Email Author Nick Pinkerton

2012 Stories by Nick Pinkerton

• "The Awakening": The Haunting of Early 20-Century England

  published August 15, 2012

  A ghost story relies on the memory of trauma, and The Awakening has plenty, as it's set in a slate-toned 1921, with the catastrophe of the... More >>

• "The Expendables 2": The Most Mercenery Actors You Know

  published August 15, 2012

  As befits a throwback to the righteous-kill, Reagan-era action movie, The Expendables 2 begins with most of the male population of a... More >>

• "Easy Money": No One Gets Away Clean in This Crime Thriller

  published August 8, 2012

  As the general run of action films blithely defies the laws of gravity and consequence, what a pleasure to find a movie as grounded, physically... More >>

• "360": Global Connectedness Has Never Been So Boring

  published August 8, 2012

  Is there something intrinsic to these wide-net, "We're all connected" ensemble movies that makes their authors think they need to address every... More >>

• "Killer Joe": Matthew McConaughey Is a Lurid Pleasure

  published August 1, 2012

  At one point in Killer Joe, a hideously funny tabloid noir set on the outskirts of Dallas County, Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) is let into... More >>

• "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days": Deftly Navigates Suburban Perils

  published August 1, 2012

  Released right when summer starts to drag, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days at least doesn't add to the exhaustion. It's the latest... More >>

• "Red Lights": Religious Thriller Doesn't Inspire Faith

  published July 25, 2012

  Red Lights aspires to be a genre movie of ideas. Like a great number of films dealing with supernatural and extraterrestrial phenomena,... More >>

• "Ruby Sparks": Your Fantasy Girlfriend Is Fiction

  published July 25, 2012

  It's one of the most cherished legends of the American indie: A socially retarded ugly duck, despite making no effort to regulate his glaring... More >>

• "Step Up Revolution": Capitalism Triumphs Again

  published July 25, 2012

  Hot on the heels of The Dark Knight Rises comes another ideologically incomprehensible — if rather more kinetic and shamelessly... More >>

• "The Dark Knight Rises": Batman Just Goes on Forever

  published July 18, 2012

  Christopher Nolan's ponderous, pontifical action movies are written less as screenplays than as operator's manuals, guiding an audience through... More >>

• "30 Beats": Some New Yorkers Have the Least Interesting Sex

  published July 18, 2012

  It is a safe bet that 30 Beats, which was filmed in summer of 2009 and boasts a distinctly mid-'90s funky, sex-positive vibe, is seeing... More >>

• Sweethearts

  published July 18, 2012

  Romantics Anonymous is about the private comfort of sweets, and, as a romance that gently coddles the fantasies of shut-ins, it is... More >>

• "Crazy Eyes": Why They Don't Get Drunk and Screw

  published July 11, 2012

  We first encounter the subject of Crazy Eyes' character study mixing his drinks while damning the glittering void of L.A. from the... More >>

• "Crazy Wisdom": A Flat Portrait of a Holy Fool

  published July 11, 2012

  Watching the succession of talking-head testimonials by former disciples of Chogyam Trungpa that comprise Crazy Wisdom: The Life & Times of... More >>

• "People Like Us": We All Get Redeemed in the End

  published June 27, 2012

  People Like Us is a certifiable adult drama built atop sturdy thematic supports, a rare enough item these days, though it's telling that... More >>

• "Madea's Witness Protection": Tyler Perry's Done Worse

  published June 27, 2012

  With his creation Mabel "Madea" Simmons, here starring in her seventh film, Tyler Perry has built a franchise around barking disciplinarian,... More >>

• "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter": Such Dreary Fake History

  published June 20, 2012

  The logical outer limit of the whole horror-as-metaphor thing, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter shoehorns the entire personal history of... More >>

• "Rock of Ages": Corporate Rock Still Sucks

  published June 13, 2012

  In Rock of Ages, a new star-clogged pop-musical diversion based on a "jukebox musical" where a story is built around an afternoon of VH1... More >>

• "Elena": Classes and Families Clash Before the Apocalypse

  published June 6, 2012

  Andrey Zvyagintsev's Elena is a tale of two apartments: a spacious chrome, glass, and marble luxury flat that might be anywhere in... More >>

• "Prometheus": Lackluster Ideas Dim Impressive Horror

  published June 6, 2012

  Prone to shallow ponderousness, Prometheus assumes the air of a blockbuster-with-brains that links the genesis and the ultimate fate of... More >>

• "Snow White and the Huntsman": A Tale Overtold

  published May 30, 2012

  Around the same age that they're usually hearing fairy tales for the first time, children have a tendency to compulsively ask "Why?" The script... More >>

• "The Color Wheel": Angry Siblings Are Only Fit for Each Other

  published May 30, 2012

  Alex Ross Perry's second feature, shot in 16mm black-and-white, is an offhand-picturesque road-trip movie with a mock-epic northeastern... More >>

• "For Greater Glory": A Bloated Mess of a Mexican Epic

  published May 30, 2012

  Boasting such attributes as a rich, unmined vein of history for its subject matter, the Biblical landscape of northern Mexico for its backdrop,... More >>

• "Men in Black 3": Bummer of '69

  published May 23, 2012

  Men in Black 3 reunites the series stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones with director Barry Sonnenfeld, who, beginning with 1991's... More >>

• "Battleship": Soak up the Beautiful Bombast

  published May 16, 2012

  Every once in a while, a movie comes along that's so utterly shameless that it achieves a certain grandeur. Peter Berg's Battleship,... More >>