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Official movie posterBlink and you’ll miss it. Eisenheim the Illusionist has asked you to place your handkerchief in the ordinary wooden box he’s provided for you, and though you are sure you are concentrating on it... it has disappeared. Never fear, for the magician, like any good showman, will have you kerchief reappear while you… Continue reading The Illusionist

Official movie poster If ever there were a film to fit the Indie genre in in every single detail, The Exploding Girl is that film. From the off-putting title (no, she doesn’t actually explode) to the minimalist hair and makeup to the secondhand store clothes, Bradley Rust Grey’s coming of age story is every bit… Continue reading The Exploding Girl

Official movie poster This is the house that Walt built. The house that his nephew, Roy, nurtured. The house that the triumvirate (Eisner, Wells and Katzenberg) grew into an animation powerhouse. And though Waking Sleeping Beauty does include the story of those men at the top, it is also a story of their supporting cast--the… Continue reading Waking Sleeping Beauty

Official movie poster As Americans, we tend to distance ourselves from the violence of war. It’s not happening in our neighborhoods--military aircraft aren’t flying over our heads and soldiers aren’t patrolling our streets with their AK-47s. It’s someone else’s war. But director Paul Greengrass’s Green Zone forces the audience into the middle of the action,… Continue reading Green Zone

Official movie poster Hype has the tendency to ruin movies. It raises your expectations beyond what any reasonable movie should be able to deliver and sets you up for disappointment. Unfortunately, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland falls into this category. Normally, I would try to divorce myself from everything having to do with the film… Continue reading Alice in Wonderland

Official movie poster “The idea is to leave her smarter,” remarks the veteran to the newcomer. They are sitting in a concrete-walled French prison, the former unaware that the latter intends to kill him. But until he does, the duo make small talk about reading and books and learning. It’s this scene, which provides the… Continue reading A Prophet

Image Courtesy of JennaPhillips.com Try jogging up 189 concrete steps. Your lungs and legs burn, begging you to stop, but a friendly voice from behind you encourages you to keep going. That voice belongs to Jenna Phillips, personal trainer to celebrities like Ben Stiller and Jeremy Piven and leader of the outdoor training group, Mission… Continue reading Keep Fit: Los Angeles

Official movie poster Creating a film is no easy undertaking, much less doing so while under house arrest. but in Roman Polanski’s latest film, The Ghost Writer, the director proves that, despite his personal shortcomings, he remains a talented filmmaker. To accommodate Polanski’s unusual restrictions, all of the filming had to take place within court-designated… Continue reading Ghost Writer

Official movie poster We all know that awkward phase between childhood and adulthood where you’re not quite sure where you’re supposed to fit, and in movieland, that’s exactly where Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief is stuck. It’s not flashy or sexy enough for adults and too flashy and sexy for kids. That… Continue reading Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Official movie poster Step right up, ladies and gentleman to the fantastical, the extraordinary, the unusual Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Come on a journey of wonderment through the looking glass as director Terry Gilliam blurs the line between fantasy and reality. Everything you could ever imagine exists in this make-believe world—for better or for worse.… Continue reading Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus