Frances McDormand

Burn After Reading
Running time 96 minutes
Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton

Joel and Ethan Coen’s Burn After Reading, from their own screenplay, strikes me as one of the most willfully awful movies I’ve ever seen. What makes it even worse is that every one of the “name” performances—George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton—seem determined to best each other in projecting the idiocy of their caricatured middle-aged losers. Yet the early scenes are not intended for middle-aged audiences, but, rather, for teenage viewers and listeners who can be expected to howl with laughter at every gratuitous use of the F and S four-letter words.  read more »

There’s little good to be found in the box office success of 10,000 B.C. (no. 1) over the weekend, except for the faint waft of an imagined warm summer breeze, the typical weather for a Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow) release. Each year, Hollywood’s summer season starts a bit earlier, encroaching on—and sometimes enlivening—the cold, seemingly interminable winter months. Perhaps 10,000 B.C. is Hollywood’s way of clearing its throat, of wiping away in one fell swoop the cynicism and hopelessness of this year’s Oscar contenders and, in turn, harkening the beginning of summer, well before the weather will comply, but in compliance with this city’s shivering movie-goers. Will summer numbers follow?  read more »

MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY
Running Time 92 minutes
Written by David Magee and Simon Beaufoy
Directed by Bharat Nalluri  read more »