AltWeeklies Wire
Chris Rock in a Hard Placenew
The comedian faces a classic African-American dilemma.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
04-26-2010 |
Reviews
The Bad Lieutenant Gone Wildnew
When I first read about Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, it was described as a sequel to Abel Ferrara's 1992 cult favorite about a drug- and gambling-addicted police detective in New York City. When I next read about it, it was described as a remake. Now that I've seen it, I can report that it's neither.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
11-23-2009 |
Reviews
'The Baader Meinhof Complex' Reveals a Journalist Who Went Over the Edgenew
The most complex character in the movie, the one who provides the viewer with an entry point into this hothouse of violent fanatics, is herself a journalist -- Ulrike Meinhof, a columnist for the left-wing magazine Konkret who stunned her family and colleagues in May 1970 by throwing in with a cadre of self-styled revolutionaries.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
09-14-2009 |
Reviews
'You, the Living': Everything's Funnier With Weltanschauungnew
Perspective is what separates the brilliant You, the Living, a Swedish import, from the mediocre The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, which Paramount snuck into theaters last week without any timely press screenings.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
08-24-2009 |
Reviews
The World's War, One Man's Battlenew
In Masaki Kobayashi's ten-hour World War II epic, the first casualty is compassion.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
05-18-2009 |
Reviews
'Harvard Beats Yale 29-29': For a Moment, Football Was the Worldnew
Forty years later, players remember the Harvard-Yale game of 1968 in the context of a nation in turmoil.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
02-23-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: football, College, history, documentary, 1960s, Harvard, Harvard Beats Yale 29-29, Kevin Rafferty, Yale
Family, for Better or for Worse: Abdellatif Kechiche's 'The Secret of the Grain'new
Abdellatif Kechiche’s third feature is the slow-building saga of an Arab clan in the south of France.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
01-26-2009 |
Reviews
Gus Van Sant's 'Milk' is Itself a Political Actnew
Milk hits theaters amid a renewed debate over the place of homosexuals in American life. Whether the cause will help the film is anyone's guess, but there seems little doubt that the film will help the cause.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
12-02-2008 |
Reviews
In 'Let the Right One In,' the Suburban Setting is Part of the Scarenew
The juxtaposition of vampire lore and mundane reality is especially powerful in this Swedish import. Set in a dank suburb of Stockholm, it proves once again that horror stories can be even more frightening when exposed to a little daylight.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
11-24-2008 |
Reviews
Smart Guy Bill Maher Makes a Dumb Movie About Religionnew
Maher's first film project, Religulous, is a major disappointment because here, unlike on Real Time, he aims for laughs instead of insight -- and aims low.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
10-06-2008 |
Reviews
'The Lucky Ones': The War Over Therenew
The latest movie about Iraq vets is provocative -- but do Americans want to be provoked?
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
09-29-2008 |
Reviews
'Lakeview Terrace' is One of the Toughest Racial Dramas Hollywood's Seen Since Rodney Kingnew
By scrambling the typical power relationship Lakeview Terrace focuses our attention on power itself, and by plunging into the subject of black bigotry, still relatively taboo in mainstream movies, it gets us closer to the truth of bigotry in all its forms than we're liable to get watching another pious exercise in white atonement.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
09-22-2008 |
Reviews
'Frozen River' Manages to Play Economic Hardship for Suspensenew
If Frozen River is accurate in portraying how the other half lives, its most unpleasant truth may be that the other half often divides again, the top quarter exploiting the bottom quarter.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
08-18-2008 |
Reviews
'The Dark Knight': Batman for the 21st Centurynew
It's not just about good and evil anymore -- it's about order and chaos.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
07-21-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
'The Wackness': The Coming-of-age Story You've Heard Beforenew
Watching Jonathan Levine's funny, sincere tale of a Manhattan B-boy navigating an inappropriate relationship with his middle-aged shrink while falling hard for the man's stepdaughter, I kept wondering where I'd seen it before. Oh, The Graduate.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
07-14-2008 |
Reviews
