Monthly Archives: August 2009

In the comic “Post Grad,” Ryden Malby (Alexis Bledel) brushes off the affections of Adam Davies (Zach Gilford), but why? “Post Grad” is an innocuously pleasant romantic comedy lifted from the constraints of conventionality by the charismatic Alexis Bledel and a comical supporting cast of Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch and Carol Burnett. Bledel, the young […]

Toe Thompson (Jimmy Bennett) has no stomach for fighting a giant booger monster in Robert Rodriguez’s comedy “Shorts.” Robert Rodriguez totally gets pre-adolescent boys. So does “Shorts,” his daffy, witty and inventive new comedy crammed with booger monsters, belligerent bullies, magic stones, neglectful parents, evil bosses, insecure heroes and a girl appropriately named “Hel.” Don’t […]

When you think about it, a lot of places can tell filmmakers how to make movies: Columbia College. UCLA. USC. NYU. But how many of them can tell filmmakers ways to avoid bad reviews of their movies? I can. I offer 100 ways to warn filmmakers – beginners and veterans – on how they can […]

Henry (Eric Bana) shares a temporary, tender moment with Clare (Rachel McAdams) in “The Time Traveler’s Wife.” It occurred to me about halfway through “The Time Traveler’s Wife” that the whole ludicrously silly premise of this chronological jigsaw puzzle would have worked much better as a black comedy. Or at least a comic indictment of […]

Meryl Streep dons the voice and apron of the legendary cook Julia Child in the sort-of-fact-based comedy “Julie & Julia.” If you’ve seen Meryl Streep’s joyously ebullient take on Julia Child in trailers for “Julie & Julia,” then you already know: Streep is a hoot-and-a-half as the bigger-than-life American personality who conquered the culinary world […]

Max Mayer’s “Adam” strikes a pleasant balance of seriousness, humor and affection in its depiction of a romance between a gentle man (Hugh Dancy) with Asperger Syndrome and his attractive new neighbor (Rose Byrne). PG-13 (language, sexual situations). 99 minutes. (Read more…) Now playing at the Century Centre in Chicago and CineArts 6 in Evanston.

Nicholas Jasenovec’s quasi-doc “Paper Heart” is hands-down the most audaciously inventive movie I’ve seen so far this year. The ever-cute Charlyne Yi claims she doesn’t believe in love, so she and a camera crew tour America interviewing regular folks about real romance, with paper puppet sequences adding surrealistic fun. PG-13 (language). 89 minutes. (Read more…) […]

Goetz Spielmann’s bold fifth feature is an exquisitely wrought, unpredictable tale of fate, lust, love, and bad aim. When a Vienna cop (Andreas Lust) accidentally kills a woman fleeing from a robbery, her ex-con lover (Johannes Krisch) contemplates revenge while cutting up a zillion cords of firewood at his grandfather’s farm. In German and Ukrainian […]