Paul Rudd Charms in Prince Avalanche

Here’s a humble wig-out, a curio that could endure beyond its creators’ more demonstrably successful works — and for decades will certainly confound audiences who think they’re streaming/torrenting/eye-jacking some broad Paul Rudd comedy they had forgotten about. Prince Avalanche director David Gordon Green gives star Rudd more chances to charm…

Brazilian Film Festival: From Futbol Films to Movies About Moms

Going to Brazil to see movies is inconvenient. First of all, it’s plenty far away. Second, it’s really hard to keep the theater seats hygienic in the tropics when everyone wears only a thong. Fortunately, a whole slew of Brazilian films are tanned, hairless, and on their way to you…

The Butler Finds Urgency in the Conventional

At the movies, straightforward storytelling, the kind in which a director and his cast push a story forward in waves of action and feeling, has become so out of fashion it’s almost avant-garde. Moviegoers, it seems, need to be cool: not too moved, not too surprised, not too impressed. We…

I Give It a Year Is a Funny, Romantic Divorce Comedy

Besides its dozen or so big laughs and its winning streak of middle-upper-crust romantic jadedness, Dan Mazer’s I Give It a Year has going for it a trait you might have thought had been bred out of audience-pleasing romantic comedies by now: suspense about with whom its leads will find…

Hannah Arendt: Writer-Philosopher Is Brought to Life by Barbara Sukowa

Pouncing on the chance to cover the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann, resulting in her controversial pronouncement about the disparity between “the mediocrity of the man” and “the horror of the deeds,” writer-philosopher Hannah Arendt is brought to life by a mesmerizing Barbara Sukowa in Margarethe von Trotta’s film. Despite…

The Act of Killing Is a Masterpiece of Murder and the Movies

More terrifying than any horror film and more intellectually adventurous than just about any 2013 release so far, The Act of Killing is a major achievement, a work about genocide that rightly earns its place alongside Shoah as a supreme testament to the cinema’s capacity for inquiry, confrontation, and remembrance…

Kick-Ass Sequel Outdoes its Predecessor

Despite the giddy, gory ridiculousness of Kick-Ass 2, this summer’s most violent yet least punishing comic-book movie, there’s a kernel of ugly human truth at the core of the Kick-Ass fantasy. In the first issue of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s Kick-Ass comic, from 2008, a lonely high school…

Jon Favreau, Sofia Vergara Filming Chef in Miami This Week

Ever find yourself wondering what Jon Favreau is up to lately? Yeah, didn’t think so. Sexy screen siren and money-making machine Sofia Vergara, on the other hand? If you’re into the ladies, you’re probably holding your breath until her next bikini tweet. So let this serve as your official Vergara…

Breaking Bad‘s Best Musical Moments

Breaking Bad is easily the best television show currently running, and only The Wire can challenge its all-time supremacy. The riveting saga of what happens when a mild-mannered science teacher dying from cancer makes a fatally bad decision to cook methamphetamine has more twists and turns than the wildest ride…

Five Miami Women We’d Rather See on The Real Housewives of Miami

The stars of The Real Housewives of Miami can be entertaining, sure — if you’re into drag queen drama, blowjob controversies, terrifying plastic surgery, and throwing people into pools. But let’s be real about these “Real” Housewives. They’re wacky and tacky enough for Bravo franchises based in cities like New…

Lovelace Never Finds Its Woman

Linda Lovelace spent more time typing than taking off her clothes. In her one year in the porn business, she shot a single feature and a handful of shorts. In the 14 years after, she wrote four autobiographies. Only Monica Lewinsky spun such notoriety from a couple of quick BJs…