No hard feelings might’ve been a more appropriate title for this unpunchy dramedy. Not only do the combatants fail to muster much animosity for one another, they also seem incapable of incurring anyone else’s wrath, regardless of their cock-ups. What good is a boxing flick that’s unkeen on conflict? The …
Read More »The Family review
Back in the 1990s, Robert De Niro was reportedly so incensed at being quizzed in Paris about an elite prostitution ring, he vowed never to set foot in France again. It seems he’s had a change of heart in recent years, returning to the country to head the Cannes 2011 …
Read More »Silver Linings Playbook review
Hot off The Fighter , the Oscar-winning comeback that marked his first feature since 2004’s I ♥ Huckabees , writer/director David O. Russell is evidently making up for lost time. With two films in two years he’s taken a leaf out of Terrence Malick’s playbook, only in a far more …
Read More »Taxi Driver review
In 1976, a film examining the redemptive power of violence won Oscars for Best Film and Director, albeit not for its committed star. Shame the winner was Rocky, not Scorsese’s masterpiece of urban alienation, which turns 35 this month. Though its iconic elements – De Niro’s unstable cabbie, Jodie Foster’s …
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