Y Tu Mamá También
I feel like I'm supposed to have a lot to say about this film. But my reaction is as simple as its story, about two oversexed teenage boys who take a road trip with a sexy older woman who is unhappily married to one of the boys' cousins: I liked it, didn't love it. Y Tu Mamá has a lot… read more!
Year of the Dog
My wife Miki is vegan; because of this, 90-95% of my meals are vegan. I have learned to sympathize with her whenever I see a vegan character in a film – rare as they are – because they're usually depicted as pretentious, misguided, and annoying. Sure, some vegans are all of these things, but they're not doing the world any harm, and I'm tired… read more!
Yesterday
Himesh Patel plays Jack Malik, a struggling British singer-songwriter who's just given up on his career aspirations when he is struck by a bus one night in England. As it turns out, his near-death experience occurred right as the entire planet's power blacked out for twelve seconds. When Jack comes to, a few days later, he finds that the blackout… read more!
Yi Yi
One of the more idiotic rules at the Oscars is that each country may only submit one film for consideration for Best Foreign Film. I suppose there's some lame sense of fairness to this rule, but we're seeing the downside of it this year. You see, Taiwan, sensing a clear winner with the phenomenon that is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,… read more!
You Can Count on Me
Lovely chamber piece about a single mom (Laura Linney) living in upstate New York and the men in her life, specifically her son (Rory Culkin, Macauley's younger brother), her boss (Matthew Broderick), and especially her troubled brother (Mark Ruffalo), whose return to the empty family home – their parents were killed in a car crash when the siblings were children… read more!
You Don’t Nomi
A fun if ultimately preposterous documentary about a preposterous if ultimately fun film: the 1995 Vegas stripper movie Showgirls, which flopped hard upon release, then remerged as a cult classic. This is no mere making-of or looking-back doc, but an essay about Showgirls' cultural impact, and how seriously the film itself should be taken. Eschewing the typical talking-head interviews with… read more!
You Won’t Be Alone
Although it could be categorized as "folk horror", You Won't Be Alone is maybe 10% horror movie – there's a little blood and violence, but no suspense or jump scares – and 90% Terrence Malick knockoff. I still liked it, though. Set in 19th century Macedonia, You Won't Be Alone opens with a farmer's widow begging a witch to spare… read more!
Young Adult
After delivering the crowd-pleasing dramedies Juno and Up in the Air, Jason Reitman re-teams with Juno scribe Diablo Cody, blessedly eschewing the idiosyncratic slang dialogue that made her such a polarizing screenwriter, to deliver a bleak, crowd-numbing anti-comedy. Charlize Theron stars as Mavis, a bitchy former prom queen and now author of several disposable "young adult" novels (think Sweet Valley… read more!