AltWeeklies Wire
Just Ask John Keats: Love Happensnew
Jane Campion's Bright Star, about the love affair between the tubercular poet John Keats and girl-next-door Fanny Brawne, recasts the old stanza in chaste but voluptuous terms.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
09-26-2009 |
Reviews
'Taking Woodstock': A Garden of Earthly Delightsnew
The director of Brokeback Mountain looks for peace and love in another decade and finds it at the legendary festival with the story of one key participant.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
08-28-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Taking Woodstock, Ang Lee
Quentin Tarantino Talks About Rewriting the Spaghetti Western With a Side of Sour Krautsnew
Here's the thing about interviewing Quentin Tarantino: His need to talk about movies is irrepressible. His insatiable hunger dominates the conversation, and his knowledge of and fascination with the work of other filmmakers are as intense and intimate as his reflections on his own career.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
08-20-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
'Tetro' Aspires to Opera but Plays Like a Power Balladnew
Francis Ford Coppola's latest is by no means as tragically ambitious as Youth Without Youth, thus it makes much less of a mess when it collapses under its own weight as Youth Without Youth does. In fact, what hampers Tetro is not its surfeit of ideas and narrative impenetrability but, rather, its insufficiency of thematic hooks and dramatic content.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
08-20-2009 |
Reviews
'Shorts' Offers Postmodern Fun for the Kidsnew
A magic wishing rock becomes the undoing of an entire community in this appealing new kids romp from Robert Rodriguez.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
08-20-2009 |
Reviews
'The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard': Buyer, Bewarenew
Jeremy Piven stars in this swift-moving, cynical, equal-opportunity offender about a team of used-car liquidators.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
08-14-2009 |
Reviews
'Little Ashes': Once Upon a Time in Madridnew
Robert Pattinson costars as Salvador Dalí in this sexually speculative history of the artist's student years spent with friends, Federico García Lorca and Luis Buñuel.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
08-06-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Little Ashes, Paul Morrison
'The Cove': What Hath 'Flipper' Wrought?new
This marvelously made agitprop documentary exposes the dark secrets that underpin the world’s dolphin mania.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
08-06-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Louie Psihoyos, The Cove
'The Stoning of Soraya M.' Preaches to the Choirnew
This impassioned work of persuasion is like a splatter film made for the Lifetime network, a screed against stoning made for audiences who already agree.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
07-30-2009 |
Reviews
In 'The Ugly Truth,' Even the Vibrating Underpants Are on Autopilotnew
In this formulaic battle of the sexes, no one will be mistaking Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler for Hepburn and Tracy.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
07-23-2009 |
Reviews
This 'Merry Gentleman' Is a Hit Man and Former Batmannew
Michael Keaton directed and stars in this glum story about a suicidal hit man and the woman who may save him or prove to be his undoing.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
07-16-2009 |
Reviews
The Good Girl Returns in Jennifer Aniston's New Filmnew
This romantic comedy about an emotionally stunted saleswoman and her loopy stalker strains credibility.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
07-03-2009 |
Reviews
'Whatever Works': Confessions of a Cranky Misanthropenew
Though Larry David makes for a good Woody Allen avatar, consider our enthusiasm for Whatever Works curbed.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
07-03-2009 |
Reviews
The Latest 'Transformers' Ups the Ante on Big and Dumbnew
Revenge of the Fallen might not be louder than its predecessor, but it's assuredly "noisier" in the sense that the film is a clanging, full-metal racket from start to finish, with only the rare narrative pause for dramatic scenes devoted to exclusively human interactions.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
06-26-2009 |
Reviews
'Away We Go': A Journey Through Life With Baggagenew
See it for the many lovely performances, although the film's vision of Gen-Y nesting is liable to leave you up a tree.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
06-19-2009 |
Reviews
