Email Author Nick Pinkerton

2011 Stories by Nick Pinkerton

• "Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol": Tom Cruise Lives Another Day

  published December 21, 2011

  Like a Hindu's rejuvenating bath in the Ganges, a dip in the Mission: Impossible series serves to wash away perceived doubts about its... More >>

• "Outrage": Aestheticized Violence Is Stylish, If Cold

  published December 7, 2011

  Takeshi Kitano's latest finds the actor-director returning to the familiar terrain of the yakuza film after recent farces (Achilles and the... More >>

• "Immortals": Extravagantly Violent Epic is Glutted With Videogame Action, Imagery

  published November 16, 2011

  The last thing you see in Immortals is a pair of eyes, popped wide open, filling the screen. That's exactly how director Tarsem Singh... More >>

• Interview: Alexander Payne Discusses "The Descendants," Pessimism, Failure, Filmmaking

  published November 16, 2011

  "I don't think about the home where my films will land," says Alexander Payne, free-range in a film culture fenced off into art house and... More >>

• "Tower Heist": Action Caper Is Funny, Fleet, and Inconsequential

  published November 2, 2011

  A revenge of the have-nots playing on the clear class stratification of the luxury high-rise, Tower Heist pits lobby against penthouse.... More >>

• "The Three Musketeers": Remake is Gorgeous, Shallow Fun

  published October 26, 2011

  Ardent and frequently jaw-dropping with its audacious, applause-worthy set pieces, The Three Musketeers is a big actioner of rare... More >>

• "Toast": Nigel Slater's Ax-Grinding Novel Dully Translated to Big Screen

  published October 12, 2011

  Premiered as a BBC1 telefilm, now flaunting its wasteful widescreen in theaters, Toast adapts the autobiography of Nigel Slater, a... More >>

• Everything Is One

  published September 14, 2011

  Better than a masterpiece—whatever that is—Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life is an eruption of movie, something to live... More >>

• Big Race

  published September 7, 2011

  One of the biggest names in Formula 1 racing, Ayrton Senna was 34 years old when a well-placed blow from a suspension shaft ended his life at the... More >>

• "Senna": Doc Looks at Fast Life and Early Death of Formula 1 Martyr

  published August 17, 2011

  One of the biggest names in Formula 1 racing, Ayrton Senna was 34 when a well-placed blow from a suspension shaft ended his life on Tamburello... More >>

• "The Guard": Shaggy Dog Irish Cop Tale Thinks It's More Clever Than It Is

  published August 3, 2011

  The Guard is a shaggy-man character study, its subject Sgt. Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson), a fiftysomething policeman in western... More >>

• "Rise of the Planet of the Apes": Origin Story Shines When Apes Are Onscreen, Falters with Humans

  published August 3, 2011

  The latest descendant of the half-century-old de-evolution concept that began with Pierre Boulle's novel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes... More >>

• "Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff": Doc on Legendary Lenser

  published July 27, 2011

  He gave me half my performance with the lighting," says actress Kathleen Byron of cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who shot her in 1947's Black... More >>

• "Cowboys and Aliens": Western-Sci-Fi Mashup Sounds More Exciting Than It Is

  published July 27, 2011

  We begin in classic, saddle-sore terrain. A lone stranger with a mysterious past — Daniel Craig fills the boots here — rides into a... More >>

• What's It All About?

  published July 6, 2011

  Better than a masterpiece — whatever that is — Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life is an eruption of movie, something to... More >>

• "Trollhunter": Mockumentary Monster Movie Is a Snooze

  published June 15, 2011

  Alleged to be compiled of found college-project footage from a group of missing students, Trollhunter begins as an investigative report... More >>

• "Tree of Life": Terrence Malick's Big-Budget Experimental Film Worth Working For

  published June 1, 2011

  Including glimpses of Sleeping Beauty in her glass coffin, the rings of Saturn, and a roadside Texas barbecue, Terrence Malick's The Tree of... More >>

• What's It All About?

  published May 25, 2011

  Better than a masterpiece — whatever that is — Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life is an eruption of movie, something to... More >>

• Street Cred

  published May 25, 2011

  Blank City is a self-defeating user-friendly primer on a group of films whose aura was enhanced by the fact that one had to brave... More >>

• "Something Borrowed": Extraordinarily Impersonal Chick Flick

  published May 4, 2011

  Something Borrowed is based on a 2005 work of chick literature by Emily Giffin. It was directed with extraordinary impersonality by Luke... More >>

• "Prom": Teen Movie Too Perfect, Too Bland

  published April 27, 2011

  This one perfect moment." "That soul-crushing mistress." "Our forever night." These and other understated definitions are obsessively applied... More >>

• The Beats Go On

  published April 27, 2011

  In Yony Leyser's documentary hagiography William Burroughs: A Man Within — which ends with John Waters nominating its subject... More >>

• "The Conspirator": Robert Redford's Snoozer of a Civil War Courtroom Drama

  published April 13, 2011

  Set in the months after Lee's surrender at Appomattox, The Conspirator follows the consequences of the fatal shot at Ford's Theater... More >>

• "Your Highness": D&D Nerds Get Their Own Stoner Comedy

  published April 6, 2011

  Your Highness plays like a dirty-joke blooper reel made by the cast of a junky sword-and-sorcery epic, streaked with carelessly... More >>

• The Scandinavian Resistance

  published April 6, 2011

  Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg give the lying-in-state biopic salute in Max Manus to an adventurer by the same name who was one... More >>