Reviews In Depth

Into the Wild (2007) is a movie directed by Sean Penn about the life of Christopher McCandless - a Thoreau like adventurer who lost his life seeking an authentic experience of life and the natural world. It is based on the book by Jon Krakauer and is quite simply one of the most extraordinarily beautiful movies I've ever seen. It's a must see for anyone that has sought beyond the mundane immediacy of their own existence, for anyone that has yearned for something authentic, something true. But it also serves as a warning to anyone who might naively idealize such yearnings. This film is no mere romantic idealization, but a sophisticated portrait of the tensions and contradictions of romantic thought.

I'm going to tell you why Star Trek is a much better movie than Avatar, box office takings not-withstanding. This is something I think most of you reading will already know. In the reviews, the Star Trek script was widely praised, while Avatar's script has been widely panned. But as it is with standard reviews - they never run deep enough in explanation for our liking.

Pitch Black (2000), directed by David Twohy, is almost the perfect subject of review for InDepth – a movie widely dismissed as derivative sci-fi, schlock horror. Looking at the “top reviews” on Rotten Tomatoes reveals an establishment totally incapable of engaging with this film.  Robert Ebert is off put by the fighting crew and the [...]