A discriminating preview of the summer of 2011 By T.T. Stern-Enzi Hollywood has been trying to convince audiences the summer movie season starts in late April/early May for years now, and the 2011 line-up definitely supports this not-so-clever box office stratagem. And that’s all it is – a power play to lure ticket buyers into […]
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The Beaver
Mel Gibson lets a puppet do all the talking in Jodie Foster’s latest outing By T.T. Stern-Enzi Mel Gibson is not a half-assed kind of guy. He’s all in. To paraphrase Mae West, “When he’s good, he’s very good,” but when he’s bad, he’s good and crazy. It seems this applies to both his life […]
In a Better World
Susanne Bier’s Best Foreign Language winner examines life and how we live it By T.T. Stern-Enzi The very first essay in contemporary (and highly controversial) philosopher Peter Singer’s collection, Writings on an Ethical Life, questions the authority of “moral experts,” and as a layperson, I was struck by what seems to be the fundamental idea […]
3rd Annual FilmDayton Festival
A family reunion for Dayton filmmakers and the regional audience By T.T. Stern-Enzi From Dayton/For Dayton is the theme for this year’s FilmDayton Festival, but you could just as easily think of it as FilmDayton’s family reunion. The focus of this event is the film community; the film family born and raised in the region. […]
I Am
Ace Ventura director Tom Shadyac searches for the meaning of life By T.T. Stern-Enzi How do you go from directing Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Bruce Almighty (and its sequel Evan Almighty) to a documentary like I Am, which captures a spiritual and intellectual journey to find meaning in the world? If you […]
‘Of Gods and Men’
Co-writer and director Xavier Beauvois explores the question of human brotherhood in crisis Rating: R Grade: A By T.T. Stern-Enzi In an impoverished Algerian community, a small group of Trappist monks, led by Brother Christian (Lambert Wilson), stare into the face of fundamentalist terror and begin to question both their mission and their faith. In […]
Come Again?
The Second Coming in the Age of Sequels & Reboots By T.T. Stern-Enzi Has The Greatest Story Ever Told ever been remade, rebooted or turned into a series of sequels? That question doesn’t refer directly to the 1965 George Stevens epic, which was a a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ from his birth […]
Tron & Tron: Legacy (Blu-Ray + DVD edition)
Disney fires up the old hard drive with this original and sequel combo By T.T. Stern-Enzi As a casual geek from back in the day, my memories of the Tron experience revolved around the game more so than the movie, a surprising fact for a film critic to admit, but I’m willing to take my […]
Win Win
Comedy and drama generate a winning formula in Tom McCarthy’s latest project By T.T. Stern-Enzi Hollywood would like to convince us that stories fit into nice neat little genre boxes. There are comedies. There are dramas. They want to lead us like sheep into theaters, sell us overpriced concessions, and entertain us without challenging us […]
Soul Surfer
The next wave of inspiring survivors rolls in By T.T. Stern-Enzi There are times as a critic when the criteria shifts, when the subjective nature of the job requires explanation because the grade given is based on more than whether or not the movie or the performances are “good” or “bad.” And sometimes it doesn’t […]
