AltWeeklies Wire
Will Actor and Country Has-been Jeff Bridges Finally Snag the Elusive Oscar?new
Jeff Bridges is a physical presence who leads with his body in a way that often obscures the intelligence he lends his characters — a gallery of American manhood in all its compromised, destroyed or hopeful ambiguity.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
12-11-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
'Disgrace' Faces the Facts of Post-Apartheid South Africanew
This film adaptation of J.M. Coetzee's brilliant 1999 novel looks the chaos and hatred of postapartheid South Africa squarely in the face, probing the terrible fallout from white denial and pride without patronizing blacks by caricaturing them as noble victims.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
09-25-2009 |
Reviews
Michael Moore Sells the Same Old Shtick in 'Capitalism'new
I wish that more of the contradictions of late capitalism had made it into this scattershot, lazy slice of agitprop, which recycles Moore's usual slice-and-dice job on corporations, while bobbing a curtsey to the current crisis.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
09-24-2009 |
Reviews
Quentin Tarantino Serves Up Hitler's Head in 'Inglourious Basterds'new
Inglourious Basterds has next to nothing to do with Jews, Nazis or World War II, though Winston Churchill has a funny cameo and Joseph Goebbels a minor, if crucial, role as a twisted auteur of nationalist cinema. It's a highly entertaining, graphically bloody and woozily romantic romp.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
08-21-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Framed Like a Rembrandt, 'Everlasting Moments' Looks Great, But Misses the Big Picturenew
Lovely to look at but too slow and deliberate to get lost in, Jan Troell's Everlasting Moments is a tribute to still photography filtered through a portrait of working-class life wracked by war and want in early-20th-century Sweden.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
03-05-2009 |
Reviews
We're Just Not That Into Drew Barrymore's Latestnew
Greg Behrendt’s know-it-all bossiness may work for a putative self-help handbook, but it doesn’t set quite the right tone for a chick flick aimed at a generation of females who, whether they know it or not, have been sufficiently empowered by the women’s movement to want to direct their own lives.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
02-13-2009 |
Reviews
Michelle Williams Finds a Safe Haven With Outsider Director Kelly Reichardtnew
It's a rare bankable star who lends her name to a tiny project budgeted at $300,000 and shot over 18 days with a mostly volunteer crew by a director whose name, had Williams bothered to ask permission from her agents, would doubtless have inspired the response "Who?"
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
12-19-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'The Class': To Sir, With Attitudenew
French cinema is famously dialogue-heavy, but next to Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale, The Class qualifies hands down as the chattiest movie of the year.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
12-19-2008 |
Reviews
The Long and (Oscar-) Worthy Road to Redemption of 'The Reader'new
Like Doubt, Stephen Daldry's The Reader is low-budget, high-profile and beamed straight at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Category of High Moral Tone.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
12-12-2008 |
Reviews
'Doubt' Wags the Finger of Moral Relativismnew
With its bristling topicality, ritzy cast and the added bonus of Roger Deakins' gracefully bleak cinematography, Doubt is being squired around town as prime Oscar bait. But in Shanley’s hands, it only looks deep.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
12-12-2008 |
Reviews
'Australia': Somewhere Over the Datelinenew
You don't have to have been raised on colonial Brit Lit, classic melodramas, Westerns, war movies, or Gone With the Wind to predict the likely outcome of Baz Luhrmann's Australia within its first 15 minutes, but any or all of the above will help.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
12-01-2008 |
Reviews
'Bolt' is a Starry Dog Storynew
As I laughed my head off, I wondered what it means that children's movies have become the playground for Hollywood's self-loathing.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
11-21-2008 |
Reviews
'A Christmas Tale' is Ecstatically Bitchynew
Arnaud Desplechin comes home for the horror days.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
11-14-2008 |
Reviews
From Manchester to Mumbai with Danny Boylenew
He wanted to make a movie from inside, and he's succeeded with Slumdog Millionaire, a vibrant, fast-paced, gorgeously mounted and soulful Oliver Twist makeover about Jamal, an inner-city youth who reaches the finals of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
11-14-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'Ballast': Weight of the Worldnew
Taking measure of Lance Hammer's Sundance-awarded drama.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
11-07-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Ballast, Lance Hammer
