“With ‘Cosmopolis,’ a Limo Ride That Redefined Robert Pattinson’s Career”

With this byline, an article that one day will hopefully prove to redefine Andy Crump’s career. Continue reading →

“‘The Avengers’ Gave Us Marvel’s Peak, 10 Years Ago”

Pour one out for the superhero movie, which had a great moment once upon a time and has steadily lost that moment every year since. Continue reading →

“‘The Grey’: The Alpha of Old Man Action Movies”

Once more into the fray, writing about a movie for the second time in *ten years*. Continue reading →

Go, See, Talk! Review: The Hobbit, 2012, dir. Peter Jackson

This all seems awfully familiar: it’s December, and a big-scale fantasy epic based on one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s essential landmark novels has been adapted to the screen by the man who directed Dead Alive. Forget that we’re trekking back to Middle Earth, the arrival of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is itself a return to a status quo … Continue reading →

Review: Lincoln, 2012, dir. Steven Spielberg

Walking out of Lincoln, you may be struck at the revelation that Honest Abe had a pretty consistent comedic streak running through him. Would you believe that Spielberg’s biopic on one of the US’s greatest leaders happens to be one of the best comedies of 2012? I’m being dishonest, naturally; Lincoln, mired in a bloody stage … Continue reading →

Review: Hitchcock, 2012, dir. Sacha Gervasi

Watching Hitchcock you may find yourself wondering, often, what Alfred Hitchcock himself would think of Sacha Gervasi’s efforts to celebrate his life and contributions to cinema. If Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of the man tells us anything about him, his likeliest reaction might well be a cutting remark spoken while gazing down his nose at Gervasi’s film. Hitchcock commemorates the man’s … Continue reading →

Review: Silver Linings Playbook, 2012, dir. David O. Russell

Were I to describe Silver Linings Playbook in a single word, it would be “insistent”. We should consider the source, though; after all, David O. Russell is nothing if not blunt in his cinema and mercurial as a man. So when Silver Linings Playbook grips you by your lapels and stares you in the eyes … Continue reading →

Review: Rise of the Guardians, 2012, dir. Peter Ramsey

Thinking about Rise of the Guardians, Dreamworks’ latest offering, I can’t say for sure whether Pete Ramsey mixed a heart-warming, energetic childrens’ film with a story of secular subversion or vice versa. Most likely, it’s the former; there’s little doubting that Rise of the Guardians exists first and foremost to entertain and dazzle theaters full … Continue reading →

G-S-T Review Slew: Holy Motors, Wreck-It Ralph, A Late Quartet

Last week I slacked off and broke my normal cross-posting habit: I published three reviews over at Go, See, Talk! and neglected to link to each of them over here. Well, better late than never as the adage goes, so permit me to catch you all up on what you might have missed today, starting … Continue reading →

Review: Skyfall, 2012, dir. Sam Mendes

Has the James Bond franchise come full circle? Are we now at a point where there are no more secrets to the world’s most famous globe-trotting, womanizing, martini-guzzling spy? By the time Sam Mendes directs Skyfall, his entry in the half-a-century-old series, to its logical conclusion, we’ve actually experienced cinema of regression, watching as the … Continue reading →

Go, See, Talk! Review: Pusher, 2012, dir. Luis Prieto

If anything, Pusher is a perfect example of what a remake both should and should not be; it’s well-made and engaging, but it also brings nothing new to a story we’ve already seen before. Continue reading →

Go, See, Talk! Review: Cloud Atlas, 2012, dir. Andy and Lana Wachowski & Tom Tykwer

The Wachowski siblings are back four years after their last directorial effort, this time with Tom Tykwer in tow, and their adaptation of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas is a magnificent opus of optimism and hope. Continue reading →

Review: Butter, 2012, dir. Jim Field Smith

I think it’s fair to say that there’s a good, perhaps even great, movie hidden deep within Jim Field Smith’s Butter, one that’s raucously funny and has bite and direction and a sense of identity. It’s just as fair to say that the film Butter happens to be isn’t all that bad, either, but it … Continue reading →

Go, See, Talk! Review: Argo, 2012, dir. Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck’s third feature film tells a story so utterly bonkers that it could only come out of a Hollywood studio. Except that the CIA devised the entire plot and actually put it into action over three decades ago. What’s even weirder– it worked. Continue reading →

Go, See, Talk! Review & Essay: Looper, 2012, dir. Rian Johnson

Today, I finally get around to publishing a belated link-post for everything Looper-related that I’ve disseminated across the Internet– from my full review, in which I award the film a perfect score, to the essay I published just yesterday. Continue reading →

Double Take Go, See, Talk! Review: End of Watch, 2012, dir. David Ayer

The writer of Training Day takes his umpteenth stab at telling a story of heroism, crime, and male emotion filtered through the lens of South Central law enforcement and gang culture. Is David Ayer just a one-trick pony, or is he a driven perfectionist? Continue reading →

Going Back to the Cabin, Part 1

If you’ve read my review of Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods, you already know I liked it. But even a thousand words can’t fully convey just how much I loved the film, so here’s the first additional two thousand words of an additional four thousand. In this first entry, I discuss the film’s meaning as a love letter and admonishment to the horror genre itself. Continue reading →

Double Take Go, See, Talk! Review: The Words, 2012, dir. Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal

Bill Graham and I tackle The Words together via the long-unused Double Take format. Bill is a bit kinder to it; I’m more or less merciless, as Brian Klugman’s carnival of nepotism is one of my least favorite releases of the year. But you’ll have to read the full article to get our full perspectives. Continue reading →

Review: The Possession, 2012, dir. Ole Bornedal

A middleground horror film mostly absent of good scares, The Possession serves as a cautionary tale warning horror aficionados that not everything with Sam Raimi’s name is associated to meets the high standard of his legacy as a genre great. Continue reading →

Go, See, Talk! Review: Oslo, August 31st, 2012, dir. Joachim Trier

One day spent within the confines of Oslo can be a daunting task for a recovering drug addict, and Norway’s Joachim Trier has dedicated his second directorial feature to documenting that conflict with artfully frigid flourishes. Continue reading →