Butter

I love films about small groups of fanatics, “fans,” of stuff that the huge majority of humanity is indifferent to or even unaware of. This year we got a great one, The Big Year, about the cutthroat world of bird-watching. Not long ago there was Little Miss Sunshine, about the twisted, perverted world of dressing pre-teen girls up like ... Read more »

By the Sea

When a movie really sucks, sometimes the writer can blame the director or the director can blame the writer. But when you are the writer and the director, you have to own the whole dud yourself. Angelina Jolie is both, and a co-star with her hubby at the time, Brad Pitt. (Are you deeply sorry that “Brangelina” is breaking up? Please, get a life!) He is a writer ... Read more »

Bye Bye Birdie

I understand that those who love the Broadway musical hate this movie, and reading about how much they butchered it, how many songs they left out and how they changed the plot, I can see why. But I was not handicapped by that knowledge when I saw the movie, so I enjoyed it a lot, and still do, though I have seen the play on stage now. (Which I enjoyed also, and can’t choose which is the ... Read more »

Byzantium

Byzantium (2012) (Ireland, UK, USA) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’m fed up to my eyebrows with films about zombies and vampires. I won’t say it’s impossible to make a good film about either one, but it seems unlikely at this point. If a good one is made, I expect it will be another comedy like Zombieland.

I thought I just might have found ... Read more »