AltWeeklies Wire
Manny Farber, 1917-2008new
As a critic, Farber advocated more modest, elemental "termite art" — throwaway B movies, Westerns and, later on, important works of European and experimental cinema that he found sui generis, teeming with life, and more invested in individual moments than grandiose objectives
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
08-29-2008 |
Movies
If Only 'Tropic Thunder' Were as Naughty as the P.C. Protesters Complainnew
Tropic Thunder arrives in theaters hyped, virally marketed and decreed by no less an authority than The New York Times as the naughtiest little studio release of the summer-movie season.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
08-18-2008 |
Reviews
Javier Makes Whoopee With Scarlett, Rebecca and Penelopenew
Leave it to Woody Allen to make a romantic comedy in which all the major players end up either single, homicidal or trapped in safe, boring marriages, and where the closest thing to a blissful relationship is a short-lived ménage à trois.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
08-18-2008 |
Reviews
Woody Allen's European Vacation: 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'new
He lived the young man's dream in Spain; next, he directs Larry David in NYC and Puccini for L.A. Opera.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
08-18-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'Swing Vote': Bud, Wisernew
Kevin Costner stars as the world's least interesting man.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
08-01-2008 |
Reviews
Miss Mulder and Scully? Watch the Re-runsnew
The truth is still out there, like an unsold lawn chair at a garage sale, in this just plain lousy second big-screen outing for erstwhile FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-25-2008 |
Reviews
'Step Brothers': Blended Family Valuesnew
Director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell relish working on an absurdist high wire, and the whole point of their movies isn't how any one scene relates to another but rather how much they can chip away at the logic that holds most movies together. Baghead also reviews.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-25-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Heath Ledger Cements His Legend Playing Nemesis to Christian Bale's Gotham City Heronew
What a brooding pleasure it is to return to Nolan's Gotham City -- if pleasure is the right word for a movie that gazes so deeply and sometimes despairingly into the souls of restless men.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-18-2008 |
Reviews
Controversy at Cannes: 'The Headless Woman'new
At Cannes, one can reliably emerge from seeing a near masterpiece only to discover that everyone -- or at least the influential industry trade newspapers -- has declared the very same movie une catastrophe! Such is the case with The Headless Woman.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-30-2008 |
Movies
Norwegian Pie: Joachim Trier's 'Reprise'new
Like their American youth-movie counterparts, the 20-something guy friends of Norwegian director Trier's Reprise spend a lot of time talking about and clumsily pursuing the fairer sex. Only, his characters are as much (or more) concerned with getting published as getting laid.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-30-2008 |
Reviews
Van Morrison Once Again Ventures Into the Slipstreamnew
What has eluded Morrison in recent years -- and what the famously press-skeptical artist has certainly done nothing to court -- is a galvanizing, buzz-worthy, late-career "comeback" on the order of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan or Neil Diamond.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-27-2008 |
Reviews
Cannes Comebacks: Our Midfestival Reportnew
Call Mike Tyson, Jerzy Skolimowski and Terence Davies the comeback kids.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-27-2008 |
Movies
Indiana Ford ... and the Kingdom of Lucas and Spielbergnew
A proudly analog artifact exhumed and dusted off for our digital age, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is no less of a search for lost time on the part of its primary creators, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, but likely for much of the audience too.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-27-2008 |
Reviews
Jon Favreau's 'Iron Man' Has a Heartnew
Rather than cutting directly to the chase, it takes its time to involve us in the characters, who are relatively three-dimensional as comic book movies go, and who are played by the kinds of actors who know how to make a lot out of not very much.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-02-2008 |
Reviews
Thomas McCarthy Revisits 'The Station'new
Like The Station Agent, The Visitor opens in a state of mourning, with 62-year-old economics professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) staring longingly out the window of his Connecticut home, wine glass in hand, while a solemn piano sonata plays on the soundtrack.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
04-11-2008 |
Reviews
