Email Author Dan Kois

2010 Stories by Dan Kois

• Rock, Meet Hard Place

  published December 29, 2010

  Watch what James Franco — actor/sleepy grad student/tepid writer/viral video comedian/conceptual artist/aficionado of gender fuckery —... More >>

• "Tangled": Disney's latest makes Rapunzel funny and lively

  published November 24, 2010

  "Great," sighs the wicked witch in Tangled, a CG-animated spin on the Rapunzel story, "now I'm the bad guy." Mother Gothel, the... More >>

• "Welcome to the Rileys": Kristen Stewart is an antistar

  published November 24, 2010

  Some young actors yearn for that flashy role in a blockbuster movie that will prove their bankability to a doubting Hollywood. Kristen Stewart,... More >>

• "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows": The kids are not all right

  published November 17, 2010

  A teenage witch stands trembling behind her unsuspecting mother and father, wand raised. Obliviate, she whispers, and her parents' eyes... More >>

• "127 Hours": James Franco saws his arm off in Danny Boyle's new thriller

  published November 10, 2010

  Other people besides James Franco appear in 127 Hours, but as they're unimportant, they will not be mentioned in this review. Danny... More >>

• Rock, Meet Hard Place

  published November 10, 2010

  Watch what James Franco — actor/sleepy grad student/tepid writer/viral video comedian/conceptual artist/aficionado of gender fuckery —... More >>

• "Freakonomics": Morgan Spurlock, Alex Gibney, and others make shorts based on the pop-math book

  published September 29, 2010

  A quartet of uneven TV pilots posing as a full-length documentary, Seth Gordon's anthology, Freakonomics, pulls case studies from... More >>

• "Jack Goes Boating": Philip Seymour Hoffman and stage pals get it right

  published September 22, 2010

  Jack Goes Boating is Philip Seymour Hoffman's movie — it's his directorial debut; he stars as its namesake sad sack; he wears his... More >>

• "Lottery Ticket": Bow Wow strikes it rich in the hood

  published August 18, 2010

  Midway through Lottery Ticket, a teen-comedy-cum-wish-fulfillment fantasy, the movie's hero, Kevin Carson, goes on a spending spree. The... More >>

• "Dinner for Schmucks": Mental disability as comedy

  published July 28, 2010

  In Steve Carell's first few episodes of the American version of The Office, his character, Michael Scott, hewed closely to the template... More >>

• "Spring Fever": Gay love story needs more fire

  published July 14, 2010

  A pair of interlocking love triangles make up Lou Ye's Spring Fever, the director's first film since his 2006 Tiananmen romance,... More >>

• Fetish Object

  published June 30, 2010

  Why is Eclipse, the third film in the Twilight series, so fantastically successful? Why does the audience shriek and moan and... More >>

• Knight and Day

  published June 23, 2010

  You know and love Jason Bourne as an implacable killing machine. But what if he were a mouthy asshole instead? That's the provocative question... More >>

• "Winter's Bone": Looking for truth in the woods

  published June 16, 2010

  Never ask for what ought to be offered," 17-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) tells her little brother in Winter's Bone, Debra... More >>

• "Babies" is pretty much straight babies, all the way through

  published May 5, 2010

  Did I say "Awww" at Babies? I did. Did I giggle at the adorable things babies do in Babies? Oh my, yes. Did I ovulate about a... More >>

• Babies

  published May 5, 2010

  Did I say "Awww" at Babies? I did. Did I giggle at the adorable things babies do in Babies? Oh my, yes. Did I ovulate like a dozen... More >>

• "Losers" not a winning comic-book thriller

  published April 21, 2010

  Writer Andy Diggle dedicated his snappy DC comic books The Losers to '80s screenwriting superstar Shane Black, creator of the Lethal... More >>

• Hot Tub Time Machine: Stupid funny

  published March 24, 2010

  Lost boy John Hughes was inducted into the pantheon this month, when the Academy devoted a moving Oscar-night tribute to the departed... More >>