped by the film, but for Vaughn it would turn out to be star-making material. ¶ Like a lot of people, I fell hard for the promise of Vaughn. Could he develop depth and finesse to match the roguish charm in the way of Paul Newman? Would he stretch beyond the comedy in stunning fashion as Bill Murray has? Or figure out how to mine a darker, damaged side as Michael Keaton does? Or would he settle for Chevy Chasing his way through life, collecting cash while he can? ¶ Reading the tea leaves of the 30 movies he's been in over the 13 years since "Swingers," frankly, it doesn't look good for artistic promise beating out money in the bank.

September 25, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'Fame'

"Fame," it turns out, is not going to live forever. It's officially DOA.

11:44 AM PDT, September 9, 2009

AN APPRECIATION

Army Archerd, gatekeeper of a bygone Hollywood era

I only met Army Archerd once, but long before that brief handshake, the grip softened by age, a gentle smile and a few kind words, I knew him.

August 21, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

'My One and Only': a lovely little bit of nostalgia

There's something eminently appealing about the way Renée Zellweger's circa 1953 New York City socialite dispenses with her philandering husband in the lovely little bit of nostalgia that is "My One and Only."

August 21, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

'Shorts' comes up short on creativity

What would you wish for if you found a rainbow-colored rock that told you to make a wish, then granted every one? Would you go for world peace, a million bucks? Or like the kids in "Shorts," would you wish for a castle and a moat protected by snakes and alligators, not realizing the complications that might crop up?

July 31, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'Funny People'

"Funny People" was supposed to be Judd Apatow's coming out party. The movie in which "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up" writer-director, who has long made his bread and butter on the back of immature guys and their raunchy talk, shows his grown-up side.

April 10, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'The Song of Sparrows'

"The Song of Sparrows" is a fitting name for the new film from Iranian writer-director Majid Majidi. Sparrows are, after all, the most ordinary of birds: small, brown, common. The overlooked and the ordinary is exactly the terrain Majidi loves to walk, and we see again in this film his deep affection for his country's common folk -- with their meager resources, menial jobs and yet surprisingly fulfilled lives.

April 3, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'Alien Trespass'

There is a sweet sincerity to "Alien Trespass," a sometimes too reverential homage to the sci-fi B-movies that landed in theaters during the 1950s, channeling our nuclear annihilation worries through an even greater prism of fear: the outer reaches of the universe and the frightening beings that might exist there.

April 3, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'Bart Got a Room'

The mysterious Bart and the mythology of the senior prom as the defining moment in the life of a teenager are the unseen specters hovering over the slight comedy "Bart Got a Room."

March 20, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'Sin Nombre'

There is much strange beauty in the poverty and desperation captured by "Sin Nombre," an evocative and impressive first feature from writer-director Cary Joji Fukunaga tracing both the journey north taken by so many from Mexico and Central America and the gang violence that stunts the lives of the many others who stay behind.

March 13, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'The Secrets'

In "The Secrets," filmmaker Avi Nesher takes us into the emotional heart of young Israeli women struggling to mesh their emerging identities with an ultra-orthodox Jewish world where the glass ceiling tops out at marriage and children.

March 6, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'An American Affair'

Love affairs with married men are always messy, entangling more people in the web of fictions than you'd ever imagine. When the man in question is President Kennedy, circa 1963, the Cuban missile crisis under his belt and reelection in his sights, well, things are just bound to get seriously complicated.

February 13, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'Two Lovers'

Set during a gray Brighton Beach winter, "Two Lovers" begins with the solid shape of Joaquin Phoenix lumbering down a pier, a bag of dry cleaning slung over his shoulder. We don't know who he is or anything about him, really, but for the heavy resignation and hopelessness that saturate his every step. There is no hesitation as he makes his way up and over the railing, jumping into the frigid bay below. But submerged deep in the icy waters, he discovers that he is not yet ready to die.

February 15, 2009

OSCARS

Appreciating the supporting nominees

In looking at the Oscar category of best supporting actor and actress, I'm reminded of the sort of delicious dinner party that lingers in your memory years later. Although presumably you accept the invitation because you have some affection for the host, it is the unexpected alchemy of possibilities created by those on the guest list that heighten anticipation of the event.

February 6, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'Crips and Bloods: Made in America'

The image of a glittering downtown Los Angeles skyline turned upside down, which opens Stacy Peralta's sobering "Crips and Bloods: Made in America," is both striking and unnerving. With that image, Peralta telegraphs a theme that will resonate in chilling ways throughout his new documentary -- that geography matters and that we are heading into a world that's been upended.

January 16, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'Notorious'

There are many things that can be said about Biggie Smalls, the rapper officially known as the Notorious B.I.G., who was gunned down in a hail of bullets on Wilshire Boulevard in 1997 when he was just 24. But the one that fits best on his massive frame is a slight one: flow. ¶ Flow was there in his rhymes, a hypnotic seduction of words weaving and teasing around you like the perpetual haze trailing from his blunts. It was there in the deep rumble of his voice, in the slow, liquid roll of his body as he moved. And it is there in Jamal Woolard, the young rapper who plays him in "Notorious," a performance that goes a long way toward saving a movie that has fallen obsessively in love with its subject. ¶ Mad, blind love is always a hazard in films that fashion themselves as biographies. No detail of a life too small, no moment left behind. In "Notorious," director George Tillman Jr. and screenwriters Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker have fallen right into the pit alongside so many who have come before them.

January 16, 2009

MOVIE REVIEW

Review: 'Hotel for Dogs'

Think of "Hotel for Dogs" as a sort of "Mission: Impossible" with canines . . . without Tom Cruise, or the international intrigue, or those scary, slice-you-up-into-little-bits bad guys. What it is packed with is lots of sneaking around, very cool gadgets, excellent stunts and some clever kids, though not in the precocious, all-adults-are-stupid way.