Movie Review: Stonehearst Asylum (2014)

by Tony Dayoub

"Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see." That's a piece of advice offered in Stonehearst Asylum to the film's ostensible hero, Dr. Edward Newgate (Jim Sturgess). It's also the most important suggestion made by author Edgar Allan Poe to his reader in the droll short story that the movie is loosely based on, "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether." Directed by Brad Anderson (The Call), Stonehearst Asylum is more clever than scary. But there's a lot to be said for a well plotted thriller in a time when too many horror movies hinge more on shocking their audiences instead of getting under their skin.

Movie Review: Ender's Game (2013)

by Tony Dayoub

Forget the external controversies regarding homophobic statements made by author Orson Scott Card, on whose novel the new science fiction film Ender's Game is based. The movie itself is problematic for a myriad of other reasons inherent to its source material. Ender's Game advocates fascism for a major portion of its nearly 2-hour running time. What makes this somewhat disturbing is the story's approach. It plays less like your usual Joseph Campbell-type hero narrative and more like a Young Adult novel with elements of authorial projection/wish-fulfillment fantasy. With most of its military characters being children played by children, it's not unlikely that kids are its target audience. This begs the question, is this the kind of deceptively benign space saga you'd want your kids exposed to?

Movie Review: Iron Man 3 (2013)

by Tony Dayoub

"You know who I am." It's a statement made several different times in Iron Man 3 by both Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) and his nemesis the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) that turns out to be more of a question than a declaration: "Do you know who I am?" We find out who the Mandarin is fairly early. Whether you'll be satisfied with the answer largely depends on if you're a comic book fan who holds filmmakers accountable for screwing around with your precious text. The answer to who Stark is takes a good deal longer to arrive at a resolution, relentlessly driving Iron Man 3 to its conclusion rather skillfully thanks to director Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) who consistently subverts the expectations one brings to the otherwise increasingly predictable and generic superhero movie.

Blu-ray Roundup: Unreliable Protagonists

by Tony Dayoub

Three very recent releases on Blu-ray span the range of genres—from post-apocalyptic action to creepy psychothriller to historical "how"-dunnit. However, they do have one thing in common. Though they might have their flaws, each is still able to draw its viewers in by delivering a skillful shell game at the hands of a distrustful and unreliable protagonist.

Movie Review: Elegy - Character Piece is Year's First Serious Oscar Contender

by Tony Dayoub



The year's first serious Oscar contender, Elegy, directed by Spain's Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me), is a fascinating character piece. Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast) gives one of his most vulnerable performances as college professor David Kepesh, an egotist and womanizer left nursing a growing insecurity after starting a relationship with one of his students.


Consuela Castillo (Penélope Cruz) is the much younger student, a humble Cuban woman who is captivated by Kepesh's intelligence and mature mystique. But Kepesh is too self-absorbed to notice. Constant self-examination and guilt over his serial non-commitment to women (usually his students), have paralyzed him after falling in love with Consuela. He is certain Consuela will leave him for a much younger man, and his possessiveness starts getting in the way.

Based on Philip Roth's novel, The Dying Animal, the film is one of the most incisive readings of male-female relationships to hit the screen in a while. Writer Nicholas Meyer (and a great director in his own right) adapted the screenplay, like he did for another Roth novel, The Human Stain (2003). But Coixet shows a greater sensitivity to the material than the director of the previous film, Robert Benton. Roth's protagonists are generally self-centered intellectuals with little regard for women.

As Glenn Kenny states in his review of the film, the characters are a tad more sympathetic in the novels, where one is seeing the story from their first-person perspective. The same, some would say, repulsive actions that often occur in sexually intense relationships can seem subjectively different to individual readers, depending on what they bring to the material. While Benton, as a male (and often a bit of a dirty old man, in my opinion) may be attracted to some of the more lurid aspects of Roth's story, Coixet brings a softer touch. Kenny's review seems to imply it is because of her European nonchalance with sexuality (indeed he cites a Ben Kingsley profile in New York where Coixet admits this herself), but I believe it apparent that it is her very femininity that helps her approach the material differently.

Why else expand the role of Consuela (a thin one in the novel) to equal status in the film? Well, not exactly, because she still seems defined by the way Kepesh relates to her. But Cruz's portrayal elevates Consuela, and verbalizes all the questions and opinions Kepesh keeps to himself regarding his dubious respect for women. Coixet effectively softens the boorish behavior exhibited by Kepesh simply by showing Consuela, a fully formed female, a conservative one, falling for this jealous man, a person just as deserving of love as anyone is.

In a year top-heavy with big action films, one hopes that the fall season brings films with a longer intellectual shelf-life. Elegy is a good indicator that it will. Seek this one out.

Elegy is in limited release in theaters across the country.

Still provided courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films.

This entry first appeared on Blogcritics on 9/5/08.