- Anthony Lane: “Robin Hood.”
What do you get if you mix “Gladiator,” “The Return of Martin Guerre,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Elizabeth,” “Troy,” “The Seventh Seal,” and a hundred buckets of mud? The answer is “Robin Hood”—the latest version . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Friends with Kids,” “Attenberg” reviews.
In order to understand “Friends with Kids,” think of it as “Friends” with kids. The place is the same—a pocket of New York—and the math is identical. Six long-standing pals: three women, three of the opposite flavor. Four of them divided . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Damsels in Distress,” “We Have a Pope” reviews.
Never a man in a hurry, Whit Stillman has waited fourteen years since “The Last Days of Disco” to deliver a fresh film. After such a gestation, we expect something dense and hefty, like “The Tree of Life,” but “Damsels in Distress”—Stillman . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Anthony Lane: The long, strange history of 3-D.
Did you enjoy “Rottweiler”? How about “Bwana Devil” or “Black Lolita”? Maybe you preferred “International Stewardesses,” although you might know it under the more thoughtful title of “Supersonic Supergirls.” You will not need reminding that these are among the crowning . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Nine,” “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,” “The Young Victoria,” and “A Single Man.”
The beginning of “Nine” feels like an end. The first words we hear are “You kill your film,” uttered at a press conference by an Italian movie director named Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis). We then find him at the Cinecittà film studios, in Rome . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Cedar Rapids” and “Of Gods and Men.”
The hero of “Cedar Rapids” is Tim Lippe (Ed Helms). If cinema teaches us anything, it is that no tough guy has ever borne the name of Tim—hence the lofty enchanter in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” who, having hurled exploding thunderbolts, ruins . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Anthony Lane: “Edge of Darkness” and “The Red Shoes.”
Running at more than five hours, over six episodes, “Edge of Darkness” was a tense eco-drama—not something you see every day—which appeared on British television in 1985. It was directed by Martin Campbell, who, a quarter of a century later, is revisiting the . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Bad Teacher,” “Terri,” and “The Names of Love.”
Waiting for “Bad Teacher” to begin, I caught a trailer for the upcoming “Horrible Bosses.” What is it with these titles? Studios may think that they can palm us off with flat, sour recitations of what their products contain, but, back in 1975, no one would . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “The Debt” and “Gainsbourg.”
The first twenty minutes of “The Debt” are a mess. We flash back and forward in time, flit from one location to the next, and soon arrive at the conclusion that the director, John Madden, must have pressed “Shuffle” rather than “Play.” Gradually, things . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “The Future,” “Another Earth,” and “Cowboys & Aliens.”
To call a movie “The Future” is, if you think about it, inspired. In any city where the film is playing, people will say to one another, “Have you seen ‘The Future’? ” If the title is doomed to cause misunderstanding, that is part of . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Clash of the Titans” and “Everyone Else.”
There is an awful lot of clashing in “Clash of the Titans,” but no Titans. A pity, for the real Titans were early-model deities, born of Uranus and Gaea; she, peeved by her husband, took the unusual step of forging what one ancient text describes as “ . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “The Kid with a Bike,” “Detachment” reviews.
The new film from the Dardenne brothers is called “The Kid with a Bike.” What pedals it forward, though, is the times when the kid is without a bike—and, by implication, without some of the other essential props of a childhood, like love and parents. To . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Anthony Lane: “Green Zone” and “Mother.”
The fact that “Green Zone” begins with a bombing raid should come as no surprise, given that the director is Paul Greengrass. He made two of the “Bourne” films and “United 93,” and his attitude to the average viewer remains that of a salad . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Up in the Air.”
For those of us who look to the skies, two major releases compel attention. They make the perfect couple. One is “Up in the Air,” the new film from Jason Reitman, who made “Thank You for Smoking” and “Juno.” The other is “Come . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Creation” and “The Girl on the Train.”
The year has barely begun, yet we already have a safe bet for best actress of 2010. Jenny, in Jon Amiel’s “Creation,” is certainly a hell of a role, beginning with an action sequence in the nude, switching to a flirtation scene—in which Jenny . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Soul Kitchen” and “Centurion.”
Food movies are an acquired taste. I have lost count of all the lip-smackers, the heart-warmers, and the spicy-noodle-slurpers, not to mention such molar-wrecking fables as “Chocolat” and “Like Water for Chocolate.” Few of them endure in the digesting mind longer . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Battle: Los Angeles” and “Paul.”
You have to hand it to Aaron Eckhart. Back in 2000, he found himself up against Julia Roberts at her most buccaneering, in “Erin Brockovich.” Last year, in “Rabbit Hole,” he went head-to-head with Nicole Kidman, who was in full lamentation mode. And now . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Battle: Los Angeles” and “Paul.”
You have to hand it to Aaron Eckhart. Back in 2000, he found himself up against Julia Roberts at her most buccaneering, in “Erin Brockovich.” Last year, in “Rabbit Hole,” he went head-to-head with Nicole Kidman, who was in full lamentation mode. And now . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Iron Man 2” and “The Duel.”
We have supped full with wonders. After swarms of human mutations and alien life-forms, borne along on a tide of fireballs, what can cinema still surprise us with? Well, believe me, until you’ve heard Mickey Rourke speaking Russian, you really don’t know what special effects . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “This Means War,” “Bullhead” reviews.
If you already know François Truffaut’s “Jules et Jim,” then you should be able, with minor adjustments, to make sense of “This Means War.” All you need to do is reconfigure Jules and Jim as hip young gunslingers in the C.I.A., who . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Anthony Lane: “Blue Valentine,” “Rabbit Hole,” and “How Do You Know.”
The first thing we see in “Blue Valentine” is a small girl, standing alone in the grass, crying out a name. It’s a simple sight, yet fraught with alarming possibility, and that goes for the rest of the movie. Here is the tale of a man . . ....
- Anthony Lane: “Larry Crowne” and “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.”
At the start of “Larry Crowne,” Tom Hanks, playing the hero of the title, steps out of his car and whips around like a gunslinger, key fob in hand, to lock the vehicle. The gesture summons the spirit not just of Woody, in “Toy Story,” but . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Anthony Lane: “The Kids Are All Right” and “Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno.”
Not long ago, in “Mother and Child,” Annette Bening played a controlling, easily angered woman who worked in a hospital and found her status as a parent challenged by unforeseen events. Now, in “The Kids Are All Right,” she opts for a complete change of tack . . ....
- Goings on About Town: Art
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MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM
Fifth Ave. at 82nd St. (212-535-7710)— “Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O’Keeffe.” Opens Oct. 13. | “Homage to Lucian Freud.” Through Dec. 31. | “Anthony Caro on the Roof.” Through Oct. 30. | “Arts of . . ....
- Anthony Lane: Cary Grant in “Gunga Din,” at BAM.
How many movies are based on poems? Not enough, if “Gunga Din” (1939) is anything to go by. Kipling’s rousing ballad is both expanded—many writers contributed to the genial screenplay, including Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, and William Faulkner—and honored by George Stevens . . ....
- Books: “Verdi’s Shakespeare” review.
In the essays collected here, Wills examines how Verdi—who, though he did not read English, “adored Shakespeare”—composed and staged “Macbeth,” “Otello,” and “Falstaff,” all “solid masterpieces,” and the latter two “arguably the greatest things he . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Anthony Lane: “Marley,” “Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope” reviews.
The good news about “Marley” is that it’s a documentary about Bob Marley, rather than, say, a creaking new adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” or another Jennifer Aniston comedy about a dog. Kevin Macdonald’s film runs for almost two and a half . . . (Subscription required.)...
- Anthony Lane: “The Avengers,” “Headhunters” reviews.
If you are a Marvel fan, then “The Avengers” will feel like Christmas. Thanks to the merry doings of the director, Joss Whedon, all your favorite characters are here, as shiny and as tempting as presents under the tree. You get Tony Stark, better known as Iron Man . . ....
