Movie Reviews

In Short Term 12 — named for the youth facility where it's primarily set — John Gallagher Jr. and Brie Larson play young counselors not too far removed from their own adolescent struggles.

Arts

Reaching Across What's Broken, 'Short Term' Fix Or No

4:02pm August 30, 2013

by David Edelstein

After college, director Destin Daniel Cretton took a job at a short-term care facility for at-risk teenagers. His time there became the basis for Short Term 12, a film that took two awards at this year's South by Southwest Festival. (Recommended)

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Nick Frost (from left), Eddie Marsan, Simon Pegg, Paddy Considine and Martin Freeman play a group of friends who reunite for a pub crawl challenge in The World's End.

Arts

Boozy Bromance 'World's End' Rises Above Its Lowbrow Tactics

3:30pm August 23, 2013

by David Edelstein

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's latest collaboration follows five friends who reunite for an epic tour of 12 suburban English pubs. Critic David Edelstein calls the sci-fi comedy "the year's most uproarious movie."

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Jody Foster plays her political opposite as the brutal secretary of defense in Elysium.

Arts

A Future Where Class Warfare Is Much More Than A Metaphor

3:19pm August 07, 2013

by David Edelstein

The writer-director of District 9 returns with Elysium, a dystopian sci-fi/action story with Matt Damon as the hardscrabble hero. Jodie Foster plays the severely chic Big Bad in a saga where the rich live a literally out-of-this-world life above a dying Planet Earth.

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Shailene Woodley, who played George Clooney's rebellious daughter in The Descendants, turns in a splendidly calibrated performance as a soft-spoken good girl who falls hard for a high school party animal (Miles Teller) in The Spectacular Now.

Arts

A Good Girl And A Lost Boy, Looking For A Way Forward

1:34pm August 02, 2013

by David Edelstein

From the writers of 500 Days of Summer, The Spectacular Now examines the not-so-spectacular markers of teenhood: the awkwardness and anxiety that everyone must endure. Shailene Woodley and Miles Teller are the two lovers at the forefront of this story based on a novel by Tim Tharp.

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Ginger's (Sally Hawkins) best moments happen while in the company of a persistent suitor named Al (Louis C.K.).

Arts

'Blue' Rhapsodies: Woody Allen, In Need Of New Tricks

1:40pm July 26, 2013

by David Edelstein

Blue Jasmine finds the filmmaker stuck in old ruts; though his technique is as sound as ever, his worldview seems to have congealed decades ago. Cate Blanchett, Sally Hawkins and Alec Baldwin star in a story inspired by Bernie Madoff and Blanche DuBois.

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Harold Lloyd (left) is the All-American Boy, a striver who'll brave nearly anything to get to the top and win The Girl. Noah Young is The Law (center) and Bill Strother is The Pal.

Arts

90 Years Later, 'Safety' Still The Last Word With Harold Lloyd

7:16pm July 23, 2013

by Bob Mondello

Arguably the greatest thrill comedy of the silent era, Harold Lloyd's classic Safety Last gets a pristine new release courtesy of the Criterion Collection.

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The new documentary Blackfish looks at the practice of keeping orca whales in captivity.

Arts

Two Documentaries Examine Violence, Human And Animal

1:49pm July 19, 2013

by David Edelstein

Two new documentaries are making headlines. Gabriela Cowperthwaite's Blackfish centers on the whale that killed a trainer before an Orlando SeaWorld audience in 2010. The Act of Killing by human rights researcher Josh Oppenheimer, looks at the mass executions of communists in Indonesia in the 1960s.

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Mads Mikkelsen's Lukas is a recently divorced kindergarten teacher whose life is turned upside down when officials leap to conclusions after a 5-year-old says something that suggests improper conduct.

Arts

A Kindergarten, A Story And A Life In Shambles

6:39pm July 13, 2013

by Bob Mondello

Mads Mikkelsen (TV's Hannibal) anchors The Hunt, a powerful Danish social drama about a teacher whose life is derailed when a 5-year-old's emotional upset sets a citywide witch hunt in motion. (Recommended)

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Based on a true story, Fruitvale Station won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Michael B. Jordan stars as Oscar Grant and Ariana Neal stars as his young daughter, Tatiana.

Arts

Introducing Oscar Grant, The Man Behind The Headlines

2:44pm July 12, 2013

by David Edelstein

David Edelstein reviews Fruitvale Station, a dramatization of the last day of a man shot by San Francisco transit police in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009.

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'Pacific Rim' Is Filled To The Brim With Special Effects

6:06am July 12, 2013

by Kenneth Turan

The big movie opening this week is Pacific Rim. Morning Edition's critic says that it has plenty of explosions and special effects — but there's more to it than most blockbusters this summer.

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