The 11 Greatest Movies Born From Television Shows

Adaptations of TV shows on the silver screen is nothing new (1966’s Batman with the original caped crusader, Adam West, and 1955’s Marty with Ernest Borgnine are two early ones that come to mind) and I wouldn’t expect them to stop anytime soon, with TV to movie flicks like Mission:Impossible,…

Bro, How Times Have Changed: 21 Jump Street Now a Buddy Comedy

The television show 21 Jump Street, about cops who go undercover as high schoolers, debuted on Fox in 1987 and ran until 1991, launching the career of Johnny Depp (who cameos here). As a sign of the irrefutable progress made since the fear-mongering, anti-hedonist Reagan-Bush era, the mixed-bag, big-screen 21…

A Stoner Has a Date With Destiny in Jeff, Who Lives at Home.

It’s obvious that Jason Segel has a face for comedy. He has a lumpy, sad-sack mug with a dozen inflections to register disappointment, confusion and self-doubt. But as the basement-dwelling hero in the Duplass brothers’ new quest movie, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, Segel works his entire posture for laughs…

The Music in Chico & Rita Has All the Soul Its Lovers Don’t

The Oscar-nominated animated musical Chico & Rita opens with a jaw-dropping swoop over modern-day Cuba, a well-grimed and bustling island of densely packed buildings that, here, is immaculately detailed and tinted just so as to make it beam even in squalor. Chico & Rita deserves credit for being the rare…

Addison Youth Win SXSW High School Short Film Category

Boom from Daniel Matyas on Vimeo.Twenty-three selections were accepted into the SXSW Film Festival’s High School Short Film category, but only one was able to win the prize. It went to Boom, the creepily fun love child of Addison’s own Daniel Matyas, Andrew Fields and Brian Broder. The boys all…

Life is an Erotic Cabaret in Frederick Wiseman’s Crazy Horse

Recording “Les Filles du Crazy,” an anthem that they’ll later lip-synch onstage, half a dozen women — performers at the Crazy Horse, Paris’ classy nudie cabaret — sing of themselves, “They are the soldiers of the erotic army.” The military metaphor proves apt, as Frederick Wiseman’s spellbinding documentary on the…

Being Flynn Can’t Stop Telling Us Exactly What to Feel

Written and directed by Paul Weitz, Being Flynn is an adaptation of Nick Flynn’s 2004 memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, which explored the author’s pivotal experience working at the Boston homeless shelter where his down-and-out dad, Jonathan, was a frequent guest. In the movie, Paul Dano and Robert…

In Silent House, Reality-Horror Gets a Questionable Upgrade.

The foundations of Silent House are laid atop La Casa Muda, a nil-budget 2010 Uruguayan horror film that enjoyed an afterlife in international film festivals. It is not surprising that La Casa Muda was hastily snapped up for an English-language remake, for the concept is the sort of low-overhead, trend-conscious…

Bad Mommy

In Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, Tilda Swinton lives out an urban bohemian’s worst nightmare. Forced to give up her independence (and downtown loft) when a reckless night with schlubby photographer flame Franklin (John C. Reilly) results in accidental pregnancy, free-spirit travel writer Eva becomes an unhappy…

In Darkness Dramatizes Yet Another Holocaust Horror.

Holocaust culture has proven to be essentially infinite — almost 70 years since the end of World War II, and untold stories of decimation and survival are still hitting the mainstream with no light at the end of the tunnel. Agnieszka Holland’s new film, In Darkness, opens a scab perhaps…

A 2012 Oscars Drinking Game

Hey everyone, who’s ready for the annual Hollywood stroke-a-thon hosted by Billy Crystal! Clapping! Mild tears! Montage of people who died! Anyway, Billy Crystal’s skeleton is hosting this year’s Oscars. We’re sure it’ll be a barn burner of joke delight, as the best of Hollywood comes together in their gorgeous…