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Mike D'Angelo

Story Archive

  • A&E

    Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010

    If there’s one thing Hollywood loves more than an actor playing royalty, it’s an actor depicting a disability.

  • A&E

    Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010

    Ewan McGregor plays the titular character in I Love You Phillip Morris, opposite Jim Carey (playing real-life con artist Steven Jay Russell) as his homosexual lover.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010

    For all its rough patches, the film boasts the one element sorely missing from most Hollywood rom-coms: a pulse.

  • Film

    Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010

    By golly, it kind of works!

  • Film

    Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010

    Not every big scandal should be a movie, people.

  • A&E

    Thursday, Nov. 11, 2010

    Morning Glory tales the tale behind the people delivering your news. But does the movie itself deliver?

  • Film

    Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2010

    Restating the obvious about the evils of Wall Street.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010

    Tillman himself remains fascinating; the story of his tragic death and its fairly brief cover-up, much less so.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010

    Not that there’s some big twist or anything—you just wouldn’t expect this kind of high-concept, star-driven American film to be so relentlessly interior.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010

    “Superman” successfully jerks your tears and fuels your outrage, but it’s more a recruiting tool than a movie.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010

    Despite its capable cast, the film has little more to offer than stale platitudes and canned one-liners.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010

    You’re better off knowing as little as possible in advance.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010

    As opportunistic, decades-later sequels go, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps makes a bit more sense than most.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010

    Confined almost entirely to the interior of a single tank, Lebanon is Israeli director Samuel Maoz’s fictionalized account of his harrowing experiences in the 1982 Lebanon War.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010

    Joaquin Phoenix "documentary" is more fun to hear about than to actually experience.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010

    David Michôd’s promising but scattershot feature debut Animal Kingdom thrusts a wary young rabbit into a den of jackals and watches to see if he'll make it out alive.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010

    This ostensible homage to ’70s sleaze feel more like a late-night comedy sketch.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010

    Get Low won’t likely be Duvall’s final film, but it functions nonetheless as a sort of crusty valediction.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010

    Give it up, guys. Your '80s action hero days are over.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010

    The film serves as a bitterly hilarious illustration of the way radical and subversive concepts get appropriated by the talentless and watered down for mass consumption

  • Film

    Wednesday, July 28, 2010

    At first glance, Winter’s Bone, looks like more of the same. Against all odds, however, this turns out to be the most electrifying movie of the year.

  • Entertainment

    Wednesday, July 28, 2010

    You might imagine a movie about legalized prostitution would at least hold your attention. But there’s a reason director Taylor Hackford (Ray) has the word “hack” in his surname.

  • Entertainment

    Wednesday, July 21, 2010

    Every character in this Sundance hit, regardless of sexual orientation, proves to be believably, entertainingly flawed

  • Film

    Wednesday, July 7, 2010

    This could be either a broad mainstream comedy or a subtle indie character study. As executed by the Duplass brothers, it’s essentially both at once.

  • Film

    Wednesday, June 30, 2010

    Michael Caine is provided with his finest showcase in years, affording him multiple opportunities to wrap that silky-steel voice around barely veiled threats and mock-sorrowful farewells.

  • Film

    Wednesday, June 23, 2010

    Few things in life are more pathetic than the aging privileged male who bumps up against irrefutable evidence of his own mortality and instantly turns into a destructive, carpe-diem a-hole.

  • Film

    Wednesday, June 16, 2010

    Toy Story 3 isn’t the instant classic that its predecessors were, and doesn’t achieve the envelope-pushing creative heights of WALL-E’s wordless first act.

  • Film

    Wednesday, June 2, 2010

    Meet a baby with a tail ending in a giant stinger.

  • Film

    Wednesday, May 26, 2010

    Even before it began, the 63rd Festival de Cannes was widely considered a failure.

  • Film

    Wednesday, May 12, 2010

    Starring Russell Crowe, the latest "Robin Hood" is all fury, no fun.

  • Film

    Wednesday, April 21, 2010

    It’s a mystery to me why the generic Hollywood action movie hasn’t yet followed the example of the generic porn flick.

  • Film

    Wednesday, April 14, 2010

    Exposed skin, Eastern mysticism and an angry feminist tract? All of the above.

  • Film

    Wednesday, April 7, 2010

    Looking to spice up their dull marriage, Phil and Claire Foster depart boring old New Jersey for a night on the town in Manhattan, only to get way more excitement than they bargained for.

  • Film

    Wednesday, March 31, 2010

    It’s so rare these days to see a movie demonstrate simple, quiet proficiency that critics can sometimes respond to that quality with a little too much gratitude.

  • Film

    Wednesday, March 24, 2010

    Greenberg’s unlikable protagonist overwhelms its insights.

  • Film

    Wednesday, March 10, 2010

    Green Zone tediously rehashes critiques of the war in Iraq

  • Film

    Wednesday, March 10, 2010

    No wonder Oscar approves.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010

    A virtually un-buzzed film gets two Oscar nods, and for good reason.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010

    The Departed may be the better movie overall, but Shutter Island, prioritizing mood and imagery over everything else, makes for superior cinema.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010

    John Travolta is not meant to be bald.

  • Reviews

    Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010

    Jeff Bridges shows off in the predictable but entertaining Crazy Heart

  • Film

    Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010

    It feel a bit like Ransom, except that in this case Mel Gibson's child is already dead, so he’s even meaner and more implacable.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010

    This is yet another tiresomely reflexive film about filmmaking, moving back and forth between present-day Madrid, where a blind writer-director wrestles with footage of a movie he shot.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010

    The movie spends an inordinate amount of time with Susie in her personal heaven, which usually resembles the preposterously idyllic landscapes that pharmaceutical ads employ to distract you.

  • Reviews

    Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009

    The glib Up in the Air is entertaining but insignificant.

  • Reviews

    Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009

    Presented with a movie called Me and Orson Welles, one can’t help but immediately wonder who “me” might be.

  • Film

    Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2009

    Clint Eastwood's film does almost nothing but congratulate itself for two solid hours.

  • Reviews

    Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009

    You’ll probably feel like you’ve seen this remake before, even if you haven’t.

  • Film

    Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009

    Wes Anderson makes a very Wes Anderson-y animated film.

  • Reviews

    Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009

    Poor black teens. Neglect. AIDS. Rape. Down syndrome. Give this film an Oscar already!