

Columns By Mike WilmingtonWilmington@moviecitynews.com
Wilmington on DVDs: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Il Divo, Z, Whatever Works, Nothing Like the Holidays, The Orphan and more…
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs(Two and a Half Stars) U. S.; Carlos Saldanha, Mike Thurmeier, 2009 Are those Ice Age wedding bells breaking up that old gang of mine?
Read the full article »Is Antichrist Art?
Lars von Trier is a fascinating filmmaker. I can’t say that I always enjoy his work — in fact, it’s rare that I can emotionally connect to one of his films — but I like that he’s around. He’s a unique talent indeed and while I don’t always think his movies hit the mark, I’m thankful…
Read the full article »Saw-ed in Half
The little chiller that could — Paranormal Activity — ascended to the top of the movie-going charts with an estimated $21.6 million. That was bad news for the launch of the latest installment of the Saw horror franchise with its sixth installment drawing less than half the box office of the prior edition with $14.8…
Read the full article »For Better, For Worse
Published under Voices. It’s a very curious and lonely thing, facing a pancreatic tumor and a divorce at the same time. You know intellectually that your marriage is over, that the person you’d always imagined would be by your side holding your hand if you ever had to face something scary like this isn’t there…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Monsoon Wedding, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Easy Rider and more…
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Two and a Half Stars) U. S.; Michael Bay, 2009 This might better be called Transformers: Revenge of the Hasbro Action Toys
Read the full article »Lukas Moodysson: The Greatest Director You Don’t Know About
I recently had the pleasure of seeing Mammoth, the latest film from Swedish director Lukas Moodysson. I’ll be reviewing it more fully closer to its release in November, but it re-affirmed a deeply held view of mine: that Moodysson is one of the world’s greatest filmmakers. Yet when I talk to a lot of people, even film geeks,…
Read the full article »Emmy Rossum

It isn’t often that an entertainment reporter gets to extend a relationship with the subject of an interview beyond the confines of a publicity junket. Precious little time is allotted for idle chatter and there simply aren’t any good reasons for an actor or filmmaker to memorize the face of someone sitting across from them….
Read the full article »The Maid

The gifted Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva came to Hollywood this week to promote his critically lauded film, The Maid, not pick a fight with the Motion Picture Academy. In fact, it probably was the furthest thing from his mind. This time of the year, however, we in the reporting dodge can hardly think of anything else. The movie…
Read the full article »Law Abiding Wild Thing
The weekend surprise was not the estimated $32.6 million grossed by Where the Wild Things Are that led ticker sales but the torrid $21.4 million debut of the legal thriller Law Abiding Citizen, which had high end expectations of a $15 million bow. The session’s third national launch generated a respectable $12.2 million for the…
Read the full article »Drag Me To Hell
Sam Raimi’s 2009 horror thriller, Drag Me to Hell, feels like a remake of an old Universal horror film that never existed. The movie seems familiar while at the same time being refreshingly original in comparison to the majority of new horror films that invade the market each month. That new bugaboo, the bank loan officer,…
Read the full article »Paging Polanski
Finally, a film about hot, tattooed roller derby chicks. Whip It!, Drew Barrymore‘s directorial debut, is not just a good time at the movies, but a smart film about female empowerment and what it means to be a tough chick, even if you’re not the biggest, meanest bitch on the wheels. It’s exactly the kind of…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Drag Me to Hell, Natural Born Killers, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and more…
PICK OF THE WEEK: NEW Drag Me to Hell (Three-and-a-Half Stars) U. S.; Sam Raimi, 2009 (Universal) Drag Me to Hell, from Sam (“SpiderMan”) Raimi, is a terror fest in his Evil Dead mode and gear: a scary movie that’s really
Read the full article »The Third Annual Horrific State of the Horror Film
Each year around this time, I write a column that usually bemoans the sad state of the horror film (you can read last year’s horror column here, and 2007’sover here. It seemed for a while that the only horror films that being made, marketed and sold were “torture porn” movies like the Saw or Hostel franchise. I was never…
Read the full article »Advance to the Rear
Comedy ruled as the debut of Couples Retreat shattered expectations with an estimates $35.2 million opening to lead weekend ticket sales. The film had the unusual good fortune of being the only new national release in a session that includes holiday Mondays in Canada for its Thanksgiving as well as some Eastern states that celebrate…
Read the full article »Bronson

As a criminal, Michael Petersen could best be described as inept. As a self-made celebrity, though, the prison-hardened thug couldn’t have been more of a success … not that he didn’t get some help along the way. As depicted in Nicolas Winding Refn’s powerful profile, Bronson, Peterson was born of a bad seed and grew ever more twisted….
Read the full article »A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Film Festival
On September 9, along with many of my fellow film journalists, I packed my bags and boarded a plane to Toronto for one of the most challenging (and occasionally rewarding) film festivals we film fest junkies work all year: the Toronto International Film Festival. I’d just come off a long, hard month of helping my…
Read the full article »Good Low Art, Mediocre High Art
For me, it’s one of the most difficult questions to answer when it comes to film: would I rather see a film that aims high and fails or a film that aims low and succeeds? It’s really impossible for me to say what I would choose in general, especially with such vague terms as “high” and “low”…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Chinatown, A Hard Day’s Night and more…
PICK OF THE WEEK: NEW Anvil: The Story of Anvil (Three-and-a-Half Stars) U. S.; Sacha Gervasi, 2009 (VHI Films) This funny, sad, rockin’ little documentary is about a
Read the full article »Daze of the Dead
Zombieland sprung to life to lead weekend ticket sales with an estimated $24.8 million. The session also saw good results of $12.6 million for a 3-D combo of the Toy Story films but there were lesser signs of stamina for the comic The Invention of Lying of $7.3 million and a $4.8 million tally for…
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Edna Wilmington 1915-2009
Edna Wilmington (1915-2009). By Michael Wilmington Last Wednesday night, September 30, my mother, Edna Wilmington, died at the age of 94, several hours after being discharged from Northwestern Memorial Hospital after repeated hospital stays there, and at St. Joseph’s, for a variety of health problems. She had requested me never to send her to…
Read the full article »