THE DESCENDANTSAlexander Payne might have mellowed over the years, but he hasn't lost his edge. After four films he's arrived at his own complicated version of family values and reconciled himself to feel-good resolutions — even for a story involving an accident, teenage alcoholism, adultery, death, and that ultimate destroyer of souls, a real estate transaction. Credit in part George Clooney's performance as the scion of a wealthy Hawaiian family faced with the disposition of a huge tract of inherited real estate and also with more personal matters, including a wife in a coma and daughters (Amara Miller and Shailene Woodley, both excellent) who are a handful. In relating this screwball melodrama Payne juggles moods, leavening complex emotions with goofy humor, illuminating the frailties and virtues we are all heir to, regardless of whose descendants we may be.
READ the full review here.
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8 of 11 (results 11)
Related:
Review: Tetro, Review: Irene in Time, Review: The Slammin' Salmon, More 
- Review: Tetro
Francis Ford Coppola made one perfect picture, The Conversation , in 1974.
- Review: Irene in Time
Luckless in love, Irene (Tanna Frederick) wants to "find a guy like my daddy." Her father, she says (over and over and over), "was really magical." Truth be told, her absent dad doesn't seem like that great a guy.
- Review: The Slammin' Salmon
Here's how the shit version of Waiting likely came to be: the Broken Lizard boys (David Heffernan directs) thought the concept of a boxing-champ-turned-Miami-restaurateur was funny, and they wrote and shot a major motion picture without bothering to design a plot.
- Review: Invictus
Poetry, muses Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) in a reflective moment in Invictus , consists only of words, yet it can inspire perseverance and greatness beyond our own expectations of ourselves. Sport, similarly, consists of oversized, overpaid athletes pounding one another in simulated combat, but it's also a form of poetry.
- Review: Armored
In view of its credentials, Armored should be a lay-up.
- Review: Me and Orson Welles
With Orson Welles, it's all in the voice — which over the course of four decades could sell anything from a Martian invasion to Paul Masson wine.
- Review: Brothers
Operation Enduring Freedom seems to have replaced Vietnam as Hollywood's go-to military quagmire from which to dredge gut-wrenching meditations on the psychological carnage of war.
- Review: Avatar
For someone who's determined to reduce all experience to mechanical reproduction, James Cameron sure hates machines.
- Review: It's Complicated
It's complicated, and so are my feelings about Nancy Meyer's predictable and overlong boomer-bait rom-com.
- Review: The Young Victoria
Who knew Queen Victoria was such a babe?
- Review: Le Combat Dans L'Île
Alan Cavalier's sleek noir rescued from 1962 obscurity
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