AltWeeklies Wire
The Epic, Overstuffed 'Inglourious Basterds' is WWII Through a Tarantino Lensnew
Tarantino is more interested in tailoring the WWII movie to fit his preoccupations than the other way around. He even manages to satisfy his foot fetish by having an errant high heel play a pivotal role in the climactic sequence.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
08-25-2009 |
Reviews
'Bruno' Fails to Detonate With the Force of its Predecessornew
The movie's provocations connect only fitfully, and despite its comparatively strong narrative, it feels less of a piece than Borat, and more like an overlong episode of Sacha Baron Cohen's TV show.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
07-14-2009 |
Reviews
Pixar's 'Up' Starts out Strong but Falls Flatnew
Up's striking opening sequence is a tremendous passage, one that the rest of the movie, perhaps not surprisingly, fails to live up to.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
06-02-2009 |
Reviews
'Sunshine Cleaning' Is Too Neatnew
Mystifyingly buzzed-about at Sundance 2008, Christine Jeffs' Sunshine Cleaning is a serviceable but none-too-distinct take on the second-chance story. Also reviewed: The Edge of Love.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
03-24-2009 |
Reviews
Daydream Believer: 'Waltz With Bashir'new
Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman reconstructs a tragedy using animations and his own experiences as a grunt soldier.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
01-27-2009 |
Reviews
'Benjamin Button' Looks Cool, but Is That Reason Enough to Care?new
Unfortunately, Benjamin's aging process isn't the only thing the movie gets backward. Despite all the care lavished on its execution, it never manages to be about anything more than its own gimmickry.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
12-30-2008 |
Reviews
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman Gets His Chance in the Director's Chairnew
The movies made from Kaufman's scripts often suffer from a certain airlessness, plunging deeper and deeper into a world with no center. Synecdoche, which takes its name from a literary device in which a part is substituted for the whole, takes that centerlessness as its central theme.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
11-11-2008 |
Reviews
'The Lucky Ones' and 'Flow': Water Worldsnew
Another flick plays it safe with the Iraq war, while the emerging global water crisis offers real scares.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
09-29-2008 |
Reviews
The Coen Brothers Switch It Up for Their 'No Country' Follow-upnew
At first blush, Joel and Ethan Coen's high-grade farce Burn After Reading feels like an abrupt, if not unwelcome, about-face from the moral sobriety of No Country for Old Men.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
09-16-2008 |
Reviews
Blacklisted Scribe Dalton Trumbo Finds His Way onto the Big Screennew
Adapting Christopher Trumbo's stage play, Peter Askin's Trumbo pays tribute to blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in his own words — but not the words you'd expect.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
08-19-2008 |
Reviews
Fatih Akin Returns to Fiction in 'The Edge of Heaven'new
Over the course of two features, one documentary and a handful of shorts, Akin has devoted himself to depicting the lives of Turks within present-day Germany, and the complicated relationship between the two countries.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
07-31-2008 |
Reviews
'The Last Mistress' Frames Intense Performances with Relative Restrainnew
Although it's based on a scandalous 19th-century novel by Jules-Amedee Barbey d'Aurevilly, Catherine Breillat's film makes few concessions to the conventions of costume drama.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
07-22-2008 |
Reviews
Christophe Honore's Menage-a-trois Musical Hits All the Right Notesnew
The characters in Love Songs live life at such an animated pitch that you almost don't notice when they begin to sing.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
06-24-2008 |
Reviews
Norah Jones Wanders Through 'My Blueberry Nights' in a Dazenew
This is Wong Kar-Wai's first movie in a decade to be set in the present day, but it still feels as if it were retrieved from some other time and place.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
04-21-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: My Blueberry Nights, Wong Kar-Wai
Courting Dangernew
Aristocrats play complicated mating games in The Duchess of Langeais.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
04-01-2008 |
Reviews
