Email Author Melissa Anderson

2010 Stories by Melissa Anderson

• "Kings of Pastry" Is the Cream Puff of Documentaries

  published December 30, 2010

  Recording a three-day competition in Lyon, France, in which sugar is heated, stretched, and blown into delicate, rococo shapes, Kings of... More >>

• Jim Carrey and Crew Go Balls-Out in Gay Old South Florida in "I Love You Phillip Morris"

  published December 23, 2010

  It has taken almost two years for the bonkers, exhilarating same-sex romantic comedy I Love You Phillip Morris to finally reach theaters.... More >>

• "Yogi Bear" Review: Not Bad -- if Your Expectations Are Low

  published December 9, 2010

  Rock-bottom expectations are rewarded, sort of, in this update of Hanna-Barbera's necktied ursus, which hopes to outdo the live action/computer... More >>

• "Client 9" Investigates Eliot Spitzer's Own Worst Enemies

  published December 2, 2010

  The usually silver-tongued Eliot Spitzer stammers and hesitates when asked to explain the psychosexual motivations behind his spectacular... More >>

• Kristin Scott Thomas as Desperate Housewife in "Leaving"

  published December 2, 2010

  In her recent English-speaking roles, 50-year-old bilingual Kristin Scott Thomas has gamely endured the fate of most actresses her age, cast as... More >>

• "The Next Three Days" Fails to Maintain Suspense

  published November 18, 2010

  "What if we choose to exist solely in a reality of our own making?" asks Pittsburgh community-college lit professor John Brennan (Russell... More >>

• "For Colored Girls" Mangled in Tyler Perry's Attempt at Artistic Legitimacy

  published November 4, 2010

  It's a long, long way from the women's bar outside Berkeley, California, where Ntozake Shange first presented her combustible choreopoem For... More >>

• Like Stereotypes? If So, Then You'll Love "The Concert"

  published October 28, 2010

  Beyond fans of Mélanie Laurent—who furiously fingers a fiddle and wears flashback wigs—The Concert may appeal to... More >>

• "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" Leaves Little to Buzz About

  published October 28, 2010

  When we first see bi computer hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the final adaptation of... More >>

• Hilary Swank Excels Again in Biopic About Overturning a "Conviction"

  published October 21, 2010

  After Fox Searchlight's Amelia spectacularly flamed out last October, the studio tries again to grab awards-season honors with another... More >>

• "Heartbreaker" Pairs the Always-Charming Romain Duris With a Bum Costar

  published October 14, 2010

  For the past half-decade, Romain Duris has been French cinema's go-to brooder. Diversifying his saturnine handsomeness, Duris gives his... More >>

• "Waiting for Superman" Ignores Too Many Inconvenient Truths

  published October 7, 2010

  Davis Guggenheim's call-to-arms documentary on the failures of the U.S. public-education system — thoroughly laudable in intention if... More >>

• "Easy A" Takes Easy Roads Through the Unfair Rules of Teen Sex

  published September 16, 2010

  As far as teen comedies informed by tenth-grade English syllabi go, Easy A, partly inspired by The Scarlet Letter, is remedial ed... More >>

• "The Tillman Story" Sets the Record Straight

  published September 9, 2010

  Pat Tillman, the Arizona Cardinals safety who enlisted in the Army Rangers eight months after September 11, read Emerson, Chomsky, and, though... More >>

• "The Concert" Review: Like Stereotypes? Then You'll Love This

  published August 19, 2010

  Beyond fans of Mélanie Laurent — who furiously fingers a fiddle and wears flashback wigs — The Concert may appeal to... More >>

• "The Extra Man" Review: Eccentric New Yorkers Without Indie Quirk

  published August 19, 2010

  Delicate, gangly Louis Ives (Paul Dano) yearns to be both a Gatsby-era gentleman and a pretty young lady. Caught fondling a lacy... More >>

• "La Mission": Watered-down Jungian Analysis Meets a GLAAD-Approved Weepie

  published July 8, 2010

  Watered-down Jungian analysis meets a GLAAD-approved weepie in Peter Bratt's second feature, starring brother Benjamin (who also produces) as a... More >>

• "I Am Love" Features a Magnificent Tilda Swinton Demanding Her Freedom

  published July 1, 2010

  As unrepentantly grandiose and ludicrous as its title, Luca Guadagnino's visually ravishing third feature suggests an epic that Visconti and... More >>

• "Solitary Man," AKA the Michael Douglas Experience

  published June 10, 2010

  Directors Brian Koppelman and David Levien, frequent writing partners who scripted Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience, have... More >>

• "Mother and Child" Grapples With Adoption but Only Adoption

  published June 3, 2010

  In his work as writer/director, Rodrigo García has admirably distinguished himself through his commitment to creating intelligent,... More >>

• "Just Wright" Is Just Wrong

  published May 13, 2010

  Another movie, not as awful or deluded as this one, might one day find better use for the easygoing vibe between Queen Latifah and Common, the... More >>

• 'The Back-up Plan' Sinks Jennifer Lopez Lower in Romatic Comedy Hell

  published April 22, 2010

  I'm no obstetrician, but I'd wager that Jennifer Lopez's own labor when birthing fraternal twins two years ago was much less interminable and... More >>

• "Handsome Harry" a Road Movie About Revisiting Guilt

  published April 15, 2010

  A fixture of New York City's no-wave scene of the late '70s and early '80s — an era of prolific DIY filmmaking, when everybody seemed to... More >>

• Chris Rock's 'Death at a Funeral' True to the Britcom Version, Save a Jet Magazine Reference

  published April 15, 2010

  It doesn’t take much to improve the first Death at a Funeral, the flat Frank Oz–directed Britcom of 2007; a few tossed-off... More >>

• 'Why Did I Get Married Too?' Better Question: Why Did Tyler Perry Make This Movie?

  published April 1, 2010

  Tyler Perry follows up his best film, 2007’s Why Did I Get Married?, with his worst. This time, the four couples in various states of... More >>