Category: Comedy

  • A Serious Man (2009)

    Larry Gopnik, the mild-mannered protagonist of Joel and Ethan Coens’ A Serious Man, is in a doozy of an existential crisis. His wife is leaving him for another man. He is being financially and psychologically squeezed by his self-absorbed children. And just as this college physics professor is on the cusp of receiving tenure, Larry’s…

  • The Brothers Solomon (2007)

    Considering the scathing reviews that greeted The Brothers Solomon upon its theatrical release, you’d think the filmmakers had been guilty of beating children and small dogs. I am happy to report that the movie I saw was guilty of nothing worse than mediocrity. Directed by Bob Odenkirk and penned by Saturday Night Live alum Will…

  • Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

    I love Moonrise Kingdom. There, I said it. End of review. OK, that’s not really the end. Pardon my rapturous take, but writer-director Wes Anderson appears to be one of very few filmmakers who can truly capture the strange world of adolescent love — its exuberance, its earnestness and its flat-out weirdness. Anderson’s best works,…

  • The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005)

    In its tale of death and loyalty along the U.S.-Mexico border, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada bears similarities to the great westerns of John Ford. Like that masterful storyteller, director Tommy Lee Jones (in his big-screen directorial debut) and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga revel in the splendor of nature and the small, lyrical moments of…

  • Valley Girl (1983)

    For that segment of the population that doesn’t remember a time before email and social media, the 1980s have the haze of nostalgia, a romanticism borne from snappy oddities like skinny ties, checkered sneakers and Andrew McCarthy. But don’t believe it, youngsters. It wasn’t all lollipops and John Hughes. Not even the syrupy gaze of…

  • Another Year (2010)

    Nothing much happens in Mike Leigh films, at least not in the strictest sense of Plot Mechanics 101. There are no car chases or explosions, not even a juicy epiphany in the final reel. The British writer-director is seeking something else. In emotionally rich films like Secrets & Lies and Topsy-Turvy, he explores the complexities…

  • 2023 Mother’s Day movies: Beau Is Afraid & Evil Dead Rise

    For all those celebrating Mother’s Day this weekend, I recently caught up with two pictures currently in theaters that would offer an interesting double feature for the occasion … provided you have an ambivalent relationship with that poor woman who went through labor for you, who scrimped and saved every penny for you to go…

  • Little Children (2006)

    Weaving a tapestry of marital strain, infidelity and the difficulties of parenthood, Little Children is a scathingly honest critique of suburban manners that never sacrifices its humanity for satire. Director Todd Field‘s follow-up to his excellent 2001 melodrama, In the Bedroom, the film is a rarity: caustic without crossing over into cruelty, affecting without resorting to cheap…