Nobel Son.

"Anyone who suffered through the Tarantino knockoffs of the 1990s knows that no filmic crime caper will run smoothly, but director and co-writer Randall Miller is so ill at ease with the basic building blocks of the genre that Nobel Son quickly announces itself as one of those misbegotten clunkers where almost every creative decision isn't just wrong but tone-deaf," writes Tim Grierson in the Voice.

"[I]t's a darkly comic farce on the order of the Coens' overhated Burn After Reading," writes Matt Prigge in the Philadelphia Weekly, "a bloody, twisty-turny satire on a very American brand of greed, egocentrism and excess. This year didn't need another one of these films, much less one as banal as the rest of Miller's output."

"Like many contemporary genre flicks, the new movie features a hyperactive visual style that owes its tricks and tics, smeared images and staccato cuts to art-house exploitation like City of God and latter-day Tony Scott, but without the commensurate technical finesse," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times.

"Because the critic at Variety said what I wanted to say before I could say it, I will use his exact words," announces Charles Mudede in the Stranger: "'Accusing Nobel Son of being over-the-top is like complaining the circus is too colorful.' Nobel Son is way over-the-circus-top, and that's the best thing about it."

"The first 20 or so minutes of Nobel Son are borderline unwatchable," grants Joe Leydon in the Houston Chronicle. "[A]nd, truth to tell, it's hard to argue that the rest of the movie offers adequate payback for any movie goer who refuses to bail out early. If you do stick around, however, you likely will be pleasantly surprised, if not immensely grateful, as genuinely clever substance emerges from the thick fog of frenetically overheated style."

"Nobel Son sadistically resurrects the Tarantino knockoff - an unloved, foul-mouthed little bastard of a subgenre that should now go away forever," growls Nathan Rabin at the AV Club.

"Just in time for year-end 'worst movie' lists comes Nobel Son, a movie far too confident in its own cleverness and charm, two elements it lacks in abundance." At MSNBC, Alonso Duralde enumerates "several rules this idiotic time-waster violates."

"Nobel Son loosely straps a story of family disappointment and academic jealousy to a juiced-up caper flick and then speeds off on its way," writes Robert Abele in the Los Angeles Times. "What comes next is a movie with moments of vengeance-filled enjoyment but also a sense of tonal haphazardness."

For IFC, Aaron Hillis sits down with Alan Rickman "over tequila drinks to shoot the breeze about smart people and accolades that really mean something."

Online listening tip. Movie Geeks United! talks with Rickman.

Posted by dwhudson at December 5, 2008 7:14 AM