Articles tagged "frances mcdormand"

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

Short Ends and Leader

Burn After Reading (2008)

by Bill Gibron

[21.Dec.08] :. The Coen Brothers remains the most predicable unpredictable artists in Hollywood. You can be guaranteed that the minute you think you have them pegged - post-modern nostalgists, retro Hollywood...

Short Ends and Leader

News

Being John Malkovich brings many movie roles

by Steven Rea [The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT)]

[18.Sep.08] :. TORONTO - John Malkovich is, well, being John Malkovich, although no portals affording entry to his mind seem to be in operation here at the Four Seasons Hotel. The actor, who starred as himself, of...

PopWire

Film Review

Burn After Reading

by Cynthia Fuchs

[12.Sep.08] :. Ozzie (John Malkovich) embodies the problem of the CIA, of the "intelligence community," which is that it reacts to data, then fashions a story about it to comport with the reaction.

Recent Film reviews

The PopMatters Fall 2008 Movie Preview Feature

Talk, Talk, Talk: September 2008

by Bill Gibron

[9.Sep.08] :. From wars both past and present to a number of nail-biting thrillers, September is sizing up as a potentially profitable one.

The PopMatters Fall 2008 Movie Preview

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

by Jesse Hassenger

[19.Aug.08] :. So likable that many can only describe the experience of watching it in terms of clouds and frosting.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

by Cynthia Fuchs

[5.Mar.08] :. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day sends a lonely, sanctimonious governess from dejection to delight within a mere 24 hours.

Leiber and Stoller: They are music, and they write the songs

by Luaine Lee [McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)]

[24.Apr.07] :. PASADENA, Calif.—You don’t expect that some of the world’s most definitive rock `n’ roll music would come from a couple of white Jewish boys who met when they were just 17....

Aeon Flux (2005)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[24.Apr.06] :. The writers' commentary track is smart, instructive, and funny. The film is less so.

Friends with Money (2006)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[7.Apr.06] :. 'Poor Olivia' (Jennifer Aniston), as her friends call her, is actually poor, at least compared to them.

Aeon Flux (2005)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[16.Dec.05] :. No way could the live action Aeon manage the hairstyle of the animated Aeon, much less the scary wasp waist and freaky-deaky sexual exploits.

North Country (2005)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[22.Oct.05] :. As the film more or less locks you into Josey's perspective, it appears that even the bleak environment denotes her perpetual exhaustion.

Something’s Gotta Give (2003)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[22.Mar.04] :. Something's Gotta Give is best when it backs off the cute dialogue and the actors create their own moments.

Something’s Gotta Give (2003)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[11.Dec.03] :. Overstays its welcome, yes, but worse, it pretends like it's news when it isn't.

Fargo (1996)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[30.Sep.03] :. This is the film's genius, its simultaneous emulation and excavation of true crime's obsession with dull or spectacular minutiae, coupled with a refusal to make such details cohere into master plans and meanings.

City by the Sea (2002)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[6.Sep.02] :. All these horrors in one family might easily lead to questions concerning genetics and proclivity, codes of masculinity and violence.

Wonder Boys (2000)

by Jonathan Beller

Hey there. If you find yourself pushing on past middle age and wondering why all your potential has only gotten you just where you are and not one iota farther, then Curtis Hanson's new film Wonder Boys may be your sunset tonic.

Wonder Boys (2000)

by Todd R. Ramlow

Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys is very much concerned with the boys its title declares (or, rather, with a certain sort of boyish behavior). More to the point, it actually seems to wonder, as we do and as the characters do, what is to be done with them.

The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)

by Cynthia Fuchs

While Ed confides his dissatisfaction, you also get a glimpse of how he sees the world, the camera peering down at scalps or neck napes, apparently always in need of trimming or cutting or buzzing.

Blood Simple, The Directors’ Cut (1984/2000)

by Tobias Peterson

Though shot on a shoestring budget by first-time feature filmmakers, the movie encapsulates all that has come to typify the Coen brothers' style: engaging narrative, inventive direction, and the juxtaposition of grim violence with moments of sublime, sometimes surreal, human behavior.

Almost Famous (2000)

by Ben Varkentine

And yet, for a rock 'n' roll film set in the '70s, Almost Famous has surprisingly little sex and drugs on screen (though both are much discussed). Even when two or three of the 'band-aids' decide to deflower William, mainly to alleviate their boredom, it comes off more like a slumber party game than an act of real sexuality.

Almost Famous (2000)

by Mike Ward

Maybe in the deceptive world of fame (or almost-fame), this is the best version of intimacy available, although it's easier to attribute it to the characters' superficiality, and maybe a certain starry-eyed idealism on Cameron Crowe's part.