Email Author Robert Wilonsky

2009 Stories by Robert Wilonsky

• Year in Film: Rent a Wreck

  published December 24, 2009

  In a Dallas strip mall, in the neighborhood George W. Bush now calls home, sits a bright and fluorescent Blockbuster that, on this cold Thursday... More >>

• Destination Unknown

  published December 17, 2009

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

• Meet the Parent

  published December 3, 2009

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

• Sinking Ship

  published November 12, 2009

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

• No Exclamation Point Necessary

  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... More >>

• Labor Pains

  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... More >>

• Not Bad for Government Work

  published August 6, 2009

  In the Loop doesn't necessarily mean you're in the know. In Armando Iannucci's movie, a satire of the run-up to war with a Middle... More >>

• Top Chef

  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... More >>

• Love Hurts

  published July 23, 2009

  On the surface, (500) Days of Summer really is no different from, oh, let's say The Proposal, in which Ryan Reynolds and... More >>

• Victim of Circumstance

  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... More >>

• Grounded

  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... More >>

• The Con's on You

  published May 28, 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 >>

• Warp Factor 10

  published May 7, 2009

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

• Violent Miscreants and Power-Tripping Sociopaths

  published April 9, 2009

  Observe and Report writer-­director Jody Hill makes mean-spirited tragedies that studios market as inane comedies because... More >>

• DreamWorks, In Your Face: Monsters vs. Aliens

  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... More >>

• Eternal Flame: I Love You, Man

  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... More >>

• The Force Is Weak with the Long-Delayed Fanboys

  published February 5, 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... More >>

• Biggie, Small

  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.... More >>