DVD Review: ‘Smashed’
★★☆☆☆ James Ponsoldt’s sophomore feature Smashed (2012) stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul, and ambitiously attempts to portray the tragedy of alcohol addiction...
★★☆☆☆ “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,” Percy Shelley once wrote in his sonnet England in 1819. He was firing his barbs at King George III but the words could just as well be used for any number of English monarchs including Henry VIII.
★★★★★ Turkish master director Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns to the Cannes Croisette with About Dry Grasses, a wonderful wintry meditation on male fragility and the way we often make our own hells and then deceive ourselves that we’re trapped.
★★★★☆ From sub-Saharan Africa to Afghanistan, Syria to Iraq and Iran, the climate crisis, drought, war, and oppression has created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. It is treated as an ethical conundrum, but it isn’t. Either we wish to save those who are in danger of dying, or all our talk of human rights is just so much hot air. This is the core concern of Green Border.
★★★★☆ With Luca Guadagnino’s terrific Challengers, the acclaimed director of Call Me By Your Name brings us the sub-genre we never knew we needed: the erotic tennis thriller.
★★☆☆☆ Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s “Abigail” mashes up crime caper and monster movie, but fails to deliver fear or humor. Spoilery trailers and unoriginal characters overshadow promising elements, resulting in a dull, lifeless experience lacking creativity and wit.
★★☆☆☆ Maïwenn’s French period drama Jeanne du Barry is the perfect opening salvo for the 76th Cannes Film Festival. It is as glitzy and gaudy as the festival itself, with its vacuous politics drowned out by the thunderous sound of it slapping its own back.
★★☆☆☆ James Ponsoldt’s sophomore feature Smashed (2012) stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul, and ambitiously attempts to portray the tragedy of alcohol addiction...
★★☆☆☆ This latest instalment in the post-Expendables renaissance of Sylvester Stallone ticks all the sorts of boxes you might expect from an action star...
★★★★★ Mere months away from the final batch of episodes of Vince Gilligan’s critically acclaimed televisual juggernaut that will round off the show’s judicious...
★★★☆☆ American filmmaker, Walter Hill, has oft cited the western as a basis for all of his movies and it is easy to see...
★★★☆☆ It’s almost certainly a trait of British resilience, but we’re fortunate enough to enjoy some of the most biting political satire in the...
★☆☆☆☆ Ever since the Working Title stable made a decision to fund acclaimed, lucrative comedies that were as romantic as they were inherently British,...
★★★★☆ With The Simpsons and Futurama director Rich Moore at the helm, it should come as little surprise that Disney’s video game-centric animation Wreck-It...