MaxSpace

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Max — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:03:26 +0000

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars New Moon really is like porn for tweens. It has two dreamy boys—one athletic and smiley; the other brooding and poetic—both deeply, madly, eternally in love with the same girl. It features lots of moony stares and desperate embraces—and the fact that [...]

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

Max — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:17:00 +0000

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Precious is that it isn't the most depressing film of the year. It tells the story of 16-year-old Clareece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), who lives with her defiantly unemployed mother Mary (Mo'Nique) in a Harlem apartment. As [...]

The Blind Side

Max — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:00:12 +0000

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars I experienced a bit of cognitive dissonance when they showed the real Michael Oher at the end of The Blind Side. No, not because the young actor Quinton Aaron doesn't look much like the Ravens rookie offensive tackle—although he doesn't. But because the [...]

An Education

Max — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:43:57 +0000

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars I think the thing I like most about Jenny (Carey Mulligan), the restless heroine of An Education, is how representative she is of a certain type of brainy teenager. Jenny, who lives in suburban London with her parents (Alfred Molina and Cara [...]

Three Kings

Max — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:14:53 +0000

Assistant managing editor Amy Mulvihill attended the Maryland Film Festival's "Three Movie Visionaries" talk with Barry Levinson, John Waters, and David Simon at MICA. Here is her report: It was like the G-8 (G-3?) summit of Baltimore filmmaking at MICA on Saturday night when the heavy-hitting triumvirate of Barry Levinson (Avalon, Diner, Liberty Heights, Tin [...]

2012

Max — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:09:55 +0000

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars 2012 is like a 1970s disaster film on steroids. Instead of a towering inferno or a sinking cruiseliner, we have the whole planet Earth getting destroyed. Because that, ladies and gentleman, is how Roland Emmerich rolls. 2012 is a lot like Emmerich’s other apocalyptically-inclined gems—Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow—except [...]

Disney's A Christmas Carol

Max — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:01:35 +0000

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars Robert Zemeckis’ 3-D animated Disney's A Christmas Carol is clearly a labor of love and, like so many labors of love, it feels slightly ill-advised. Yes, the motion-capture animation is gorgeous—saturated, detailed, almost hyper real. But Zemeckis seems strangely intent on showing us just how real it can be. In one of [...]

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Max — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:51:05 +0000

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars When I saw the trailer for The Men Who Stare at Goats, I got pretty excited. A military satire based on a true(ish) story about a secret branch of the army that tried to develop human super powers, staring Jeff Bridges as its baked commander and George Clooney as a [...]

Amelia

Max — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:11:54 +0000

RATING: 1.5 out of 4 stars After seeing Amelia, you can only assume one of two things: That Amelia Earhart herself was an insipid, uninspiring woman or that filmmaker Mira Nair just blew it. I think we can all draw the same conclusion. How did this film go so far afoul? You have a talented director (I loved [...]

A Serious Man

Max — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:10:55 +0000

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars The trials of Job in 1950s Midwestern Jewish suburbia. That might be the best way to describe the dark comedy A Serious Man, which many are saying is the Coen brothers most personal film to date. What, then, to make of the film’s protagonist, Larry Gopnik, played by New York theater [...]