AltWeeklies Wire
Wanting More from 'Indiana Jones'new
There are good things and indifferent things throughout this enterprise by the two richest directors who ever lived, but most of the best (and worst) moments work from surprise, which reviews have already splashed across the media consciousness.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
05-21-2008 |
Reviews
Heavy Meta: Smiling Through 'Iron Man'new
Neither narcotic nor hallucinatory in form, Favreau's film still bestows behavior and awareness and small smirking joys within the display of the genius of a self-involved id-on-the-run, tactile, motile, in-the-moment Robert Downey, Jr.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
05-07-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Jon Favreau, Iron Man
Errol Morris and the Aesthetics of Evidencenew
While the endlessly loquacious and deeply political director has made a film about Abu Ghraib and the secondary victims (those who were punished of low rank and those of higher rank who created the atmosphere where such violations were possible were not), he's more interested in dissecting the meaning of photography.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
04-30-2008 |
Reviews
Life's Never What You Expect in 'Young@Heart'new
The story of a Massachusetts senior citizens' choir -- where the minimum age is 73 -- is funny, blunt and often moving.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
04-16-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Stephen Walker, Young@Heart
Talking 'Blueberry Nights' with Wong Kar-Wainew
Directors rarely indulge in wholesale revision of their work; so-called director's cuts going back to a baggier version of what's in the theaters, yes, but a wholesale rethinking, no. But Wong Kar-Wai seems to have done it on almost every project he's tackled.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
04-16-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: My Blueberry Nights, Wong Kar-Wai
Will a Critics' Dearth Hurt Hard Films?new
What if a movie like Stop-Loss falls in the forest and there are no crickets there to chirp its praises?
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
04-02-2008 |
Movies
What Does 'Look' Show?new
There are many salient points and lasting fears under the conceit of a movie told entirely from the perspective of spy-cams, but Rifkin's film doesn't rise above its gimmick.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
03-26-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Adam Rifkin, Look
Talking 'Married Life' with Ira Sachs and Chris Coopernew
The four friends in Sachs' mix of drama, dark comedy and a couple of scenes of genial whimsy, are lucid about some things but reserved about others.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
03-12-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Ira Sachs, Married Life
Considering 'Chicago 10' in the Present Momentnew
The fanciful documentary intercuts events on the streets of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic Convention and a re-creation of the "Chicago Seven" trial of Yippie leaders Abbie Hoffman, Rennie Davis, Jerry Rubin and others.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
02-27-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Brett Morgen, Chicago 10
Where is the Glamour?new
At Oscar time, there's subterranean industry at work with every appearance, at every instant of elegant display: fashion designers, dressers, hairstylists, makeup artists, so that George Clooney gleams and Nicole Kidman absorbs no light.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
02-20-2008 |
Movies
'Be Kind Rewind': Utopian Tourette'snew
Michel Gondry says what's on his mind.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
02-20-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Michel Gondry, Be Kind Rewind
'Diary of the Dead' Goes for the Headshotnew
Diary had its U.S. debut at Sundance in January and was easily one of the fiercest pictures on show. In fact, I'm not aware of any fiction features that might hold such sting.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
02-13-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
The Small 4 Months is as Big as Lifenew
You could diagram the content, the visual grammar, the momentous performances of Cristian Mungiu's Cannes Palme d'Or-winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days like a simple, lengthy sentence, and yet what remains awe-inspiring is the sensation you're left with when it's over: how on earth did he do this?
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
02-06-2008 |
Reviews
'Cloverfield''s 9/11 Infelicitiesnew
Last weekend's $46-million top-grosser essentially says that its characters and, by extension, its paying audience, deserves to be killed: New Yorkers, Americans, Abrams' target demographic. I never thought I would see a movie made in the United States that was so gung-ho about 9/11.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
01-23-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Cloverfield, Matt Reeves
Kicking 'The Bucket List'new
Rob Reiner does something almost unthinkable: he makes Jack Nicholson painful to watch.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
01-09-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Rob Reiner, The Bucket List
