John C. Reilly

Latest Articles

Review: Carnage

Claustrophobic close encounters
As befits someone with jail time hanging over his head, Roman Polanski does his best work in close quarters. From Knife in the Water , to Repulsion , to The Tenant and The Pianist , he's a master of claustrophobic close encounters, and as such has a good time adapting Yasmin Reza's play, God of Carnage .
By PETER KEOUGH | January 10, 2012

Review: Terri

Subtle, sweet, and eccentric
Credit indie director Azazel Jacobs for building a case for Terri, so that — without manipulation or sentimentality — we begin to appreciate the clumsy lad at the same time that he starts to shed his self-loathing.
By GERALD PEARY | July 12, 2011

Review: Cedar Rapids

Conventional wisdom
In his fourth film, aspiring maverick director Miguel Arteta ( Chuck & Buck ; Youth in Revolt ) follows Capra deeper into the cornfield with this slyly complex and broadly comic farce about innocence, corruption, and the gray areas between.
By PETER KEOUGH | February 16, 2011

Review: Cyrus

Umbilical discord: The Duplass Brothers get Oedipal
Helicoptering parents and stay-at-home adult children have been popular issues of late, and at first, the Duplass Brothers' third feature (and their first made with a studio) seems poised to exploit them.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 28, 2010

Interview: Mark and Jay Duplass

The Cyrus writer-directors keep it simple
"We took our caveman process and our telepathic speak and we had to learn how to share it with 70 crew members and a studio . . . "
By PETER KEOUGH | June 23, 2010

Review: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Harry Potter it ain’t, but it’s fun all the same.
You’ve seen it all before: a boy with a special destiny tangles with the occult and gets sucked out of his normal life and into the twilight realm of the supernatural, in the process setting the stage for paranormal war between good and evil.
By SHAULA CLARK | October 28, 2009

Interview: Lars von Trier of Antichrist

The director on the redeeming qualities of Antichrist
Maybe it’s the blurring effect of the Skype technology through which I’m interviewing him as he sits worried and Buddha-like in his headquarters in Denmark (he has a phobia about airplanes, among other things), but Lars von Trier seems like an okay guy.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 02, 2009

October lite

The outlook is still gloomy, but film finds time for childish things
We expected the vampires, the werewolves, the zombies, and the homicidal maniacs. Same thing with the android doubles, the alien abductors, the sexually abused pregnant teenager, the Apocalypse, and the post-Apocalypse. But kids' movies?
By PETER KEOUGH | September 17, 2009

Step Brothers

Farting sets the standard of good taste
Step Brothers should answer any doubts as to whether Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are cinema’s reigning lovable losers.
By TOM MEEK | July 23, 2008

The Promotion

A bumpy seesaw ride
Reilly is an actor who excels at both realism and caricature — too bad the director doesn’t have the chops to take advantage either way.
By BETSY SHERMAN | June 11, 2008

Oddballs and noisemakers

Looking back 20 years to the Pixies' Surfer Rosa and the beginning of the Best Music Poll
Twenty years ago, the American Top 40 was nothing like Boston’s live music scene.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | May 07, 2008

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Easy jokes? Absolutely
Stupid? Sure, but laced with a strange sense of logic.
By BRETT MICHEL | December 19, 2007

Yule appeal

Aimee Mann’s Christmas show hits the road
Aimee Mann has written many songs about heroin addiction so it’s pretty remarkable — even comic — that she launched a Christmas variety show last year.
By COLE HADDON | December 10, 2007

Rock and roles

Dewey Cox and Rufus Wainwright
A good number of the jokes in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story are available for your amusement right now, well ahead of the film’s December 21 theatrical-release date.
By MIKAEL WOOD | December 04, 2007

Stand-up guys

Tim and Eric’s 15 minutes
“In the sphere of thought, absurdity and perversity remain the masters of the world,” wrote Schopenhauer, “and their dominion is suspended only for brief periods.”
By MIKE MILIARD | December 04, 2007

Sending in the clowns

Deer Tick’s whiskey-guzzling theater
It sounds like John McCauley hasn’t had a sip of water in months.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | October 31, 2007

Year of the Dog

Not too mangy
There’s almost nothing sadder than neglected dogs awaiting their fates.
By BRETT MICHEL | April 18, 2007

Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny

For hardcore fans
I’m a Jack Black fan — let’s get that out of the way. Watch the trailer for Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (QuickTime)
By BRETT MICHEL | November 21, 2006

Blue movie?

Talladega Nights will have some seeing red
Despite what the people behind Talladega Nights might tell you, the film makes its target audience — NASCAR fans, rednecks, Red Staters of various descriptions — look like a bunch of idiots. Watch the trailer for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (QuickTime) Ferrell behavior: The star of Talladega Nights drives a hard bargain. By Peter Keough
By PETER KEOUGH | August 04, 2006