Tag: Comedy

  • Killer Joe (2011)

    Brutal, pulpy and lurid. That sums up the irresistible allure of Killer Joe – provided, that is, you find deep-fried perversity to be irresistible. The second collaboration between director William Friedkin and writer Tracy Letts (their first being 2006’s Bug) serves up trailer-trash noir as savage as it is savagely funny. You will be forgiven…

  • The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

    There isn’t much middle ground when it comes to how one feels about writer-director Wes Anderson. His meticulously fussy visual style, offbeat humor and unflagging quirkiness have won both ardent fans and equally ardent detractors; one viewer’s delight is another’s eye-rolling preciousness. The Grand Budapest Hotel, quintessential Anderson, will not woo the unconverted. As with…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…