AltWeeklies Wire

'Borat' Director Debunks Religion with Bill Maher in 'Religulous'

Bill Maher takes a shooting-fish-in-a-barrel approach to questioning the validity of all religious beliefs and comes up with a cinematic breath of fresh air.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-30-2008  |  Reviews

Gen Z Goes Underground and Falls in Love

A romantic love letter to New York's downtown music scene, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist finds New Jersey high school senior Nick (Michael Cera) attending to a bruised heart by making volumes of compilation CDs for his snooty ex-girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dziena).
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-29-2008  |  Reviews

'Miracle at St. Anna' Shows War Isn't the Genre for Spike Lee

Spike Lee boxes outside of his directorial weight-class with a war story bogged down by ham-handed smacks of magical realism and over-pronounced examples of racial prejudice.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-22-2008  |  Reviews

'Elite Squad' Examines Brazil's Special Police

After the humane tenor of writer/director Jose Padilha's insightful documentary Bus 174 (2002), it's surprising that the filmmaker's follow-up in an all-out, right-wing exploitation movie about Rio de Janeiro's brutal BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) squad of assassins that view all social strata of Brazilians as human detritus.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

'Choke': Against the Mainstream

In adapting Chuck Palahnuik's novel of sexual addiction, con artistry, and subjugated maturity screenwriter/director/actor Clark Gregg creates a fantastical brand of satire that is engaging as it is diabolically ribald.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

Expect a Different Kind of Happy Ending in 'Year of the Fish'

Year of the Fish is a tawdry tale about a Chinese immigrant girl sold into Manhattan massage parlor servitude.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

'Humboldt County': In Pot He Trusts

Peter (Jeremy Strong) is a repressed UCLA med student who finds his inner voice after spending time in the nurturing company of some Northern California pot farmers in an inspired independent comic drama filled with nuanced performances and delicate narrative touches.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

Spike Lee Tries is His Hand at War in 'Miracle at St. Anna'

Lee boxes outside of his directorial weight-class with a war story bogged down with ham-handed smacks of magical realism and over-pronounced examples of racial prejudice.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

'Obscene': The Rise and Fall of Barney Rosset

Debut filmmakers Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor tell the dynamic story of Rosset's iconic rise and fall as the owner of Grove Press and Evergreen Review, responsible for publishing such 20th century literary icons as Allen Ginsberg, Samuel Beckett, Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, Malcolm X, and Jack Kerouac.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

'Battle In Seattle' Examines the WTO

A searing fictionalized telling of America's most recently effective public protest at 1999's WTO convention in Seattle, writer/director Stuart Townsend's debut feature makes a point of tracing the WTO's global stranglehold to its post WWII roots.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

Avoid 'Towelhead'

As its openly racist title implies Towelhead is an exploitation movie that wears its shock value on its guilty sleeve.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

'Mister Foe' Tries to Come of Age

Quirky for its own sake, Mister Foe (originally titled Hallum Foe) is an opaque attempt at a coming-of-age-via-modified-incest story that follows malcontent Hallam (Jamie Bell) after the suspicious death of his mother lands another woman (Claire Forlani) in his filthy rich father's bed.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

'The Women' Misses the Mark

Piecemeal and earnest to a fault, this remake of George Cukor's 1939 film relies so much on the elite world of humorless, filthy rich New York women that it excludes most of its would-be target fans.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

'Burn After Reading': The Coens Serve Up Laughs

The writing/directing team of Joel and Ethan Coen create a laugh-a-minute black comedy that pokes fun at America's surveillance-dominated existence, plastic surgery desires, and all out greed.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

'Igor': A Monster Mash

John Cusack is the voice of Igor, a hunchbacked laboratory assistant to the doomed mad scientist Dr. Glickenstein (voiced by John Cleese) in this irresistible feel-good animated comedy that's rooted in early monster movie classics.
Maui Time  |  Cole Smithey  |  09-11-2008  |  Reviews

Narrow Search

Author

Category

Narrow by Date

  • Last 7 Days
  • Last 30 Days
  • Select a Date Range