The Wasteland
Apes that are Aped, Apes who Ape, Aped Apes Aping: a review of Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, NY.
Thursday, November 6th, 2008Matt Nathanson is PhillyJock’s critic.
If a film or any work of art revolves around a question and rotates upon a philosophical axis, Synecdoche, New York’s fundamental question is “Am I dying?” and it’s axis reads: “Everyone is Everyone.” Its gravitational message then, its pull through space and time and distance and vacuum, is simple: The [...]
A Review of the Movie Where Scarlett and Penelope Bang (Why Have You Not Heard About it?)
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008This movie has threesomes!
In Vicky Cristina Barcelona the titular city itself shines with that golden, post-coital glow of lovers side-by-side (by side). Although Penelope Cruz comes close, the city itself serves– as the Big Apple serves to almost every other Woody Allen film – as the real character here. Vibrant, pulsing with life and smart-cars [...]
Moving Out, Moving To, Moving On
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008At approximately 11:15 PM on Saturday, August 2nd—the last night I was spending in my apartment of three years—a Yamaha motorcycle, metallic green, crashed at high speed into the side of my soon-to-be-former three-story walk up, waking my sleepy corner in Brooklyn with a sudden and explosive pulse of sound.
It had been stolen, and the [...]
Good and Dark: Reviewing The Dark Knight
Monday, July 21st, 2008Movie-events. You hear that a lot: The Movie-Event of the Summer—that type of thing. What does this mean? It means the experience of this film is more than the F train to union square, the eleven dollar Fandango, the splurge for cookie-dough bites or those inscrutable gummy bright crawlers. It means [...]
Short Circuit for Pixar: Reviewing Wall-E
Monday, July 7th, 2008Even now, sufficiently distanced from the film, I can’t quite put my finger on just which circuit doesn’t quite light up with Pixar’s Wall-E, a movie I eagerly anticipated and ultimately feel fails to reach its potential or hype.
Nothing We’re Strangers to: Reviewing “The Strangers”
Friday, June 13th, 2008Want to see a movie this weekend? Matt Nathanson reviews The Strangers, starring Liv Tyler, and offers some thoughts on the horror genre.
Insomuch that horror movies are centrally occupied by some interrogative – some WhoWhatWhereWhenHow? – The Strangers is essentially a movie that asks WHY. It is a question repeatedly posed by [...]
Iron Man: A Strong Showing from Lesser Marvel Property
Sunday, May 11th, 2008Directed by Jon Favreau
Starring Robert Downy Jr.
4.5/5 Units of Awesome
Aside from its likeable lead, well-crafted screenplay, tasteful romance, and thoroughly enjoyable action scenes, Iron Man sucks. Luckily for myself and for the millions of movie-goers who saw it this weekend, it has all those things going for it.
To reviewers, screenwriters, or anyone else interested in [...]
Forgetting Your Manners: Crude Comedy with Some Heart
Monday, May 5th, 2008Matt Nathanson reviews the latest Judd Apatow vehicle: Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
Ahh, Judd Apatow: the golden boy of dick-jokes. Okay, so the director who helmed The Forty Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up is only a producer here, but his very involvement suggests there is more to this sex comedy than meets the eye. [...]