Email Author Robert Wilonsky

2009 Stories by Robert Wilonsky

• Up in the Air Avoids Predictable Routes and Lands the Emotion

  published December 10, 2009

  There is something oddly familiar about Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, in which George Clooney plays a commitment-phobic business traveler... More >>

• Everybody’s Fine: Father Does Not Know Best When Father Is De Niro

  published December 3, 2009

  Don't be misled by the cheesy, generic poster for Kirk Jones' Everybody's Fine, in which a grinning Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore, and Kate... More >>

• Pirate Radio Gets a Tame U.S. Release, but We Still Love Rock 'N' Roll

  published November 12, 2009

  Seven months after its theatrical release in the U.K., and two months after its DVD debut there, Pirate Radio washes ashore in U.S.... More >>

• The Informant! Gets Cute With Massive Corporate Scandal and Blows the Story

  published September 17, 2009

  As evidenced by The Informant!, it's a hell of a tricky thing turning real-life pulp into floss sugar. The story of Archer Daniels Midland... More >>

• With Extract, Mike Judge Goes Back to Work

  published September 3, 2009

  Mike Judge began writing the screenplay for Extract not long after Office Space opened and closed in a matter of weeks in the late... More >>

• Julie & Julia: Compliments to Meryl Streep

  published August 6, 2009

  It was the best of movies. It was the worst of movies. Which is to say: There's half of a great movie in Julie & Julia — but since... More >>

• (500) Days of Summer: Love Hurts, but In a Good Way

  published July 23, 2009

  On the surface, (500) Days of Summer really is no different from, oh, The Proposal, in which Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock spun... More >>

• Transformers 2: Michael Bay Can’t Live Up to Michael Bay

  published June 25, 2009

  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a bewildering, noisy, sloppy, cynical piece of work, a movie that sneers at the audience for 147... More >>

• The Proposal: Once More Down the Aisle

  published June 18, 2009

  Fifteen minutes after seeing The Proposal, I'd forgotten I'd seen The Proposal. Well, that's not entirely true: By then, it had... More >>

• Up Soars In Entirely Unexpected Ways

  published May 28, 2009

  First of all, Up is not a movie about a cranky old coot who, with the help of a roly-poly Boy Scout, finds his inner child during a series... More >>

• The Brothers Bloom Is No Joke, Despite Its Stylish Trappings

  published May 21, 2009

  Writer-director Rian Johnson fashions a universe in which time is a fluid thing — where everything takes place in a familiar today and an... More >>

• J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek is Proof That a Franchise Can Live Long and Prosper

  published May 7, 2009

  It's difficult for this longtime Trekkie to review J.J. Abrams' relaunching of the U.S.S. Enterprise. It's difficult to dispassionately... More >>

• Observe and Report: Seth Rogen’s Rent-a-Cop Rides The Bipolar Express

  published April 9, 2009

  Observe and Report writer-director Jody Hill makes mean-spirited tragedies that studios market as inane comedies because otherwise no one... More >>

• Monsters vs. Aliens: In the Latest Round of Effects Versus Storytelling, Effects Win Big

  published March 26, 2009

  At the end of 2008, DreamWorks Animation bossman Jeffrey Katzenberg embarked on a cross-country tour, toting 20 minutes' worth of Monsters vs.... More >>

• I Love You, Man Brings Bromance to its Pinnacle

  published March 19, 2009

  Just as we thought the "bromantic comedy" had overstayed its welcome, the genre reaches its high point with I Love You, Man. The subtext is... More >>

• Fanboys: The Force is Weak with This Long-Delayed Film

  published February 19, 2009

  Fanboys is meant for the dude who's content to simply stare at an Imperial stormtrooper's empty helmet for 90 minutes. It's for the two... More >>

• Notorious Makes B.I.G. Just B.L.A.N.D.

  published January 15, 2009

  Notorious, about a crack dealer who becomes an iconic rapper who becomes a tragic legend, is the first film George Tillman Jr. has... More >>

• DreamWorks Animation's Jeffrey Katzenberg's Cure-All for an Ailing Movie Economy is 3D

  published January 1, 2009

  As far as Jeffrey Katzenberg is concerned, there have been but two "revolutions" in the movie business: the mass introduction of sound with 1927's... More >>