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MOVIES / Ask Mick LaSalle

Dear Wesley: I'd go with "Carnival of Souls," "Diabolique" (the original version) and "JFK" (not horror, I know, but scary). All involve thinking you know something - and finding out you don't. Dear Mr. LaSalle: Thanks so much for your article on "The ...

From MICK LASALLE, San Francisco Chronicle,  22 Nov 2009

Review: 'The Messenger'

Two soldiers show up at a suburban home, the door opens and they deliver the awful news: "The secretary of the Army regrets to inform ..." Someone is dead - a son or daughter, a husband or wife - and the person hearing those words has to go through a ...

From MICK LASALLE, San Francisco Chronicle,  19 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Woody Harrelson,  Ben Foster,  Samantha Morton,  Oren Moverman

New Italian Cinema wraps up

In case you haven't noticed, a major film festival has been taking place this week in San Francisco - the New Italian Cinema festival - and this weekend it comes to a grand finish with a handful of very fine films you won't get a chance to see anywhere. ...

From MICK LASALLE, San Francisco Chronicle,  19 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Benito Mussolini

Review: NFL pick's story is nice, slow-moving

"The Blind Side" tells a nice, human story about a family that takes in a homeless teenager and helps him realize his dreams - "realize" in both senses of the word. At the start of the movie, this young fellow is so pressed by the demands of daily ...

From MICK LASALLE, San Francisco Chronicle,  19 Nov 2009

Related Topics: NFL,  Michael Oher,  John Lee Hancock,  Sandra Bullock,  Leigh Anne Tuohy

"New Moon" kisses up to its fans

So expect this film to satisfy its fans. Everybody else, get ready for a bizarre soap opera/pageant, consisting of a succession of static scenes with characters loping into the frame to announce exactly what they're thinking. Then they spell out their ...

From MICK LASALLE, San Francisco Chronicle,  19 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Kristen Stewart,  James Dean,  Robert Pattinson,  Taylor Lautner,  Stephenie Meyer

Ask Mick LaSalle

Dear Mr. Ferraro: There's Meryl Streep, of course - and Karin Viard, who is sort of the French Streep, always different, always brilliant. But consistency is not always (or even usually) a quality of great actors. Laurence Olivier was great yet ...

From MICK LASALLE, San Francisco Chronicle,  15 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Meryl Streep,  Laurence Olivier,  Jennifer Jason Leigh,  Lars von Trier,  Robert Baker

DVD: 'You're Welcome America'

This might be the classic example of the difference between live performance and film, but to watch this HBO special - filmed live on Broadway, during Will Ferrell's highly successful and critically lauded standup show as the 43rd president - is to be ...

From MICK LASALLE, San Francisco Chronicle,  15 Nov 2009

Related Topics: George W. Bush,  HBO,  Will Ferrell,  Condoleezza Rice,  Madeleine Albright

Review: Tuning into 'Pirate Radio'

Seen from a distance, 1966 is a neither-fish-nor-foul era. In 1965, there were no drugs, black-and-white film, and the end of the old. In 1967 , there were LSD, psychedelic colors and the birth of the new. So what was 1966? Yet, people who were there ...

From MICK LASALLE, San Francisco Chronicle,  13 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Richard Curtis,  Philip Seymour Hoffman,  Anna Karina,  Tom Sturridge,  John Lennon

'2012' is formula action movie turned up to 10

It's hard to do justice to this ridiculous, wonderful movie. To describe "2012" is to make it sound like every other end-of-the-world disaster epic you've ever seen. And it is. It's a Roland Emmerich film very like his others - "Independence Day" and ...

From MICK LASALLE, San Francisco Chronicle,  13 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Roland Emmerich,  Chiwetel Ejiofor,  Danny Glover,  John Cusack,  Arnold Schwarzenegger

Review: Being a maid or having one is no party

With a few brushstrokes, Sebastian Silva communicates the complicated social and moral dynamic involved in having a live-in maid. His talent for incisive detail is apparent from the opening minutes of his new film, in which we see an ...

From MICK LASALLE, San Francisco Chronicle,  13 Nov 2009

Related Topics: Catalina Saavedra

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