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Camptastic
Knocked Up is the weekend’s premiere release, as well as one of the year’s funniest films. Yet having seen virtually everything hitting theaters today, I can also safely say that anyone interested in some cinematic humor – and not able to get into Judd Apatow’s latest – will want to check out Mr. Brooks. Kevin…
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Overboard
No surprise that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End will be this Memorial Day weekend’s movie to see. And for those who suffered through last year’s Dead Man’s Chest, it’ll also be no surprise to learn that the final entry in this theme park ride-inspired franchise is a big, noisy, convoluted mess. I’m now…
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Rescue Dawn (2006): A-
Remaking Little Dieter Needs to Fly as a fictional feature always seemed a project doomed to unflattering comparisons, as Werner Herzog’s 1997 documentary about the titular German-American fighter pilot and his escape from a Vietnam POW camp remains one of the purest and most moving evocations of the director’s belief in man’s violent relationship to…
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Knockout
Only a few reviews to offer today, but one of them is (gasp!) quite positive – for Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up. Rarely do populist comedies prove to be consistently funny, understatedly sweet, and reasonably sharp as well, but I’m happy to report this one achieves the trifecta. And when it hits theaters in early June,…
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28 Weeks Later (2007): B+
As swift and ferocious as its virus-infected undead cannibals, 28 Weeks Later – the follow-up to Danny Boyle’s gritty 2002 zombies-in-London hit – confirms that a Fox Atomic-produced horror sequel need not be technically clumsy, stupid, crass and fright-free. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto), the film picks up its predecessor’s story twenty-eight weeks after…
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Ridiculosity
Awful sickness + lots of screenings + two crazy children + myriad family-related projects + lack of restful sleep = pure, exhausted loopiness. Nonetheless, here’s two weeks’ worth of new review links (thirteen in all). For those only interested in reading my positive thoughts, feel free to skip ahead to the reviews of Waitress and…
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Spider-Man 3 (2007): C
Spider-Man 3 opens with Peter Parker (Toby Maguire) drunk on the adoration showered upon his web-slinging alter ego Spider-Man, a cockiness that unfortunately also seems to have consumed director Sam Raimi, who –with this third installment in the lucrative Marvel Comics-based franchise – seems convinced that he can chew whatever he chooses to bite off.…
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Lynchian Meditations
One week after speaking with Laura Dern for SOMA‘s April issue, I had the great fortune to be able to interview her Blue Velvet and Inland Empire director David Lynch for the magazine’s current May issue. Speaking to me via cell phone from a Manhattan-traversing car, the soft-spoken Lynch discussed his 30-year practice of transcendental…
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New Name, New Look, Same Great Taste
As anyone reading this will have noticed by now, the blog formerly known as The Nick Schager Film Project has been transformed into Lessons of Darkness. The reasons for the switch are quite simple: After 3 1/2 years of mounting unhappiness with the site’s former, unimaginative name (which I came up with while killing time…
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71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994): C
A real news report about a Vienna bank shooting that left three people dead and ended with the shooter’s suicide opens 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance, which then proceeds to flash back to the events leading up to the senseless crime via de-contextualized splinters of fictional scenes concerning the victims. What drove young…
