American Hustle [2013]

Director David O. Russell convincingly cheats off Martin Scorsese’s paper, Christian Bale channels De Niro and the All-Star cast struts around like they are in “Saturday Night Fever” in a sterling comedy really loosely based on 1970s Abscam scandal.

d: David O. Russell | imdb.com | trailer | He saved my life.
Dry cleaners | He can’t get enough | Science oven

Delivery Man [2013]

Canadian director Ken Scott remakes his 2011 independent film “Starbuck” for Vince Vaughn fans on date night. Vaughn plays another recovering fuck-up — one who has fathered 533 children through donations to a fertility clinic. It is a cloying, lame effort.

d: Ken Scott | imdb.com | trailer

12 Years a Slave [2013]

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, a free black man born in the North and sold into slavery in the South, and he is as painfully brilliant as the beatings he endures. Steve McQueen directs, and he is black, so there is no saccharine — just filmmaking.

d: Steve McQueen | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
What’d You Say to Pats? | Wesley Morris [Grantland]

The Counselor [2013]

Michael Fassbender plays the title role, Javier Bardem plays in designer clothes, and Cameron Diaz plays them both in this stylized drug thriller. Diaz writhes around on a car, makes confession sexy. She is a predatory animal, too feared to win an Oscar.

d: Ridley Scott | imdb.com | trailer | HBO: First Look
Truth has no temperature. | Rattling your cage

Carrie [2013]

Director Kimberly Peirce’s remake of Brian DePalma’s 1976 classic includes more blood, more whatever, but it seems perfunctory. Chloe Grace Moretz, 16, is the right choice and right age for the title role. Sissy Spacek was 27 when she was in the original.

d: Kimberly Peirce | imdb.com | trailer

The Family [2013]

The witness relocated mob family of Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer and their two kids beat up and blow up things in Normandy, France. The results are just OK, not explosive. The highlight is De Niro’s animated review of a certain Martin Scorsese mob movie.

d: Luc Besson | imdb.com | trailer | Dating | Paying the plumber

Kick-Ass 2 [2013]

The ultra-violent sequel isn’t as good as the original, but high school is an uneven period, so Chloe Grace Moretz (now 15) takes down mean girls as well as evil motherfuckers. Jim Carrey (finally) doesn’t chew the scenery — in a movie that actually calls for it.

d: Jeff Wadlow | imdb.com | trailer

20 Feet from Stardom [2013]

The documentary isn’t just a celebration of back-up singers, most of them black women essential to 60s soul and rock records. This is their art, their life. My favorite is Merry Clayton, the force of nature who backs Mick Jagger on “Gimme Shelter.”

d: Morgan Neville | imdb.com | trailer | Interview

This Is the End [2013]

Seth Rogen presents a wholly original premise: He and his movie buddies — all meta-playing themselves — party at James Franco’s house when the Apocalypse hits. The execution is nearly great, with Michael Cera and a musical finale as the highlights.

d: Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg | imdb.com | trailer | Emma Watson
Pineapple Express 2 | The Real World | Interview: Rogen, Goldberg

Man of Steel [2013]

Director Zack Snyder, with the help of producer and “Batman” auteur Christopher Nolan, makes a mess of Metropolis, Smallville and the whole “Superman” franchise, duping six Academy Award nominees / winners to stand in front of green screens.

d: Zack Snyder | imdb.com | trailer | Career Arc: Superman

Behind the Candelabra [2013]

Michael Douglas plays Liberace and Matt Damon his gay lover, who
are brazenly intimate, both physically and emotionally — part of the reason why this film is too good (and controversial) for the major studios but just right for Cannes and HBO.

d: Steven Soderbergh | imdb.com | trailer | Making of ...

The Hangover Part III [2013]

The final “Hangover” movie doesn’t include a hangover or the old spirit and wild laughs of the previous films. There is too much Zach Galifianakis and way too much Ken Jeong, but when Galifianakis resigns from the Wolfpack, it is genuinely sad.

d: Todd Phillips | imdb.com | trailer
Archive | The Hangover | The Hangover Part II

Star Trek Into Darkness [2013]

J.J. Abrams makes well-executed but benign PG-13 pop culture, and he has done it again with his second “Star Trek” movie, which seems like just the second part of a reboot. Kirk cries in the first act, then Spock shows he has feelings in the third.

d: J.J. Abrams | imdb.com | trailer | Ultimate Saga trailer
Archive | Star Trek [2009]

42 [2013]

Writer-director Brian Helgeland’s hagiography about Jackie Robinson contains nostalgic lighting, slow-motion baserunning and an overwrought sweeping score. Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), a cigar-chomping cartoon, is right at home in this afterschool special.

d: Brian Helgeland | imdb.com

Room 237 [2013]

Five film obsessives explain what Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” is really about in this sort-of documentary. Their theories are complete and wonderful nonsense. Ultimately, the meaning of the film doesn’t matter, only that it means everything to these people.

d: Rodney Ascher | imdb.com | trailer | Last Call with Carson Daly
The Shining | The Power of ... | All work and no play makes Jack ...

Spring Breakers [2013]

Four college girls, two of them with a Disney pedigree, hit Spring Break and jail in an arthouse exploitation film. Then James Franco, wearing grillz and cornrows, bails them out, croons some Britney Spears and then the gunplay. This is really good (trash).

d: Harmony Korine | imdb.com | trailer | Chauffeur

Roger Ebert [1942-2013]

Roger Ebert reviewed movies for 46 years at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he won a Pulitzer Prize, and later on his web site and Twitter. But it was on television, as the larger half of “Siskel & Ebert,” that
he made film criticism accessible to everyone.

Appreciation | Chicago Sun-Times | A.O. Scott | Richard Corliss
Famous reviews | Hoop Dreams | North | Cop and a Half
On talk shows | Johnny Carson | David Letterman | Bob Costas

Oscar predictions [2013]

My predictions for the 85th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday night:

Oscars preview | Download EPISODE 42 of postmodcast.

Best Picture | Argo
Best Director | Steven Spielberg [Lincoln]

Best Actor | Daniel Day-Lewis [Lincoln]
Best Actress | Jennifer Lawrence [Silver Linings Playbook]
Best Supporting Actor | Robert De Niro [Silver Linings Playbook]
Best Supporting Actress | Anne Hathaway [Les Miserables]

Best Original Screenplay | Quentin Tarantino [Django Unchained]
Best Adapted Screenplay | Chris Terrio [Argo]

Best Animated Film | Wreck-It Ralph
Best Documentary | Searching for Sugar Man
Best Foreign Film | Amour



Best Original Song | “Skyfall” by Adele, Paul Epworth [Skyfall]
Best Original Score | Life of Pi

Best Cinematography | Life of Pi
Best Visual Effects | Life of Pi

Best Film Editing | Argo

Best Sound Editing | Zero Dark Thirty
Best Sound Mixing | Les Miserables

Best Production Design | Anna Karenina
Best Costume Design | Anna Karenina
Best Makeup & Hairstyling | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Best Short Film | Curfew
Best Animated Short | Paperman
Best Documentary Short | Open Heart

Skyfall (2012)

Daniel Craig and the other “Bond”-makers strike the perfect balance of art and action film, throwing away all those cheesy gadgets and cheeky dialogue, and there’s even a song by Adele. It is certainly the best Bond film of all time, but that’s not saying much.

d: Sam Mendes | imdb.com | trailer

Lou Myers (1935-2013)

Lou Myers found fame as grumpy old restaurant owner Mr. Gaines on “Cosby” spin-off “A Different World,” but he also had supporting roles in two movies by Ron Shelton — “Cobb” and “Tin Cup”— acted on Broadway and sang jazz and blues in a cabaret show.

imdb.com | People | Charleston Gazette

My favorite movies [2012]

1. Zero Dark Thirty | Kathryn Bigelow
2. Django Unchained | Quentin Tarantino
3. Moonrise Kingdom | Wes Anderson
4. Magic Mike | Steven Soderbergh
5. Project X | Nima Nourizadeh

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter / journalist Mark Boal master a new form of filmmaking — confident, straight-forward dramatization — and Jessica Chastain is the steely head and heart behind the decade-long search for Osama bin Laden.

d: Kathryn Bigelow | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose | Chastain