The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – 3 Buckets

When David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo “remake” was announced, the prevailing criticism in the blogosphere was: “Is this really necessary?” Aside from the subtitles, the 2009 Swedish adaptation of the… [Read more]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – 3 1/2 Buckets

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the very British English-language debut by Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson, is a paradox of a movie. Based on a weighty mystery novel by John le Carré, it plays like an intricate audience… [Read more]

The Adventures of Tintin – 3 Buckets

Leave it to Steven Spielberg to use the most cutting-edge in today’s motion-capture technology–in partnership with WETA Digital, the company that did the special effects on Avatar–to make one of the most gloriously… [Read more]

Happy Feet Two – 3 1/2 Buckets

Often when critics often chastise a film for valuing “style over substance,” that’s not what their actual problem with the film is. Let’s consider some recent examples where the criticism was most popularly applied: Transformers 3… [Read more]

My Week with Marilyn – 3 Buckets

There is no better reminder of the power of great acting than when one performance elevates an entire film from mediocrity. Such is the case with My Week with Marilyn, which would have been destined for the Lifetime channel… [Read more]

Young Adult – 3 1/2 Buckets

The comic antihero is among the most difficult cinematic archetypes to pull off, because it requires that the character be likable precisely because they are unredeemable. In other words, not only must the character be flawed, but the… [Read more]

Drive – 1 1/2 Buckets

There is so much right with Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, but the tone that the director strikes late in the film–and, in turn, the film’s perceived attitude toward violence–essentially renders the great stuff all for naught. I make this assertion… [Read more]

Dirty Girl – 2 1/2 Buckets

For The Daily Trojan: “Abe Sylvia’s debut feature, Dirty Girl, could have easily turned out to be one of the worst films of the year. It is cliché-ridden, both in terms of its characters and its plot, and is as thematically and stylistically…” [Read more]

Higher Ground – 3 Buckets

For The Daily Trojan: “For a decade, Vera Farmiga has blessed audiences with one impeccably conveyed supporting character after another — the police psychiatrist caught between two sides in The Departed, the non-commital…” [Read more]

The Guard – 2 1/2 Buckets

Brendan Gleeson headlines The Guard as the Irish lawman referenced by the title, who is the kind of racist coot with whom you wouldn’t be caught dead associating in public, but deviously cheer on in the dark of a movie theater… [Read more]

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