Shorts: Bigger than you'd expect

You might say that writer-producer-director-cinematographer-co-editor-composer-visual-effects-supervisor-re-recording-mixer Robert Rodriguez has a lot of energy when it comes to making movies. You might use words other than “restrained” to describe him. And if you already figured there’s a special place in the Spy Kids superintendent’s heart for tales of children who find themselves unbuckled from reality and tossed […]

Movies playing in town this week

(500) Days of Summer (PG-13, 95 minutes) Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are a starry-eyed odd couple who go through a narratively chopped break-up. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6 Bandslam (PG, 111 minutes) High School Musical’s Vanessa Hudgens stars in a teen comedy-drama about musical high schoolers—who, in this case, have dueling rock bands. […]

Basterds of young

When revisiting World War II at the movies, it is natural to want to transcend the mawkish and gingerly tedious subgenre of The Serious Holocaust Drama. Efforts in that vein, however noble in purpose or tactful in approach, seem all too easily overpowered and rendered trivial by the enormity of history. Brad Pitt keeps his […]

Capsule Reviews

(500) Days of Summer (PG-13, 95 minutes) Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are a starry-eyed odd couple who go through a narratively chopped break-up. Playing at Regal Downtown Mall 6 Bandslam (PG, 111 minutes) High School Musical’s Vanessa Hudgens stars in a teen comedy-drama about musical high schoolers—who, in this case, have dueling rock bands. […]

Ground control to Moon

“My upbringing was pretty weird,” says David Bowie’s son. I know: You’re thinking, “No way.” But sure enough—or so Duncan Jones, the artist formerly known as Zowie Bowie, told the New York Times a few weeks ago. Jones was recalling the formative years during which his father introduced him to the likes of George Orwell, […]

Movies playing in town this week

Aliens in the Attic (PG, 86 minutes) At a summer vacation house in Maine, a group of kids finds a group of aliens in the attic, bent on invasion and planet domination. High School Musical’s Ashley Tisdale stars. Playing at Regal Seminole Square 4 Bandslam (PG, 111 minutes) High School Musical’s Vanessa Hudgens stars in […]

Capsule Reviews

Aliens in the Attic (PG, 86 minutes) At a summer vacation house in Maine, a group of kids finds a group of aliens in the attic, bent on invasion and planet domination. High School Musical’s Ashley Tisdale stars. Opening Friday Brüno (R, 88 minutes) Sacha Baron Cohen brings his flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion correspondent to […]

Capsule Reviews

Aliens in the Attic (PG, 86 minutes) At a summer vacation house in Maine, a group of kids finds a group of aliens in the attic, bent on invasion and planet domination. High School Musical’s Ashley Tisdale stars. Opening Friday Away We Go (R, 97 minutes) A stellar cast of understated comics provide advice to […]