Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close on Blu-ray

Any film that brushes up against terribly painful, real-life events runs the risk of leaving its obligations to those affected by the event unfulfilled. Indeed, there’s never been a film that uses the attacks of September 11th in way that didn’t feel a bit exploitative to me. The closest to feeling anywhere near appropriate was Paul Greengrass’s United 93. And the worst, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center in 2006 (I’m... Read More

The Reader

The Reader flops around for it’s two hour running time like a chicken with its head cut off.  Or like a fire hose on full blast without anyone to control where the flow of water should go.  Or like Elle Driver in Kill Bill, in that trailer bathroom after Beatrix Kiddo plucked her other eye out.  I haven’t read the book (written by Bernhard Schlink), so I can’t comment on quality of the adaptation by David Hare.  But I can say... Read More