Nashville Scene | Movies+TV | Reviews | AAN.org

Is it Possible 'The Road' Isn't Grim Enough?new

Wanting the movie version of Cormac McCarthy's The Road to be even more bleak may sound like the ultimate in moviegoer masochism—thank you, sir, may I have another cannibal holocaust?

Nashville Scene | Jim Ridley | 12-18-2009 | Reviews

Tags: The Road, Cormac McCarthy, John Hillcoat, Viggo Mortensen

'Pelham' Remake Makes It Out of the Station Only to Jump the Tracksnew

Director Tony Scott turns a presciently post-9/11 movie into an explicitly post-9/11 movie. Make that post-post-9/11: The chief bad guy only looks like a terrorist, when in fact he's an even scarier, more au courant foe -- a commodities trader!

Nashville Scene | Jim Ridley | 06-12-2009 | Reviews

Tags: The Taking of Pelham 123, Tony Scott

Three Bachelor-Party Bozos Loose in Sin City Wake Up with the Very Funny 'Hangover'new

This messy, raunchy farce about three groomsmen on a lost-weekend bender in Sin City continues director Todd Phillips' fascination with the alpha male's default setting, childhood reversion.

Nashville Scene | Jim Ridley | 06-05-2009 | Reviews

Tags: The Hangover, Todd Phillips, comedy movies

A Daredevil's World Trade Center Tightrope Walk was Made for the Moviesnew

As James Marsh's documentary Man on Wire tells it, a mischievous French teenager was sitting in a dentist's office in 1968 when a magazine image caught his eye. It was a sketch of two gleaming towers, under construction, piercing the clouds above lower Manhattan.

Nashville Scene | Jim Ridley | 08-18-2008 | Reviews

Tags: James Marsh, Man on Wire

'Mongol' Paints a Historically Hazy but Kick-ass Picture of Genghis Khannew

Here's a brawny old-school epic to make the CGI tumult of 300, Alexander and Troy look like sissy-boy slap parties.

Nashville Scene | Jim Ridley | 06-27-2008 | Reviews

Tags: WAR, Drama, Channing Tatum, Aliya, Mongol, Sergei Bodrov, Tadanobu Asano, Tegen Ao, Ying Bai

'Son of Rambow' Celebrates Moviemaking Fever, Middle-school Stylenew

Why is it that kids playing dress-up in blockbuster tropes rarely gets old? Perhaps more to the point, why does the idea of rough-hewn DIY cinema seem so appealing now?

Nashville Scene | Jim Ridley | 05-27-2008 | Reviews

Tags: Rambo, comedy, Garth Jennings, Son of Rambow, Bill Milner, Charlie Thrift, Jessica Stevenson, Jules Sitruk, Neil Dudgeon, Will Poulter

A Sticky Wicketnew

A Jamaican teaches a young Jew what's cricket -- in every sense -- in Wondrous Oblivion.

Nashville Scene | Jim Ridley | 11-02-2007 | Reviews

Tags: Paul Morrison, Wondrous Oblivion

'Gone Baby Gone': Kenzie's Choicenew

Ben Affleck's directorial debut leaves nothing but grave moral doubts -- to its credit.

Nashville Scene | Jim Ridley | 10-19-2007 | Reviews

Tags: Ben Affleck, Gone Baby Gone

Visually Stunning Documentary Captures the Big Picture of Chinese Industrynew

Nothing illustrates the monstrosity of globalized commerce more vividly than the lateral tracking shot that opens Jennifer Baichwal’s mesmerizing documentary Manufactured Landscapes.

Nashville Scene | Jim Ridley | 09-24-2007 | Reviews

Tags: Jennifer Baichwal, Manufactured Landscapes

Can a Hard-Hitting Dafur Doc Inspire Intervention?new

Tonal modulation is everything in a political doc; the more dire the matter at hand, the more delicate the issue of how to address it. The crisis in Darfur compels The Devil Came on Horseback to commence in full-on grab-and-shake mode.

Nashville Scene | Rob Nelson | 09-07-2007 | Reviews

Tags: Ricki Stern and Annie Sundburg, The Devil Came on Horseback