NYC Film Critic

Kick-Ass
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Starring Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Grace Moretz, Nicolas Cage.
**1/2

Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass begins in the real world and ends up firmly in comic-book land.  I suppose that’s only appropriate seeing as how the film is adapted from a comic-book, an eight-issue limited series by celebrated comics scribe Mark Millar.  On the page at least, Millar aimed for a tone that was both outlandish and grittily real; the violence was over-the-top (the amount of blood and gore on display rivals an Evil Dead flick) but the characters were all too human, marching into battle with little besides their fists, batons, or, in one case, a flame-thrower, and frequently coming away with serious injuries. 

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When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors
Directed by Tom DiCillo
**

Tom DiCillo’s new rock doc When You’re Strange is subtitled A Film About The Doors, but really it’s a film about that band’s iconic frontman, one Jim Morrison, a controversial figure who continues inspire devotion and loathing in equal measure almost forty years after his death.

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Women Without Men
Directed by Shirin Neshat
Starring Pegah Ferydoni, Arita Shahrzad, Shabnam Tolouei, Orsi Toth
**1/2

Women Without Men is the kind of movie I always feel slightly guilty about not liking more.  A beautifully filmed, richly allegorical picture set against the backdrop of the 1953 coup that replaced Iran’s Prime Minister with the Shah, the film has clearly been crafted with care as well as an intensely critical eye, which is more than you can say for most slapdash big-budget vehicles like, say, The Bounty Hunter, or even an enjoyable indie diversion like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

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Greenberg
Directed by Noah Baumbach
Starring Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans
***1/2

After the disappointing critical and commercial response to Margot at the Wedding (a movie that I actually liked quite a bit), it would have been completely understandable had Noah Baumbach chosen to bounce back by accepting a work-for-hire gig on an upbeat tweenybopper romance or a madcap buddy picture…you know, something lighthearted and fun starring characters that viewers actually like.

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Those wacky Greek gods are butting heads again in the new Clash of the Titans and its up to Perseus to save the day once more.  (Too bad he leaves the robot owl at home.)  Read my review over at Film Journal.

Waking Sleeping Beauty
Directed by Don Hahn
***

Since it was produced and distributed by Walt Disney Studios, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the new documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty essentially plays like a traditional Disney animated picture.

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Four guys, the ’80s and a hot tub time machine.  My review of the agreeably dumb comedy over at Film Journal.

Reviews of the new documentaries Kimjongilia and Ghost Town

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The Bounty Hunter
Directed by Andy Tennant
Starring Jennifer Aniston, Gerard Butler, Jason Sudeikis and Christine Baranski
*

If you’ve seen the trailers for The Bounty Hunter then you’ve already seen the movie because those two-minute spots encapsulate everything that happens during the film’s 110-minute runtime.

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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Directed by Niels Arden Oplev
Starring Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre and Sven-Bertil Taube
**1/2

If 2009 was the year of the animated film–with such stellar romps as Up, Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox delighting critics and audiences–2010 is shaping up to be the year of the thriller.

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