Movie Reviews

The Descendants

A father loses paradise but finds his family in this touching drama

Matt King (George Clooney: The Ides of March) is too busy for tragedy. The lawyer is the family trustee of the last untouched beach in Kauai, and his cousins are pressuring him to sell. But before King can make a final decision on which $100 million offer to take, his wife has a boating accident that lands her in an irreversible coma. Now, King must come to terms with that fact and two daughters he barely knows. The process is even harder than it sounds.

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– by Diana Beechener – 12/1/11

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

Women don’t need brains when they have a man

Leaving Breaking Dawn Part 1, mercifully the second-to-last installment in the Twilight Saga, I heard a little girl cry: “I have so many feelings about this movie, but I can’t put them into words!” Me too, kiddo, but they pay me to try. Aside from being poorly scripted and woodenly acted, the entire Twilight series spoon-feeds a destructive message to young girls.

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– by Diana Beechener – 11/24/11

J. Edgar

Clint Eastwood delivers a touching romance rather than a hard-hitting biopic

J. Edgar Hoover, one of the most powerful men of the 20th century, gained much of his power through political maneuvering, even blackmail. Yet his personal life was characterized by quiet repression. Director Clint Eastwood (Hereafter) seeks to peel back the G-Man veneer and expose the scared little man behind the FBI.

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– by Diana Beechener – 11/17/11

Take Shelter

In Take Shelter, Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire) plays Curtis, a blue-collar man who works hard to take care of his loving wife and deaf daughter. This tranquil life is shattered when Curtis begins having disturbing dreams about a coming storm.

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– by Diana Beechener – 11/10/11

The Skin I Live In

Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In casts aside subtle drama for the glory of colorful, twisting melodrama. At its heart a mad-scientist story, the film follows Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) as he dives into obsession and insanity.

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– by Diana Beechener – 11/10/11

Puss in Boots

This sexy take on a children’s story is sure to bring up some uncomfortable questions

Antonio Banderas burst onto the American film scene in 1995 with his star-making turn as El Mariachi in Desperado. Since then, he’s added a few more Latin lovers to his filmography, with the latest an orange tabby cat. Beyond retelling the Zorro mythos — which Banderas also tackled in the ’90s — Puss in Boots lets you know that the Puss, voiced with breathy charm by Banderas, is one sexy kitty.

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– by Diana Beechener – 11/3/11

Paranormal Activity 3

Discover how one family began their unhappy haunt

Sisters Katie (Katie Featherstone) and Kristi (Sprague Grayden: 24) have terrible luck. In Paranormal Activity, elder sister Katie is terrorized by a glass-breaking, door-slamming demon that wants to possess her. In Paranormal Activity 2, it’s little sister’s turn to meet this property damage-obsessed dark entity.

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– by Diana Beechener – 10/27/11

The Ides of March

George Clooney is mad as hell, and he’s going to make a movie about it!

Steven Meyers (Ryan Gosling: Drive) is on the fast track to political supremacy. He’s the social media director for the presidential campaign of Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney: The American). Morris seemed to be a long shot, but his rhetoric of hope and change has struck a chord with Americans sick of their government.

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– by Diana Beechener – 10/20/11

Real Steel

Father and son come together over the clash of steel in this charming robotic boxing film

You guys, in the future Rock’em Sock’em Robots are intense. In the latest CGI opus from director Shawn Levy (Date Night), the year is 2027, when blood-and-guts boxing has been replaced by the more brutal sport of robot boxing. Now trainers use remote controls to send eight-foot, 2,000-pound robots into the ring for nuts-and-bolts mayhem that doesn’t end until one of the bots is vivisected. Think of it as the Roman arena for the iPod age.

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– by Diana Beechener – 10/13/11

50/50

Something funny happened on the way to chemotherapy

Cancer isn’t inherently funny. Yet somehow 50/50 maintains a Mel Brooksian level of levity in the face of tragedy without cheapening the struggles of those battling cancer. Not bad for a Seth Rogen movie.

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– by Diana Beechener – 10/6/11