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]

True Grit – 3 Buckets

If last year’s A Serious Man was Joel and Ethan Coen’s crowning achievement in personalism, then True Grit is their crowning achievement in formalism. This is as tried and true as westerns come — an expertly crafted, old-fashioned yarn that shares Charles Portis’ source novel with the 1969 film that won John Wayne an Oscar. [...]

BucketCast : Episode 3 : 3.15.2010

On the first part of this two-part BucketCast, Danny and Michael review the new Matt Damon political thriller Green Zone, as well as two new Sundance Selects titles available on Video OnDemand, My Enemy’s Enemy and Against the Current. On the second part, they review She’s Out of My League and the 2010 Oscar-nominated live-action short-films. Also included: a [...]

Green Zone – 1/2 a Bucket

If Green Zone taught me one thing—and even that’s being generous—it’s that I was wrong to ever assume liberal Hollywood would quit making anti-Bush movies. Had the institution been any less vociferous and undying in its hatred of the previous administration’s perceived wrongs, I might have even considered the possibility that this dud was shelved for [...]