Crisp Criticism - "Arbitrage", "Ruby Sparks", "Resident Evil: Retribution", "Hit and Run", "Bachelorette"

Arbitrage (2012/US)   *

A troubled hedge fund magnate desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire makes a calamitous error.

An interesting but customarily tame wall-street picture. It is a credit to Gere’s charisma that he makes a totally iniquitous character likeable.

wd – Nicholas Jarecki                                                                                             

ph – Yorick Le Saux

pd – Beth Mickle

m – Cliff Martinez

ed – Douglas Crise

cos – Joseph G. Aulisi

p – Laura Bickford, Justin Nappi, Robert Salerno, Kevin Turen

Cast: Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth, Brit Marling, Laetitia Casta, Nate Parker, Stuart Margolin

Ruby Sparks (2012/US)

A novelist struggling with writer's block becomes infatuated with his new female character, whom he wills into existence.

A film with a script that thinks it originality incarnate; in reality, it merely steals the most original aspects of a mountain of other, better films.

d – Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris

w – Zoe Kazan

ph – Matthew Libatique

pd – Judy Becker

m – Nick Urata

ed – Pamela Martin

cos – Nancy Steiner

p – Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa

Cast: Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Chris Messina, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Aasif Mandvi, Steve Coogan, Toni Trucks, Deborah Ann Woll, Elliott Gould, Alia Shawkat, Jane Anne Thomas

Resident Evil: Retribution (2012/US)

A resistance movement battles against a corporation of the undead.

Another in a puzzlingly successful series of action-horror films that are undoubtedly stylish yet never particularly interesting or intelligible.

wd – Paul W.S. Anderson

ph – Glen MacPherson

pd – Kevin Phipps

m – tomandandy

ed – Niven Howie

cos – Wendy Partridge

p – Paul W.S. Anderson, Jeremy Bolt, Don Carmody

Cast: Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory, Michelle Rodriquez, Aryana Engineer, Bingbing Li, Doris Kodjoe, Johann Urb, Robin Kasyanov, Kevin Durand

Hit and Run (2012/US)

A former getaway driver jeopardizes his Witness Protection Plan identity in order to help his girlfriend get to Los Angeles.

A senseless, loud little movie told in ugly images and crass dialogue. Any evidential point is absent from the screen.

d – David Palmer, Dax Shepard

w – Dax Shepard

ph – Bradley Stonesifer

pd – Emily Bloom

m – Robert Mervak, Julian Wass

ed – Keith Croket

cos – Brooke Dulien

p – Andrew Panay, Nate Tuck, Kim Waltrip                         

Cast: Dax Shepard, Kristen Bell, Kristin Chenoweth, Tom Arnold, Bradley Cooper, Ryan Hansen, Beau Bridges, Michael Rosenbaum

Bachelorette (2012/US) *

Three friends are asked to be bridesmaids at a wedding of a woman they used to ridicule back in high school.

An extremely peculiar film, with a harsh, abnormal tone that is difficult to describe. Many of the characters motives are unclear, and their behaviour, ludicrously beastly. Despite this, the film remains funny throughout.

wd – Leslye Headland

ph – Doug Emmett

pd – Richard Hoover

m – Andrew Feltenstein, John Nau

ed – Jeffrey Wolf

cos – Anna Bingermann

p – Brice Dal Farra, Claude Dal Farra, Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Lauren Munsch

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan, James Marsden, Kyle Bornheimer, Rebel Wilson, Adam Scott, Ann Dowd