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(03/14/13 10:43am)
"Snitch” is a satisfying and surprisingly thoughtful action thriller. When his son is framed for selling drugs, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson goes undercover for the government to reduce his sentence. The film plays its emotional cards too quickly, though, sprinting through an obligatory arc of daddy issues within the first thirty minutes. Johnson doesn’t have the acting chops to pull off the dramatic. Luckily, the film picks up the pace once the action starts, achieving a near–perfect rhythm of suspense and action. The twists and turns that drive the film are gripping, even if they’re not entirely plausible. Beneath the hood of this action thriller is an unexpected social consciousness—a commentary on the government’s misguided war on drugs, the young people whose futures are its casualties and the fathers who will do anything to protect them.
(02/14/13 10:00am)
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta Jones, Channing Tatum
Rating: R
Running Time: 106 minutes
(11/11/12 11:32pm)
The eerie trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s star–studded psychological thriller, “Side Effects,” hit the web on Friday with the morbidly cheesy tagline, “In Some Instances, Death May Occur.”
(11/09/12 10:13am)
Portuguese drama “Tabu” revives the tumult of classic cinema and injects it with a dose of eccentric energy. This is a world of epic scale and romance but also deadly big game huntresses, rock bands started by failed priests, dreams filled with biting monkeys, and pet crocodiles who just won’t stay put. “Tabu” is shot gorgeously in black and white and plays over an odd but intriguing soundscape of African wilderness and rock music, often devoid of audible voices. The film is divided into two chapters, a present-day world of lonesome people and the African landscape of memory and passion where an old man relives the unfulfilled romance of his youth. “Tabu” may not make complete structural or thematic sense, but it’s so cinematically rich, stylish, and quirky that we don’t really care.
(11/01/12 9:17am)
Street: Could you give us a brief synopsis of your film?
Adam Leon: It’s about two graffiti writers from the Bronx, Malcolm and Sofia. They have a rivalry with this crew from Queens and it’s about this spectacular scheme that they want to pull off and their adventures over the course of a couple of days in New York.
(11/01/12 9:13am)
Adam Leon's “Gimme the Loot” follows two teenage graffiti artists out to tag a New York icon. Shot guerilla–style and propelled by a cast of largely non–professional actors, the narrative is loose on plot but rich in atmosphere, offering audiences a laid–back, intimate encounter with the surprisingly endearing world of teenage crime. Though “Gimme the Loot” brushes against themes of race and class, it never bludgeons its viewers with social messages just because it can. Its characters aren’t tragic urban archetypes — they’re refreshingly normal teenagers whose adventures and romances just happen to be set against a backdrop of robbery and weed.
(09/29/12 9:40am)
In “Looper,” Joseph Gordon–Levitt plays Joe, an easy–going hit man who listens to Rosetta Stone as he waits for victims to poof onto a plastic mat outside a Kansas cornfield. He’s a looper, hired by the mob to murder agents sent back from a future where time travel has been invented and outlawed. When he fails to “close the loop” and kill his more competent future self—a badass Bruce Willis with his own set of hidden motives—he’s forced to run for his life while simultaneously hunting down Willis.
(04/12/12 9:06am)
Bully is painful to watch. The emotionally–charged documentary follows a group of adolescents who are abused by their peers and unaided by adults. Their struggles are heartbreaking. The apathy they encounter is shocking. Bus–riding students disregard pencil–stabbings, strangling and brutal death threats while assistant principals (who might seem comedic if not for the gravity of their inaction) safeguard their consciences with sunny oblivion. Bully's footage is unflinchingly real and succeeds in evoking our empathy, and possibly, our guilt. Bully’s new PG–13 rating gives it access to its target audience, and might, with luck, lead younger viewers to grant new hope to today’s silent victims.
(02/09/12 10:31am)
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, the sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth, has 3D, bathroom humor and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. But what’s so wrong with The Rock? He’s a pretty likable guy, and the scene where he uses his dancing pecs to bounce berries off the screen is one of the most entertaining in the movie. While absurd and a little bit stupid, it’d be unreasonable to expect anything else. The storyline is shallow but leaves room for a frantic speed tour of Jules Verne’s mysterious island, which delivers predictable but satisfying thrills while shamelessly capitalizing on 3D effects. Journey 2 isn’t a great movie, but its artificial world is beautiful and engaging. Kids will love it, and if you choose to see it, you can always say you’re going for Sir Michael Caine.
(02/02/12 10:19am)
Rendered stunningly realistic with bruises and barnacles, the giant gray whale puppets of Big Miracle evoke your compassion as they struggle to survive under a thickening layer of Alaskan ice. The film captures their gentle grandeur with hauntingly beautiful shots from the water’s quiet and shadowy depths. The action is thrilling, establishing a constant push–and–pull battle between the rescuers and the unrelenting ice.