Day: February 10, 2015
Berlin Film Review: ‘Wolf Totem’
February 10, 2015Despite its magnificent natural vistas and some pulse-pounding action in stunning 3D, “Wolf Totem” boils down to a familiar environmentalist allegory that doesn’t move or provoke too deeply. A wildlife drama centered on a Chinese man who embraces the spirit of the Mongolian wolf, the Sino-Gallic co-production is helmed by Jean-Jacques Annaud (“Enemy at the […]
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Film Review: ‘Tender’
February 10, 2015Possibly the cheekiest and most life-affirming documentary on the concept of death and dying since Errol Morris’ “Gates of Heaven,” “Tender” is a valentine to the can-do spirit of Australians in general and local governments, known as councils, in particular. Artist and filmmaker Lynette Wallworth’s nonfiction debut is a compassionate and often gently funny tale of one such […]
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Film Review: ‘Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon’
February 10, 2015Punch-drunk and very much alive, “Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon” is a generous and briskly entertaining doc that traces the titular humor magazine’s lasting influence on American comedy. Although the film hews closely to the usual reminiscence-doc formula, ample laughs — both from the original magazine pieces and from their […]
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Berlin Film Review: ‘Every Thing Will Be Fine’
February 10, 2015“We can only try to believe that there’s meaning to this,” murmurs Charlotte Gainsbourg midway through “Every Thing Will Be Fine” — voicing viewers’ thoughts for the first and only time in Wim Wenders’ labored, lumbering melodrama. An inglorious return to narrative filmmaking for the German master, this protracted study in grief and forgiveness does […]
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Film Review: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’
February 10, 2015If the problem with too many literary adaptations is a failure to capture the author’s voice, then that shortcoming turns out to be the single greatest virtue of “Fifty Shades of Grey,” the hotly anticipated first film inspired by E.L. James’ bestselling assault on sexual mores, good taste and the English language. In telling the […]
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