Rebellious at the Movies

By Lisa Weidenfeld

Lisa Weidenfeld has moved back and forth between Illinois and Massachusetts four times in the last 10 years. Obviously, this means she likes her politicians crooked and her baseball to be of the Sox variety. Her main form of rebellion in her teenage years was not doing her math homework. Look out, world! Now her rebellions take the form of raging against an annoyingly male-focused entertainment industry. She dreams of a world where it's not that big a deal when female-dominated comedies are really funny and successful.


'Looper' brings the time travel paradoxes and one-dimensional women

Rebellious Rating: By Film Editor Lisa Weidenfeld Time travel movies! After you see them, you get to spend the next half an hour picking out the paradoxes. Is it even possible to make a time travel movie without some paradoxes? Writer/director Rian Johnson’s &ldq..

'Pitch Perfect' hits the weird notes

Rebellious Rating: By Film Editor Lisa Weidenfeld “Pitch Perfect” is about the competitive collegiate a cappella scene, an apparently vicious place filled with college students more interested in performing a perfect rendition of the Ace of Base classic “The Sign&rd..

'Bachelorette' an enjoyable but uneven blend of darkness, light

Rebellious Rating: By Film Editor Lisa Weidenfeld "Bachelorette" tells the story of a group of high school friends who all come together for a wedding in Manhattan. Add a ton of cocaine, an abortion subplot, a suicide attempt and an extensive amount of cursing, and let the j..

'Premium Rush' a fun, bike messenger ride on the silly side

Rebellious Rating: By Film Editor Lisa Weidenfeld I can’t say I remember many of the characters’ names in "Premium Rush." There’s Wiley, the lead (Joseph Gordon Levitt), and you can remember his name because the characters say it so often and keep making coyote r..

'Hope Springs' is refreshingly painful to watch

Rebellious Rating: By Film Editor Lisa Weidenfeld "Hope Springs" suffers from some confusing marketing. The previews positioned it as similar to "Something’s Gotta Give" or "It’s Complicated." Even the poster has a cutesy "Get ready for the jokes!" vibe. Be prepared: T..

'Ruby Sparks' weaves magical tale of 1 imperfect writer's perfect woman

Rebellious Rating: By Film Editor Lisa Weidenfeld “Ruby Sparks” bears a more than superficial resemblance to the 2006 movie, “Stranger Than Fiction.” Both feature previously renowned authors in the ..

Unnerving 'The Dark Knight Rises' falls short

Rebellious Rating: By Film Editor Lisa Weidenfeld Is it even possible to write a normal review of “The Dark Knight Rises” at this point? It’s certainly difficult to see it without thinking of what happened in Aurora. I’m not one to say our decadent nih..

4 Rs for sweet, epic, unusual 'Beasts of the Southern Wild'

Rebellious Rating: By Film Editor Lisa Weidenfeld Part fairy tale, part Hurricane Katrina tale, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” provides a lovely antidote to all the explosions and spandex-wearing of summer movies. It’s the story of 6-year-old Hush Puppy and her dad..

'Magic Mike' isn't as bad as you think

Rebellious Rating: By Film Editor Lisa Weidenfeld Is “Magic Mike” the best movie about Channing Tatum as a stripper that could have been made? It’s possible. Director Steven Soderbergh somehow maintains a loose, goofy charm throughout the movie without de..

'Brave' is beautiful, funny, empowering ... but a little meh

Rebellious Rating: By Film Editor Lisa Weidenfeld You know how when you watch Paul Konerko (http://www.nesn.com/2012/06/white-sox-first-baseman-paul-konerko-doesnt-get-the-credit-he-deserves.html) bat, you kind of want him to hit a home run every time? ..

The lighter side of time travel

Rebellious Rating: By Lisa Weidenfeld “Safety Not Guaranteed” is about a man who posts a classified ad indicating that he’s ready to time travel and looking for a partner. The ad was real (you can read the..

Prometheus: Better than your average summer blockbuster

Rebellious Rating: By Lisa Weidenfeld "Prometheus" stands somewhere at the border between the kind of science fiction that uses a fantastical construct to ask big, important questions about humanity and the kind of sci-fi that wants to pick off space ship crew m..

'Snow White and the Huntsman' is goofy but beautiful

Rebellious Rating: By Lisa Weidenfeld “Snow White and the Huntsman” is not good, exactly, but it’s not terrible. The movie, ambitious and prosaic by turns, benefits from director Rupert Sanders’ eye for beauty and compelling images, like the moment whe..

Hysteria: So many vibrators, so few women

Rebellious Rating: By Lisa Weidenfeld “Hysteria” tells the story of the invention of the vibrator, heavily fictionalized. It’s a tongue-in-cheek look at a group of Victorians treating “hysteria” in England by means of “pelvic massage..

'The Avengers' delivers punch of Whedon-y fun

Rebellious Rating: By Lisa Weidenfeld This may sound like an insult, but “The Avengers” is about as good as it could reasonably be expected to be. It’s a big summer movie, it’s got a huge cast, and it’s essentially serving as a sequel f..

'The Five-Year Engagement' is a rom-com that gets it right

Rebellious Rating: By Lisa Weidenfeld “The Five Year Engagement” is that rare romantic comedy where the characters actually seem like real people. They make dumb mistakes and they interact with each other in a way that feels real, if a lot funnier than r..

'Damsels in Distress' gives it the ol' college try with mixed results

Rebellious Rating: By Lisa Weidenfeld “Damsels in Distress” takes place in a world that doesn’t much resemble this one. Its college-age characters wear old-fashioned clothes and talk in oddly formal ways, but seem to live in a..

'Cabin in the Woods' Is/Isn't What You Think

Rebellious Rating: By Lisa Weidenfeld “Cabin in the Woods” is a movie that is a little difficult to review, because once you really get into the details, you’ve totally ruined the movie. There are other reasons besides the twisted plot to enjoy this movie, but ..

'Mirror Mirror' a kitschy take on 'Snow White'

Rebellious Rating: By Lisa Weidenfeld "Mirror Mirror" is the first of two Snow White film adaptations heading to theaters this spring. If you’re confused, this is the one with Julia Roberts as the evil queen. "Snow White and the Huntsman" comes out in June and has C..

'The Hunger Games' a winning adaptation

Rebellious Rating: By Lisa Weidenfeld Film adaptations of books are funny things. Sometimes all you can see is what got left out, but sometimes seeing something you’ve read translated onto the screen can bring a great deal of extra emotional resonance. For instance..