RIP - Pocket Cinephile (2006-2011)

RIP Sidney Lumet (1924-2011)

Pocket Cinephile @ Film Comment Online

Film Comment excerpted our review of 'True Grit' for this year's Readers' Year End Poll:

True Grit (#5)

The Coens’ reboot is a wholly original experience, and all the hallmarks you expect are there—Deakins’ immaculate vistas, a panoply of perfectly pitched characters, and, most noticeably, a veritable thesaurus full of funny, flowery talk.—Stephen Brower, Santa Monica, CA

Catfish, Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost, 2010

Schulman and Joost's film has come under a great deal of scrutiny regarding it's motives, production, and veracity. The simple fact that the film is a well crafted and eminently watchable exploraton of social media and digtial culture should, frankly, supersede all conjecture.

Cold Weather, Aaron Katz, 2010

Katz's slacker sleuth yarn never gathers enough momentum to stand as a legitimate crime film, and unfortunately fails to develop its core characters enough to buoy the film otherwise.

The Social Network, David Fincher, 2010

Fincher's is a sturdy but wholly unremarkable re-telling of the Facebook saga, with hackneyed plot devices undercutting the director's impressive compositions and Trent Reznor's pitch-perfect score.

Pocket Cinephile on Whit Stillman's Metropolitan

Check out my essay on Metropolitan in the latest FLAUNT Magazine. On stands now!

Green Zone, Paul Greengrass, 2010

Greengrass' film has the strange and perhaps unprecedented distinction of being a revisionist, speculative, investigative action thriller. As such, the film is somewhat less than the sum of its parts and never quite finds a balance between Bourne-inspired action, Syriana-styled geopolitical wrangling, and Hurt Locker-bred veracity.

Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy, 2010

Banksy's is-it-or-isn't-it hoax film works only as a curiosity. As a straight documentary it falls woefully short, and, as such, the film retains value only as a (supposed) large scale cultural prank.