Inquirer Columnist - Carrie Rickey http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey RSS Feed for Inq Col Carrie Rickey en-us Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:02:15 GMT Our critics' selections http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20091107_Our_critics__selections.html An Education Carey Mulligan shines as the Oxford-bound honors student courted by a mysterious suitor twice her age (Peter Sarsgaard) in this resonant story directed by Lone Scherfig from Lynn Barber's memoir. PG-13 Nice effects, but spirit needs to visit http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20091106_Nice_effects__but_spirit_needs_to_visit.html As Ebenezer Scrooge (not to mention The Grinch), Jim Carrey aims to put a lump of coal in the Christmas stocking and a lump of emotion in the throat. That he fails is not for lack of effort. A South African tale in living color http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20091106_A_South_African_tale_in_living_color.html Based on the improbable-but-true saga of Sandra Laing, the dark-complected daughter of light-complected Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era, Skin is a surreal melodrama of arbitrary racial labeling that estranged a woman from herself, her family of origin, and the father of her children. Our critics' selections http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20091031_Our_critics__selections.html Coco Before Chanel In Anne Fontaine's portrait of the influential designer, Audrey Tautou, the fetching gamine of Amélie, is the determined and prickly peasant who would dress princesses. PG-13 Jackson’s moves star in “This Is It” http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20091028_Jacksons_moves_star_in_This_Is_It.html Michael Jackson's This Is It looks beyond the reconstructed face and spindly body of the late King of Pop and basks in his meteoric light. Our critics' selections http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20091024_Our_critics__selections.html Coco Before Chanel In Anne Fontaine's portrait of the influential designer, Audrey Tautou, the fetching gamine of Amélie, is the determined and prickly peasant who would dress princesses. PG-13 Swank shares Amelia Earhart's derring-do http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20091025_Swank_shares_Amelia_Earhart_s_derring-do.html NEW YORK - On screen, Hilary Swank incarnates the larger-than-life Amelia Earhart, pioneering aviatrix, as a towering figure. Yet in life the two-time Oscar winner, 35, is of medium height, slim as a tulip stem. Swank soars as flier Amelia Earhart http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20091023_Swank_soars_as_flier_Amelia_Earhart.html In The Aviator, Martin Scorsese mythologized Howard Hughes as a 20th-century Icarus who, scorched by the sun, plummeted to earth. In Amelia, director Mira Nair presents Amelia Earhart, legendary aviatrix, as a female Odysseus who navigates uncharted territory while a patient spouse knits his brow until she returns. A timeless tale about life's choices http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20091023_A_timeless_tale_about_life_s_choices.html Disarming and unexpectedly poignant, An Education contrasts the knowledge learned inx school with that learned from life. The pupil in question is Jenny, a 16-year-old honors student circa 1961 at a girls' prep school in Twickenham, a middle-class London suburb, who is destined for Oxford. Our critics' selections http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/carrie_rickey/20091017_Our_critics__selections.html Bright Star Jane Campion's ecstatic ode to tubercular Romantic poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his muse, robust Regency fashion plate Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), is intimate as a whisper and timeless as first love. PG