Blog Posts by Jonathan Crow

The first teaser for the latest "Resident Evil" movie premiered right on Yahoo! Movies just as "Underworld: Awakenings" hit the nation's megaplexes. For those of you who haven't been paying attention, "Resident Evil" is about a woman in a skin-tight outfit who likes to shoot things. And "Underworld" is about a woman in a skin-tight outfit who ... likes to shoot things. We decided to compare the two surprisingly profitable franchises head to head:

Photo by Sony Pictures ClassicMoviegoing audiences might be reluctant to venture into the January cold to go see a subtitled domestic drama set in Tehran with no music score, but, rest assured, "A Separation" is no grueling work of exotic miserablism. Director Asghar Farhadi has described the film as "a detective story without any detectives," and that's as apt a description of the flick as you're likely to find. "A Separation" is a fascinatingly complex film told with the urgency of a Hollywood thriller. There have been few movies I've seen this past year that were more riveting, literally edge-of-your-seat riveting, than this one.

The Most Anticipated Movies of 20122012 is right around the corner, and while it may or may not be the year of the apocalypse, it will most certainly be a banner year for blockbusters. Not only will Batman and Spider-Man return to America's megaplexes, but so will James Bond, a Hobbit, and, of course, everyone's favorite moony-eyed sparkly vampire.

"The Dark Knight Rises" (July 20th)
The giddy anticipation around this movie is hard to overstate. Fans ardently praised "The Dark Knight" for director Christopher Nolan's somber, respectful take on the Caped Crusader and Heath Ledger's mesmerizing performance as the Joker; the movie is, in certain circles, considered the "Citizen Kane" of superhero movies. "The Dark Knight Rises" will be the final Batman movie for both Nolan and lead actor Christian Bale, so expect this one to be bigger, badder, and bleaker than the last. But will it have the same impact without Ledger's Joker?

"The Amazing Spider-Man" (July 3rd)
As great as Sam Raimi's first two "Spider-Man" movies were,

Photos by Sony Pictures ClassicsRoman Polanski's latest movie "Carnage," based on an award-winning play by Yasmina Reza, is about two New York yuppie couples who meet after their sons are involved in a schoolyard scuffle that leaves one injured. Alan (Christoph Waltz) and his wife Nancy (Kate Winslet) visit the Brooklyn apartment of Michael (John C. Reilly) and his wife Penelope (Jodie Foster) to smooth over any ill feelings from the incident, but as the night evolves, their veneer of civility slips, added in part by a shocking breach of decorum and liberal amounts of alcohol, revealing them all as venal and mean-spirited. Penelope, a tightly-wound do-gooder, is left in sobbing hysterics. Alan, the cynic of the bunch, on the other hand, spends much of the time on his cell phone in part as a gesture of contempt at the efforts at conciliation.

Critics have noted that Waltz's character, Alan (who has some of the best lines in the movie) seems like a mouthpiece for Polanski, the film's famously misanthropic director.

Photo by Focus FeaturesFor a guy who's famous for playing outsized characters like Count Dracula, Sid Vicious, and renegade wizard Sirius Black, Gary Oldman's latest role as SIS agent George Smiley in Tomas Alfredson's cool, masterful movie "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" is something of a departure. Like all good spies, Smiley is gray and rather bland -- someone you'd walk past in a crowd without giving him a second look. It's a particularly tricky role for an actor; you have to be dull yet charismatic enough to carry the film. Sir Alec Guinness memorably played aging spy in the 1979 BBC adaptation of John Le Carré's novel as if he were a stern, yet world-weary headmaster. Oldman's take is far colder and more unsympathetic; he's someone you'd have no trouble believing would, in the right situation, kill you.

I sat down with Gary Oldman recently in a Beverly Hills hotel. He was decked out in a shiny purple-and-blue suit. Definitely not an outfit Smiley would favor. In spite of this, his demeanor was quiet and

Photos by DreamWorksOctavia Spencer is having a very good year. The actor was previously best known for supporting roles in movies like "Drag Me to Hell" and "Being John Malkovich," along with a bunch of television appearances, but this year she is widely expected to get a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her performance in "The Help," which comes out on DVD this week. She plays Minny Jackson, an African-American maid whose sharp tongue gets her into trouble. It's a role that Spencer seems born to play, and indeed she was. Kathyrn Stockett, who wrote the book the movie is based on, was friends with Spencer and wrote the character with her in mind.

Recently, I had a chance to talk to Spencer over the phone about the movie, her character, and that entire Oscar buzz.

Jonathan Crow: This is a big breakout role for you. And there's been a lot of talk about an Oscar nomination for your performance. Do you find yourself thinking about that a lot, or are you able to ignore it?

'The Help' Showtimes and

Photo by Fox Searchlight Pictures/ Everett Collection

There's a scene right near the beginning of Steve McQueen's brilliant "Shame" where the film's protagonist is in a subway car opposite a pretty redheaded lass in a short skirt. He leers at her with the cool appraisal of a jungle predator. She shifts, blushes, and steals glances back at him, looking as flustered and aroused as he seems impassive. It's a scene of almost unbearable sexual tension, and McQueen masterfully lets it go on and on.

"Shame" made waves earlier this year for getting slapped with an NC-17 rating. The rating supposedly spells box office death, but this movie, which is rightfully getting Oscar buzz, might put that long-held assumption to the test. Sure, there is plenty of skin in "Shame" -- it is a movie about a sex addict, after all. Yet McQueen manages to create scenes of a different sort of nakedness -- emotional, spiritual -- that are beautiful, unnerving, and hypnotic. McQueen was a gallery artist before stepping behind the camera, and it shows. Every shot in

Photo: Sony Pictures ClassicsBritish film critic Alexander Walker once slammed David Cronenberg's movie "Crash" as "beyond the bounds of depravity." Ted Turner reportedly did everything in his power to bury the NC-17-rated film here in the States. The movie's sex scenes showed less skin than your average rated-R romantic thriller, but it was the flick's unsettling juxtaposition of sex with car crashes that drew the ire of culture warriors on both sides of the pond.

Of course, Cronenberg has made an entire career out of bringing provocations to the silver screen. This is the guy who famously blew up a head in "Scanners," had James Woods copulate with a throbbing television set in "Videodrome," and had Jeff Goldblum morph into an insect in his spectacularly disgusting remake of "The Fly." Unlike other cinematic enfants terribles like Lars Von Trier or Gasper Noe, Cronenberg doesn't shock simply to goose the audience. He has a worldview that is genuinely subversive. His characters are constantly transmuting and transgressing in ways that roil the subconscious. He has an uncommon ability to induce the willies.