Category Archives: Film Reviews

Film reviews and analyses. Most recently published is in front.

To the Wonder

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Mark DuPré

Almost no one is going to see To the Wonder, Terrence Malick’s newest film, winner of last year’s Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. That is sad, as Malick is unique in American cinema. Expectations were high after … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Ben Affleck, Bible, George O'Brien, Hollywoodland, Javier Bardem, Olga Kurylenko, Pentecostal, Rachel McAdams, Romans 8:28, Scripture, Sean Penn, Sunrise, Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life, To the Wonder | Leave a comment

42

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Mark DuPré

42 is the story of Jackie Robinson, baseball’s first black major league player. It’s what the critics used to call a “movie-movie,” and it’s touching, beautifully photographed, covered in a layer of honey both visually and narratively, and not quite … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged 42, Ben Chapman, Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Jackie Robinson | Leave a comment

Oz: The Great and Powerful

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Mark DuPré

With the unsurprising and evocative title this film has, Oz: The Great and Powerful fairly begs for an easily dismissive and disparaging riff on its title as a first line of a review. So OK—this film is neither great nor … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Evanora, Glinda, James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis, Oz: The Great and Powerful, Rachel Weisz, The Wizard of Oz | Leave a comment

Silver Linings Playbook

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Mark DuPré

A famous film critic once revealed one of the “dirty little secrets” of professional critics. They see so many films that they often overrate a film that’s different or fresh just because it’s outside the norm and a change of … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Bradley Cooper, David O. Russell, Jacki Weaver, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter | 1 Comment

Django Unchained

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Mark DuPré

My film students know full well how much I don’t “appreciate” the work of Quentin Tarantino. I softened a bit with Inglourious Basterds, a lusciously filmed work that contained genuine moments of love, suspense, and an acknowledgement of historical tragedy. … Continue reading →

Posted in Newer films | Tagged Blazing Saddles, Christophe Waltz, Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds, Jamie Foxx, Jonah Hill, Kerry Washington, Ku Klux Klan, Leonardo DiCaprio, Quentin Tarantino, Samuel L. Jackson, What's Eating Gilbert Grape? | Leave a comment

Les Misérables

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Mark DuPré

Les Misérables succeeds on so many levels, I almost lost count. In many ways, it’s a film in the narrow category of films made from sung-through musicals. In that context, it really only has The Phantom of the Opera to … Continue reading →

Posted in Newer films | Tagged Aaron Tveit, Anne Hathaway, Bertolucci, Bring Him Home, Dreyer, Eddie Redmayne, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, Godard, Hugh Jackman, I Dreamed a Dream, Jean Valjean, Les Miserables, Russell Crowe, Samantha Barks, The King's Speech, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Tom Hooper | 1 Comment

Skyfall

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Mark DuPré

Skyfall, the latest James Bond film,is an apologia for the whole Bond series. It rather pointedly keeps reminding us of the value of the “old ways,” old-style weapons and gadgets, and the worth of old-timers—all the while re-populating the franchise … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Albert Finney, Daniel Craig, James Bond, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, North by Northwest, Road to Perdition, Sam Mendes, Skyfall, To Catch a Thief | Leave a comment

Lincoln

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Mark DuPré

Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln may be the most beautifully photographed, best-acted procedural ever filmed. The core of the film is not Lincoln’s life, or death, or any of his many personal struggles. It’s the ratification of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, … Continue reading →

Posted in Newer films | Tagged All About Eve, Daniel Day-Lewis, David Strathairn, Hal Holbrook, Jackie Earle Haley, James Spader, Jared Harris, John Hawkes, John Williams, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Joseph Mankiewicz, Lincoln, Philip Seymour Hoffmann, Sally Field, Schindler's List, Speven Spielberg, The Master, Tim Blake Nelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Tony Kushner | Leave a comment

Babes in Arms (1939)

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Mark DuPré

Opening time capsules can be fun. That was my experience recently saw Babes in Arms, a 1939 classic that’s also a surprising curiosity. It’s known as the first in a series of Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland “let’s put on a show” … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Older Films | Tagged 42nd Street, Andy Hardy, Babes in Arms, Babes on Broadway, Betty Jaynes, Busby Berkeley, Clark Gable, Girl Crazy, Gold Diggers of 1933, Judy Garland, Lionel Barrymore, MGM, Mickey Rooney, Roger Edens, Rogers and Hart, Strike Up the Band, The Wizard of Oz, Warner Bros. | Leave a comment

Soul Surfer

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Mark DuPré

Finally saw 2011’s Soul Surfer, mostly because I like to keep track of how “nearly mainline” Christian films are faring these days. It was…OK. As a story, it’s more than inspiring, and if that’s what motivates you to see it, … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Reviews, Newer films | Tagged Annie Hall, Bethany Hamilton, Carrie Underwood, Christians, Dennis Quaid, Helen Hunt, Matt Redman, Robert Duvall, Soul Surfer, Woody Allen | Leave a comment