AltWeeklies Wire
Darabont Turns King Novella into Instant-Classic Horror Picture
It took director Frank Darabont writing a better ending for Stephen King's 1980 novella before he could tackle making the best legitimate horror movie to come out in years.
'Lions for Lambs' is Years Behind the Times
Overtly pedantic and overstrained, Tom Cruise's first undertaking as co-head of United Artists is a politically top-heavy triptych of simultaneous political conversations made all the more cumbersome due to its extravagant cast.
Tags: Lions for Lambs, Robert Redford
The Coen Brothers Go West
After a string of disappointing projects, Joel and Ethan Coen have hit cinematic paydirt with Cormac McCarthy's 2003 western crime novel No Country for Old Men.
'Rails & Ties' is Too Predictable
Alison Eastwood makes a tentative directorial debut with a made-for-TV-quality script by tin-eared Mickey Levy.
Tags: Alison Eastwood, Rails & Ties
'Gone Baby Gone' Feels Like Two Narratives Pasted Together
For his directing debut Ben Affleck adapts a Dennis Lehane novel that resists being converted into the usual three-act structure like a circle being jammed into a square.
Tags: Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone
'Wristcutters: A Love Story' is Wretched
This film takes such an arch tone by tacitly endorsing suicide that it spends most of its time in narrative freefall.
The Future of Joe Strummer on Film
Julien Temple, the director of the notable Sex Pistols documentary Filth and the Fury, proves he's the right man to make a documentary about the Clash's late frontman.
'Lars and the Real Girl' is Surprisingly Touching
Screenwriter Nancy Oliver has crafted a romantic story about a lonely introvert who discovers an ad hoc method of self-therapy in the guise of an anatomically correct silicone love doll.
'Martian Child' is a New Magical Realist Film
It focuses on the primal fear of abandonment of a young orphaned boy named Dennis (Bobby Coleman) who professes to be from Mars.
Tags: Martian Child, Menno Meyjes
'Paranoid Park': Nothing Happens
Paranoid Park may be the best of the Van Sant's last four films, but that isn't saying much.
Tags: Gus Van Sant, Paranoid Park
'American Gangster' Doesn't Rise to the Level of 'Scarface'
Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe deliver inspired performances as rivals from opposite sides of the law in director Ridley Scott's true-crime epic.
Tags: American Gangster, Ridley Scott
SUVs and Other Junk: Benicio Del Toro Works Alone
Same old story: foreign director (in this case Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier) makes an American debut movie that goes flop with a resounding clamor.
'Terror's Advocate'
Only director Barbet Schroeder (General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait) could capture this complex and engaging look at French lawyer Jacques Verges, the man who represented such villains as Nazi Klaus Barbie and cafe bomber Djamila Bouhired, who Verges married and had two children before vanishing for eight years.
Taken Away: U.S. Export Torture Policy Takes a Beating
After overblown stories of walkouts by critics during its Toronto film festival debut, Rendition proves to have enough substance, momentum and drama to validate its entertainment value as a politically charged thriller.
Tags: Gavin Hood, rendition
Shekhar Kapur's 'Elizabeth' Sequel Tarnishes
Disappointment seeps through every element of director Shekhar Kapur's ineffectual sequel to his superior 1998 precursor Elizabeth, which introduced the world to the exceptional acting abilities of Cate Blanchett.
