World War Z

There’s nothing new in World War Z, the reportedly troubled movie adaptation of Max Brooks’ zombie apocalypse novel, transformed here into a rousing action picture that plays like a mash up of 28 Days Later and Contagion.  Yet capably directed by Marc Forster and…

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Man of Steel

Richard Donner can relax. Charmless, soulless and assaultive, the misfire Man of Steel treads familiar ground—the origin of Superman and his battle with General Zod—replacing both the spirit and mythology of the icon with an angsty identity crisis and a lot of loud explosions…

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Into the Gray Zone: Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij Explore Personal and Political Intersection in The East, the Year’s Most Provocative Movie

In two films together, writer-actress Brit Marling and writer-director Zal Batmanglij have explored issues of identity, and both spiritual and cultural alienation. Distinct and intelligent, both 2011’s Sound of My Voice, about a mysterious Los Angeles cult leader (the transfixing Marling) and their new…

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The East

The East, a thought-provoking thriller about a secret agent that infiltrates an “eco-terrorist” faction targeting billion-dollar corporations culpable in some very dirty deeds, is a hell of a provocative picture, a spy movie that forces us to reexamine our notions of terrorism. Co-written by…

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