AltWeeklies Wire
'Gran Torino' is a Gleeful Astonishmentnew
Gran Torino is a dark comedy, an engaged anecdote about class and race, a stripped-down example of palooka art, and Clint Eastwood, at 78, has made a modest yet almost radical entertainment.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
12-17-2008 |
Reviews
The Timeless Showbiz of 'Frost/Nixon'new
Frost/Nixon displays bursts of some of Ron Howard's sharpest work in his fifty years in show business, but it functions best as a cartoon that chooses to think of itself as burnished bravura.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
12-10-2008 |
Reviews
The Sweet Surprise of 'Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist'new
Bubblegum that never loses its snap, Peter Sollett's second feature miraculously hits some of the same heights within a slightly contrived structure drawn from the novel of the same name by Rachel Kohn and David Levithan.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
10-01-2008 |
Reviews
Celebrating 'Hancock,' Peter Berg's Latest Genre Mashupnew
Anticipation runs high for further blackening of Batman's soul in The Dark Knight, but the Fourth of July weekend belongs to Hancock, a handsomely haywire comic-tragic concoction that flies high, sideways, off course and straight up in the air.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
07-02-2008 |
Reviews
The Lavish Imagination of Timur Bekmambetov's 'Wanted'new
Wanted is a tonally aggressive, wildly expressionistic, deeply satisfying film, a sleekly machined action powerhouse, words I hardly expected to type this summer.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
06-25-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Timur Bekmambetov, Wanted
'Wall-E' is Pixar's Crusty Follow-Up to Tasty 'Ratatouille'new
A plush cousin to Idiocracy, the latest humbling eyeful from Pixar says that Americans are going to die for their consumption habits, except for a few fat fumblers shot out into space.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
06-25-2008 |
Reviews
Steve Conrad on Detailing Comedy in 'The Promotion'new
It's a gratifying surprise to find that Chicago-based screenwriter Steve Conrad's auspicious directorial debut, capturing the rivalry between two men, mild-mannered, levelheaded Doug (Sean William Scott) and eccentric Québécois transplant Richard (John C. Reilly), for a manager's job at a supermarket, is a likeable, often-tender, lovingly paced comedy of no small charm, a small miracle in an age of accelerated pacing and masticated punch lines.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
06-04-2008 |
Reviews
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
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
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
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
Uno, Dos, Tres, IMAX!new
The 3D and the surround sound may temporarily create the feeling of actually being in the front row of a U2 concert, but that's only if you can ignore the fact that no one around you is dancing or cheering or even singing along, all essential concert-going experiences.
Chicago Newcity |
Andy Seifert |
01-30-2008 |
Reviews
