Paul Thomas Anderson’s sixth feature, “The Master,” is intelligent, ambitious and cause for celebration — but not quite the masterpiece suggested by all the buzz.
To begin, it’s difficult to tell what the movie, set in the early 1950s, is really about.
Some have hinted that it’s about the origins of the Church of Scientology. Indeed, Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a captivating performance as the so-called “master,” Lancaster Dodd, who tells his followers that life’s problems can be solved by examining their past lives.
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Who is Robert Lorenz and why does he get to tell Clint Eastwood what to do?
The quick answer: Lorenz recently made his directorial debut with “Trouble With the Curve,” a film opening this week starring Eastwood as Gus, an aging baseball scout.
The longer answer: Lorenz has known (and worked with) Eastwood for nearly two decades.
He started as a second assistant director on “The Bridges of Madison County,” moved up to first assistant director, and began producing with “Blood Work.”
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It’s no surprise that Nicholas Jarecki’s excellent feature directorial debut “Arbitrage” looks and feels like a 1970s film.
“Arbitrage” tells the grown-up story of a hedge fund manager, Robert Miller (Richard Gere), fighting to save his fortune while trying to cover up a fatal accident.
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Marjane Satrapi already has documented her incredible life story about her escape from Iran, schooling in Vienna and subsequent life in Paris in the graphic novel and animated movie “Persepolis.”
Now, in her wonderful second feature film “Chicken with Plums,” opening this week, she turns to other matters: life, love and food.
In the film, violinist Nasser Ali Khan — whose favorite dish is chicken with plums — decides to die.
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The fall movie slate is perhaps the most exciting. Roller-coaster rides have ended, and it’s time for serious stuff in the warm-up to awards season, where real risks are taken. But it’s also Halloween, bringing spooky flicks. This year, there will be kisses, screams and gunshots, one or two great, lasting works of art, and amazement.
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Directed by David Cronenberg, who adapted it from Don DeLillo’s 2003 novel, “Cosmopolis” is a deeply subversive, deeply intelligent movie for grown-ups. It’s also a brilliant vehicle for Cronenberg’s pet theme: the elusive point at which thought meets the human body.A million miles from “Twilight,” Robert Pattinson stars as Eric Packer, a 28-year-old multibillionaire. “We want a haircut,” he announces to his security man (Kevin Durand), referring to himself in the plural. And he is two people: a figurehead who symbolizes wealth as well as a flesh-and-blood human being.
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“The Odd Life of Timothy Green” is certainly odd for a Disney film.Based on a story by Ahmet Zappa, it’s about loving married couple — played by Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Garner — who can’t have children, but “invent” one. They write attributes on pieces of paper, place them in a box and bury it in the garden; the next morning, a young boy, covered in dirt and leaves, appears.
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“The Bourne Legacy” looks like a reboot, but it’s more of a sequel.
Either way, it’s a mostly unnecessary addition to the smart, exciting “Bourne” trilogy based on characters created by novelist Robert Ludlum.
The new movie’s story takes place about the same time as events of 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum.”
Matt Damon is not here, but his Jason Bourne is on the sidelines, appearing as a phantom in documents and news reports, and spoken about in hushed tones.
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Seventy-six-old filmmaker William Friedkin’s ferocious new movie “Killer Joe” looks like it was made by a 26-year-old.
Yet Friedkin — who won a best directing Oscar for “The French Connection” and directed one of the biggest hits of all time, “The Exorcist” — claims he didn’t do anything other than pick the right script, cast the right actors and show up.
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Seventy-six-old filmmaker William Friedkin’s ferocious new movie “Killer Joe” looks like it was made by a 26-year-old.
Yet Friedkin — who won a best directing Oscar for “The French Connection” and directed one of the biggest hits of all time, “The Exorcist” — claims he didn’t do anything other than pick the right script, cast the right actors and show up.
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While working on his new horror-mystery “Red Lights,” Spanish-born filmmaker Rodrigo Cortés walked a fine line between the real and the unexplained.
In the movie, which opens Friday, Cillian Murphy, as a man who works with a paranormal investigator (Sigourney Weaver) takes it upon himself to explore, what happened to a famous psychic (Robert De Niro) who became a recluse.
Cortés, who made the film “Buried,” says he researched the topic for a year and a half, studying views of both skeptics and believers.
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Christopher Nolan's “The Dark Knight Rises,” the third in his Batman series, and eighth Batman movie overall (counting the 1966 comedy), is the biggest of them all.
Coming in at nearly three hours featuring a story spanning years, it's a battle epic for the ages.
But it’s also rooted in the world’s current economic woes, and growing frustration over a widening gap between the ultra-rich and the have-nots.
After the destructive events of “The Dark Knight,” Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) has become a recluse; it follows that Batman also has not been seen in years.
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So many costume dramas come dead on arrival, concentrating more on re-creating, rather than creating, an era. Two recent yawn-inducing samples: “The Duchess” and “The Young Victoria.”
On the other hand, Benoit Jacquot’s “Farewell, My Queen” — opening night feature at the San Francisco International Film Festival in April and now in local theaters — unfolds with urgency. Its intense focus is on events of given moments, rather than events of history.
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“Take This Waltz,” the second feature film directed by actress Sarah Polley, is a crushing, but breathtaking, look at romance – the kind rarely, if ever, portrayed in movies.
Polley's previous film, the outstanding "Away from Her," delicately explored longing and heartbreak. Here she goes a step further.
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‘The Amazing Spider-Man” is a total reboot from the ground up, replacing just about everyone involved in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy.
With Raimi’s “Spider-Man 2” being one of the two or three great superhero movies to date, the new film — with Andrew Garfield taking over for Tobey Maguire as the title character — has big shoes to fill.
While Garfield may look more like a superhero, Maguire was a much better fit in the role.
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