‘Alice in Wonderland’: We’re painting the roses bland!

Man, fuck the macabre. The macabre has so out-macabred itself that it’s come all the way around and it’s basically a Ziggy cartoon. Tim Burton’s long-awaited Alice in Wonderland adaptation manages—somehow, despite the best efforts of a strangely elongated Crispin Glover and Helena Bonham Carter’s comic genius—to [...]

‘The Wolfman’ uses every trick but acting

Watching Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro transform into werewolves should be magnificent; both men seem half rabid as is. But instead of relying on its stellar cast of actors, The Wolfman (an update of the 1941 horror classic) attempts to set the mood using every trick but acting: [...]

Extremely Sorry Screening
There exists a kind of Zen in skateboard videos: the clicks and claps of decks hitting everything in existence is rendered nearly rhythmic, joined by soundtracks compiling your fave indie/underground artists. Flip Skateboards’ Extremely Sorry strays a little in this regard, featuring an entirely original soundtrack by UK producer/DJ Baron (now living in [...]

‘My One and Only’: Look at the cute dresses!

It’s so easy for period pieces to lose their humanness: actors taking a backseat to production design or seizing the moment to become swanning, affected lunatics from space (the past is an alien place, one can do whatever). In My One and Only, the actors do both.
It’s [...]

‘Paris 36′ needs a new French beauty

The main (if not only) problem with Christophe Barratier’s Paris 36 is that it fails to give the world a new French beauty. Betty Blue gave us Béatrice Dalle; A Single Girl gave us Virginie Ledoyen; and Swimming Pool gave us Ludivine Sagnier. In the spirit of this great [...]

It’s never too soon to plan for the weekend. Per the District inbox:
Bank of America will host a free outdoor Family Movie Night event for Long Beach families featuring DreamWorks Animation’s OVER THE HEDGE™. The family-friendly event will take place at Alfredos Beach Club in Long Beach on Friday, June 20th. This is [...]

Love Indiana Jones? Don’t see ‘Crystal Skull’

As someone who, as a boy, spent countless hours whipping invisible Nazis in the backyard and clinging to the family station wagon in an imaginary dash to Cairo, it pains me to announce that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a dud. A long time [...]

David Mamet’s ‘Redbelt’ is not satisfying
We cannot consider Redbelt without considering Never Back Down. The films were released within the space of two months, and one (Redbelt) is the adult/arthouse version of the other (Never Back Down). Both star famous African actors (Chiwetel Ejiofor in Redbelt, Djimon Hounsou in Never Back Down); both stars play [...]

‘Son of Rambow’ authentically captures pre-pubescent innocence
For most boys in the early ’80s, First Blood—in which a still recognizably human Sylvester Stallone wanders into a sleepy Northwest town, gets hassled by the local sheriff, and proceeds to pummel poor deputies like they’re the Vietcong—was a bit of a milestone. John Rambo had scars and a [...]