Articles tagged "elizabeth banks"

Short Ends and Leader

Role Models: Unrated (2008)

by Bill Gibron

[7.Mar.09] :. Ever since a certain Mr. Apatow introduced us to a middle aged man child with limited sexual experience, the motion picture comedy has been flooded with what could best be described as...

Short Ends and Leader

Mixed Media

Wainy Days Are Here Again (video)

by Thomas Britt

[5.Mar.09] :. David Wain—the rarely disputed king of absurd comedy—is having a busy month. According to his (always-entertaining) blog, he’s currently shooting new episodes of his series Wainy...

Mixed Media

Film Review

The Uninvited

by Cynthia Fuchs

[30.Jan.09] :. The sex-with-daddy business serves as an underpinning to Anna's fundamental trauma.

Recent Film reviews

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008 Feature

The New Classics - The 30 Best Films of 2008

by PopMatters Staff

[16.Jan.09] :. Unlike previous years, where classics came crawling out of the celluloid woodwork with regular reckless abandon, 2008 was more calm… and considered. That's not to say that choosing 30 top titles was hard. The difficulty in placing them in some manner of rank order suggests the actual depth of quality involved.

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008 Feature

Iconic - The Top 20 Male Performances of 2008

by PopMatters Staff

[14.Jan.09] :. Like the gladiators of old, 2008 resembles a battle of formidable acting gods, especially when looking over the 20 choices presented below. Indeed, if anything, choosing a winner requires more of a leap of faith than any amount of critical skill - they all were that good.

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2008

Tough and Tender - The Top 20 Female Performances of 2008

by PopMatters Staff

[14.Jan.09] :. Twenty talented ladies, 20 performances worthy of multiple little gold men. Unfortunately, as in all years, someone has to come out on top. But after looking over this impressive list, picking the preeminent turn of 2008 seems almost impossible.

Celulloid Culpability - Top 10 Film Guilty Pleasures of 2008

by PopMatters Staff

[13.Jan.09] :. Like comedy or music, one's choice in cinematic pleasure can be very personal - and very peculiar. Take this tantalizing list of shameful indulgences. You can argue over their artistic value, but their individuals rewards definitely speak to those who champion them.

Role Models

by Bill Gibron

[26.Nov.08] :. Ever since a certain Mr. Apatow introduced us to a middle aged man child with limited sexual experience, the motion picture comedy has been flooded with what could best be described as...

Role Models

by Cynthia Fuchs

[7.Nov.08] :. Role Models invites you to celebrate "fantasy world where anything is possible", at least if you're a boy in need of approval.

The Man Who Wasn’t There: Wrestling with Oliver Stone’s W. and the Enigma of George W. Bush

by Josh Timmermann

[6.Nov.08] :. Stone doesn't "get" Bush’s true historical legacy (any more than the rest of us do in 2008), but he cannily realizes that, warts and all, Bush is an undeniably pivotal figure.

Kevin Smith paved the way for Judd Apatow, but Apatow’s success made ‘Zack and Miri’ possible

by Mark Caro [Chicago Tribune (MCT)]

[31.Oct.08] :. Kevin Smith’s 1994 debut comedy, “Clerks,” was so foulmouthed that it was initially rated NC-17 just for its language. Even downgraded to an R, the movie’s frank talk wowed...

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

by Cynthia Fuchs

[31.Oct.08] :. All the hubbub leads to a standard coupling, the regular boy wins the exceptional girl (because in the boy's mind, she is always exceptional, even if, in your mind, she's settling).

Audiences turn a deaf ear to preachy Hollywood films

by Rene Rodriguez [McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)]

[31.Oct.08] :. Used to be, going to the movies was a way to escape the bustle and stress of the real world for a couple of hours. Lately, the multiplex has become a more tumultuous place. Choose the wrong picture,...

Kevin Smith’s new comedy ‘Zack and Miri’ isn’t a skin flick, but it qualifies as raunchy

by John Anderson [Newsday (MCT)]

[28.Oct.08] :. BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. And “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” by any other name, would still be the raunchiest comedy of the year. But...

W.

by Cynthia Fuchs

[17.Oct.08] :. The readymade caricature George Bush is as much a reflection of his moment as he is an occasion for Oliver Stone's latest stab at revisionist history.

‘W.’ is Brilliant Political Theater

by Bill Gibron

[16.Oct.08] :. How did it happen? How did a man with limited governing skills, a track record of career calamities, a laundry list of personality (and parental) issues, and a jerryrigged jailhouse conversion to...

Talk, Talk, Talk: November 2008

by Bill Gibron

[11.Sep.08] :. Like the sainted sigh of relief that comes after another shriek-filled All Hallow's Eve, November usually means the start of the 'nominate me' process for the proposed prestige pictures of 2008.

Talk, Talk, Talk: October 2008

by Bill Gibron

[10.Sep.08] :. What studio suit thought this was a good idea? With four months to schedule your high priced efforts, you instead unload almost 30 overpriced pictures on an unsuspecting movie audience.

Meet Dave

by Cynthia Fuchs

[11.Jul.08] :. Meet Dave is "Eddie Murphy in Eddie Murphy," literally, metaphorically, exhaustively.

Definitely, Maybe (2008)

by Bill Gibron

[29.Jun.08] :. One really does have to feel bad for the Romantic Comedy. It’s a genre that’s life support system is more or less irretrievably broken. Of course, part of the problem lies in the two...

The Return of the Popcorn Circus: July 2008

by Bill Gibron

[30.Apr.08] :. And it just doesn't stop. If part two in this three-ring play was packed with well hyped product, July just keeps the receipt treats coming.

Definitely, Maybe

by Cynthia Fuchs

[14.Feb.08] :. As much as she wants her dad's story to be a kind of hybrid surprise, Maya early on comprehends its conventionality.

Comanche Moon

by Cynthia Fuchs

[13.Jan.08] :. The most outrageous and most pleasurable element in Comanche Moon, Inish Scull (Val Kilmer) is also its strangest, least plausible, and most convincing incarnation of "history."

Scrubs: The Complete Sixth Season

by Andrew Gilstrap

[4.Dec.07] :. Despite an unnecessary return to J.D. and Elliott's relationship, Season Six still holds plenty of the Scrubs we look forward to.

Time Encapsulating: The Best DVDs of 2006

by PopMatters Staff

[10.Jan.07] :. From solid single issues to amazingly complete film and television compilations, the works highlighted here argue for DVD's continued importance.

Invincible (2006)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[25.Aug.06] :. The hard-charging practice and game scenes take you onto the field and slam you into large, shoulder-padded men.

The Sisters (2005)

by Courtney Young

[7.Aug.06] :. Hope, delayed. A painful, poignant adaptation of everyday life.

Daltry Calhoun (2005)

by Nikki Tranter

[10.Apr.06] :. What a pity Katrina Holden Bronson didn't spend as much time perfecting her script as she did her soundtrack.

Slither (2006)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[31.Mar.06] :. The ensuing slimy onslaught combines and exacerbates conventions familiar from alien invasion and zombie movies, with a bit of David Cronenberg's body transmorphology as well.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)

by Samantha Bornemann

[26.Aug.05] :. Here, a one-note title evolves into a 3-D landscape of guffaws and awws.

Heights (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[8.Jul.05] :. Isabel dances along the edges of her life, hoping to maintain enough speed so as not to have to look at it.

Seabiscuit (2003)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[24.Jul.03] :. Engaging viewers emotionally, in a way that the rest of the summer's car chases and explosions can't even imagine doing, the racing scenes create an exhilarating rhythm for Seabiscuit's story.