Tuesday, January 1, 2013

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 12/12

My reviews for non-Criterion movies, plus other articles, written in December.

IN THEATRES... 



Django Unchained. Quentin Tarantino continues to play his perfect game.

Hitchcock, the biopic of the Master of Suspense centered around the making of Psycho. With Anthony Hopkins as Hitch and Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh. It's actually quite fun.

Jack Reacher, a no-nonsense action pic from Tom Cruise and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie.

I also wrote this article for the mini Wes Anderson film festival coming to Portland for Christmas!

ON BD/DVD...

* 10 Years, a surprising, funny, and honest high-school reunion movie.

Alpsthe strange second feature from the director of Dogtooth.

Baron Blood, a 1972 monster/slasher movie from Mario Bava, featuring Joseph Cotten as the monster.

Beloved Infidela stick-up-the-butt portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald's last love affair. Starring Gregory Peck and Deborah Kerr.

* Justified: The Complete Third Season, one of my favorite TV shows gets its third go-around. An Elmore Leonard adaptation starring Timothy Olyphant.

* Looper, the second time around with Rian Johnson's time travel film is just as good, if not better.

Also, be sure to read Natalie Nourigat's Looper reaction comics.


* Lord Jim, Peter O'Toole may star, but James Mason steals the show in Richard Brooks' adaptaton of a Joseph Conrad novel.

Oklahoma Crude, a quirky 1970s western with a sociopolitical twist. Starring George C. Scott and Faye Dunaway, directed by Stanley Kramer.

* The Point: The Definitive Collector's Edition, an upgrade for the Harry Nilsson-penned animated special from 1971.

The Sarah Silverman Program: Season Three. I love Sarah Silverman. 'nuff said.

Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, the reboot of the BBC perennial is the smarter ancestor to Downton Abbey. So of course it got cancelled.

The Well-Digger's Daughter, esteemed French actor Daniel Auteuil adapts Marcel Pagnol.

To cap it off, the DVD Talk writers have voted for their best discs of 2012. Here are the results! I personally wrote the blurbs for the David Lean/Noël Coward boxed set and also Les vampires. 

No comments: