KCRW's Film Reviews

The Wrestler; Seven Pounds

podmaster@kcrw.org (Joe Morgenstern) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:44:00 EST

The Wrestler stars Mickey Rourke as a bulked-up ruin named Randy 'The Ram' Robinson. Itâs something of a miracle that Randy is still alive after decades of giving and taking terrible punishmentâ¦

Until today the subject of Seven Pounds has been kept strictly under wraps. A huge marketing push signaled only the imminent arrival of a Will Smith movie starring Will Smith, with Will Smith in the main role. Now we know whyâ¦

Gran Torino; The Day the Earth Stood Still

podmaster@kcrw.org (Joe Morgenstern) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:44:00 EST

No one makes movies like Gran Torino any more, and more's the pity. Clint Eastwood is the director, and the star, and the film's concerned with honor and atonement, with rough justice and the family of man...

"Everything will be explained," a government goon tells Jennifer Connelly's beautiful exobiologist in The Day the Earth Stood Still. A space ship has just landed, and she's urgently needed to make nice with the occupants...

Frost/Nixon

podmaster@kcrw.org (Joe Morgenstern) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 13:44:00 EST

Frost/Nixon is a spellbinding film version of Peter Morgan's play, about the 1977 televised confrontation between the English talk-show host, David Frost, and the former president who had resigned in disgrace three years beforeâ¦

Australia; Milk

podmaster@kcrw.org (Joe Morgenstern) — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:44:00 EST

Australian aboriginals believe that everyday reality co-exists with an infinite state of being called "the dream time." Baz Luhrann does his own version of that duality in Australiaâ¦

Gus Van Sant's Milk stars Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the late, gay activist and San Francisco Supervisorâ¦

Twilight; Let the Right One In

podmaster@kcrw.org (Joe Morgenstern) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:44:00 EST

Slumdog Millionaire

podmaster@kcrw.org (Joe Morgenstern) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:44:00 EST

Slumdog Millionaire is the world's first globalized masterpiece. This fervent romantic fable is set in contemporary Mombai, the former Bombay, but it draws freely and sometimes rapturously from Charles Dickens, Alexander Dumas, Hollywood, Bollywood, the giddiness of Americanized TV, the cross-cultural craziness of out-sorced call centers and the zoominess of Google Earthâ¦

Role Models; Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa

podmaster@kcrw.org (Joe Morgenstern) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:44:00 EST

If Role Models is any barometer, the weekend weatherâs going to be hot and humid. This is a quintessential summer comedy dropped into early Novemberâ¦

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa continues the sage of the animals who escaped from the Central Park Zoo and landed in the island nation of Madagascar. This time they try to return to New York aboard a rickety airplane piloted by penguins...

Splinter; Zack and Miri Make a Porno

podmaster@kcrw.org (Joe Morgenstern) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:44:00 EST

Jor Morgenstern, film critic of the Wall Street Journal, reviews Splinter and Zack and Miri Make a Porno

The Changeling

podmaster@kcrw.org (Joe Morgenstern) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:44:00 EST

Changeling; I've Loved You So Long

podmaster@kcrw.org (Joe Morgenstern) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:44:00 EST

Clint Eastwood's Changeling is set in Los Angeles in the late 1920's, but connections are missing or scrambled between the filmmaking and the period, between the co-stars -- Angelina Jolie and John Malkovich, and the characters they playâ¦

It's a shock to see Kristin Scott Thomas in the first shot of I've Loved You So Long. She's bleakness personified, and it's not the sort of pretend bleakness that make-up and lighting can bestow on a beautiful faceâ¦