Levitation Live Shot: The Arcs

Black Keys frontman rejuvenates

"...Dan Auerbach has emphasized that the Arcs are more than just another solo outing, last year’s..."

April 30, 2016 Music Post by Doug Freeman

SXSW Review: The Arcs

Another “Dan band” delivers at the post office via Samsung

"...Thus, the setting and scene preceding the Arcs’ first Austin appearance – opening for the Strokes at..."

March 12, 2016 Music Post by Kevin Curtin

Extraordinary Measures

Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford play a parent and a scientist who fight time, man-made obstacles, and each other to find a cure for a rare childhood disease.

"...and near-insurmountable odds give Extraordinary Measures all the dramatic arcs necessary for this type of thing. Yet the very..."

Jan. 22, 2010 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Adult Beginners

After failing in enterprise, a man returns to his childhood home

"...Danny (Cannavale)? The story is littered with simplistic character arcs, obvious metaphors (the title comes from a swimming class),..."

April 24, 2015 Movie Review by William Goss

Mother and Child

Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, and Kerry Washington lead a wonderful ensemble cast in this muzzy look into the rigors of adoption.

"...bring some sense of unity to the various narrative arcs. This shift to sappy melodrama, however, pierces the film’s..."

June 18, 2010 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Smart People

Smart people, dumb choices: It's true for both the characters and the filmmakers in this acerbic comedy that stars Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Haden Church, and Ellen Page.

"...that often makes commercials directors ill-equipped to handle character arcs. Yet there's something amiss in Smart People that fails..."

April 11, 2008 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Girls Rock!

"How do you teach a teenage girl how to like herself?" is the key question that drives Portland, Ore.'s Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls, as well as this documentary survey of the experience.

"...both men – absolutely succeed at crafting characters and arcs from these marvelous little girls, but they don't leave..."

March 21, 2008 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Garfield: The Movie

Garfield Declawed is the result of taking this comic strip to the big screen.

"...the animal actors of yore, who had real plot arcs and personalities. Much has been made over Garfield’s high..."

June 11, 2004 Movie Review by Marrit Ingman

Hit and Runway

"...are their alter egos, with their tightly scripted character arcs. In Hit and Runway, the write-what-you-know ethos means a..."

May 4, 2001 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

The Emperor's New Groove

"...Disney's stock-in-trade is, by necessity, broad in both character arcs and definition, but Emperor suffers from a persistent case..."

Dec. 15, 2000 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Peacemaker

"...right through those ever-present plot holes and isoscelean character arcs. This is due in large part to first-time feature..."

Sept. 26, 1997 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Sputnik

Russian sci-fi horror is a welcome break from all the '80s throwbacks

"...of Eighties science fiction. But without more believable character arcs – or any kind of character arcs in general..."

Aug. 14, 2020 Movie Review by Matthew Monagle

When the Game Stands Tall

It's all teamwork to the impediment of characterization in this sports drama based the 151-game winning streak of high school football coach Bob Ladouceur.

"...charisma to overcome the anemic characterizations and abandoned story arcs. (The script makes much hay of Ladouceur’s sort-of estranged..."

Aug. 22, 2014 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

A Comic-Book Sidekick of Your Very Own?

Without ever having to wear a single bit of Spandex

"...we're especially jonesing for back issues & old story arcs of our favorite superhero mags, that Sidekick Store is..."

July 5, 2012 Books Post by Wayne Alan Brenner

Radical

True story of a miracle-working teacher busts misery porn cliches

"...Radical may hit all the requisite narrative arcs, but it does so with a level of nuance..."

Nov. 3, 2023 Movie Review by Josh Kupecki

The Boogeyman

Can Hollywood just knock it off with the trauma horror?

"...interpersonal effects. For example, one of the major narrative arcs in The Boogeyman sees Sadie being retraumatized by her..."

June 2, 2023 Movie Review by Matthew Monagle

Thor: Love and Thunder

The Slayer of Thanos becomes a lovesick clown in this mirthless sequel

"...co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Sweet/Vicious) draw superficially from two arcs from the recent run on the Thor comic by..."

July 8, 2022 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

Top Gun: Maverick

Tom Cruise proves he’s the last of his kind

"...was surprised how invested this made me in character arcs and plot lines picked up from a movie I..."

May 27, 2022 Movie Review by Trace Sauveur

Downton Abbey: A New Era

Small-screen stately manor still can't fill the big screen

"...the medium, where capital-D drama could unfurl in seasonlong arcs alongside sillier subplots tidily dispensed in single episodes, and..."

May 20, 2022 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

The King’s Daughter

Long-delayed historical fairy tale is an overdue oddity

"...be little more than a blip in the career arcs of its talent, one can understand why executives were..."

Jan. 28, 2022 Movie Review by Matthew Monagle

Sator

Occult horror will hold you in its dark, subtle spell

"...as assemble it over six years, eschewing conventional narrative arcs in favor of a unifying tone of all-encompassing dread...."

April 23, 2021 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

Vanquish

Wooden Wick knock-off wastes Ruby Rose's star power

"...actually. The plot mechanics, action set pieces, and characters arcs – or lack thereof – are all dreadfully overfamiliar,..."

April 16, 2021 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Black Magic for White Boys

Sorcery and gentrification wrapped together by Onur Tukel, the Brueghel of Brooklyn

"...Baby. Digressions become the plot: Minor figures get redemption arcs while the leads circle in their own nothings. Tukel,..."

July 17, 2020 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

Fantasy Island

Our advice? Get back on the plane

"...but all end up acting in different films. Redemption arcs falter and fail, plots are rehashed, and everyone is..."

Feb. 21, 2020 Movie Review by Richard Whittaker

Green Book

Jim Crow road trip may be simplistic, but it's heartfelt

"...journey. There are kernels of truth in their dramatic arcs in which social and racial prejudices are erased by..."

Nov. 21, 2018 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Seagull

Chekhov's tale of Muscovite misery takes unsteady flight.

"...embodied by its hapless titular bird and the narrative arcs to which today’s audiences are accustomed, much less adapt..."

June 1, 2018 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Back to Burgundy

French drama tries to find life lessons in the vineyard.

"...guru is the most interesting of all the siblings’ arcs, yet it is the one that’s frustratingly given the..."

April 6, 2018 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

“Island Oasis Mirage” at Big Medium

The exhibit by Michael Krueger, Kathleen McShane, and Barbara Weissberger seems a planned mess, but one that echoes a greater scheme

"...37" framed photograph of a stack of brown cardboard "arcs" leaning against a bare white wall. Attached to the..."

June 30, 2017 Arts Review by Sam Anderson-Ramos

The Neon Demon

Cinema's bad boy, Nicolas Winding Refn, strikes again

"...Sarah (Lee) and Gigi (Heathcoate), two models whose career arcs appear to be waning. There are creepy fashion photographers..."

June 24, 2016 Movie Review by Josh Kupecki

Levitation Picks & Sleepers

Blurbing the under and overcard

"...The ArcsFri., 9:55pm, Reverberation stage Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach struts..."

April 29, 2016 Music Feature

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