AltWeeklies Wire
'Wolf' gnaws over sexual predators in church, but fails to tackle the hardest questionsnew
The drama of a dutiful boy abused in church, Wolf was written and directed by a local kid who made good.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
08-02-2012 |
Reviews
Woody Allen’s Italian midsummer night's sex comedy finishes firstnew
Woody Allen, who once declared, “I am at two with nature,” is smitten with great cities. New York is his first and enduring love, but in recent years he has also flirted with London (Match Point), Barcelona (Vicki Cristina Barcelona), and Paris (Midnight in Paris).
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
07-16-2012 |
Reviews
'Wings': Made-in-SA Academy Award winner still thrillsnew
The same qualities that sent movie moguls to southern California in the second decade of the 20th century — plentiful sunshine, cheap land and labor, varied landscapes — also made South Texas a promising mecca for cinema.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
05-28-2012 |
Reviews
'In Darkness' finds humanity plumbing the sewers of Lvovnew
The darkness that pervades Agnieszka Holland's new film is figurative and physical. In Darkness (nominated to a Best Foreign Film Oscar) begins with a bungled burglary attempted under cover of night.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
04-02-2012 |
Reviews
Film Review: War Horsenew
Horses came galloping across the screen in the very first narrative film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), and it was a horse that Eadweard Muybridge photographed in the 1880s in still frames that, strung together, pioneered the illusion of motion pictures.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
12-23-2011 |
Reviews
Hazanavicius’ ode to cinema is a colorful story in black and whitenew
Disturbed that their marriage is falling apart, Doris Valentin (Penelope Ann Miller) says to her husband, “We have to talk, George.” However, George (Jean Dujardin) cannot talk, not merely because he is a defective spouse or even because he is a star of the silent screen; George does not speak to Doris, or anyone else, because he lives within a zestfully endearing silent movie.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
12-22-2011 |
Reviews
The Skin I Live In (La Piel que Habito)new
"At age 50," wrote George Orwell, "every man has the face he deserves." But what if a man — or woman — of any age is forced to undergo plastic surgery?
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
11-17-2011 |
Reviews
Paranoid Visions of the Apocalypsenew
Fresh rain oozing with yellow oil, dead birds plummeting from the sky, and the sudden apparition of a tornado funnel on a sunshiny day — Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) is haunted by visions that point either to imminent disaster or else to incipient mental illness. "Is anyone seeing this?"
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
11-10-2011 |
Reviews
Pretentiousness the True Leading Role in The Art of Getting Bynew
While one could argue about where the line between brilliance and bullshit starts to blur with films like Richard Linklater’s 2001 mindbender Waking Life, Darren Aronofsky’s 2006 mystical sci-fi drama The Fountain, or anything from the conceptual mind of director Terrence Malick, the creative weight they carry should be considered when deciding whether you ultimately deem the work profound or phony.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
06-20-2011 |
Reviews
Michael Keaton Directs Himself in 'The Merry Gentleman'new
If films were punctuation marks, Michael Keaton's most famous vehicle, Batman, would be an exclamation point. But this one is an ellipsis, and it challenges a viewer to imagine what lurks between the dots.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
06-17-2009 |
Reviews
Jiri Menzel is Still Depicting How History Swallows Little Livesnew
Using accelerated motion, period music, and silent sequences in black-and-white to suggest history as farce, Menzel makes a mocking spectacle of Czechoslovakia in the 20th century.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
10-22-2008 |
Reviews
'The Lucky Ones': Back From Iraq, But Lost in Americanew
The Lucky Ones is a road movie, but, though Colee, Fred Cheever, and T.K. Poole cover more than 1,700 miles after deplaning at JFK, the film is remarkably indifferent to the physical landscape of the United States.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
10-01-2008 |
Reviews
David Mamet Shows Jiu Jitsu Some Lovenew
Redbelt is a likable distraction, especially for Mamet's trademark staccato dialogue and the deft choreography of its martial-arts sequences.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
05-07-2008 |
Reviews
Band in Israel Banned in Egyptnew
Cultural exchanges do not always make the noise generated by the New York Philharmonic's recent visit to North Korea.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
03-05-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Eran Kolirin, The Band's Visit
Only a Director's Mother Could Love 'Mama's Boy'new
It's easy to imagine that screenwriter Hank Nelken conceived Mama's Boy while reading a magazine article reporting on the full-nest syndrome -- the increasing tendency for grownup children to continue residing with their parents. It is too depressing to contemplate the possibility that anyone had artistic ambitions for this irksome fluff.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
12-05-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Mama's Boy, Tim Hamilton
