Film Reviews


	Seeking a Friend For the End of the World by M. Faust
	I’ve always resisted having a star-rating system to accompany reviews, and this movie is a perfect example why. I enjoyed it, had fun with it, shed a tear or two when I was supposed to. But honestly, it really isn’t a very good movie. It does some things well, others quite badly, and in the end is misconceived and vague. But I wouldn’t mind seeing it again. It’s like a feel-good Melancholia.
	Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by George Sax
	Forget that old stuff about Pickett’s Charge. It seems the decisive event during the Civil War’s three-day Battle of Gettysburg was the Attack of the Bloodsuckers. Generals Lee, Pickett, and Meade aren’t even mentioned in Timur Bekmambetov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Honest Abe (Benjamin Walker) is the real hero of this critical battle, with the assistance of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and the utilization of the White House silverware. (Don’t ask.)
	Moonrise Kingdom by M. Faust
	I have just learned of the death of Andrew Sarris, the film critic who did two great things. He popularized with Americans the notion, beloved by French critics of the 1950s, that a strong director was the critical author—or auteur—of a good film. And he argued that American cinema was just as rich in such figures as was European cinema.

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