AltWeeklies Wire
Mel Gibson Crosses the Line in 'Edge of Darkness'new
In the pair of emotionally contradictory images that open Mel Gibson’s Edge of Darkness, swollen corpses surfacing on a moonlit river are followed without pause by grainy home video of a little girl playing in the surf.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
01-29-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Edge of Darkness, Martin Campbell
Spike Lee Remembers Balck Braverynew
Lee has been fighting World War II long before the release of his latest film, Miracle at St. Anna. His campaign began with a salvo at Clint Eastwood for excluding black faces from Flags of Our Fathers and perpetuating the assumption that blacks contributed little to the U.S. victory.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
10-03-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Spike Lee, Miracle at St. Anna
'Outsourced': A Comedy of Job Lossnew
Outsourced is a bright comedy about greedy American corporations, low-wage Indian workers, cultural incomprehension and the bonds that can form across all barriers by people of good will-especially, but not only, if they fall in love.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
09-05-2008 |
Reviews
Son of Hamlet?new
Hamlet 2 is not among the funniest of satires, though it does have its amusing moments.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
08-29-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Peter Cattaneo, Hamlet 2
Vicky and Cristina Abroadnew
For the fourth in a series of films made outside of his beloved New York, Woody Allen moves from Great Britain to sunnier climes. Set in Spain, Vicky Cristina Barcelona is an ocean away from his mature Manhattan comedies geographically, but emotionally it might as well be just across the Hudson.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
08-22-2008 |
Reviews
'Before the Rains' Explores Love, Lust and Empirenew
Before the Rains is a carefully recreated and opulent period drama that explores the psychology of individuals grappling, and losing their grip, with the historical conditions of their time.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
06-13-2008 |
Reviews
A Demi Moore Thrillernew
Flawless is a suspenseful period thriller populated by characters whose potential was curbed by a world that gave them few chances.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
04-25-2008 |
Reviews
'Smart People' is All Brains, No Heartnew
Smart People is about what can happen when the mind is divorced from the heart and spirit.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
04-11-2008 |
Reviews
How to Murder Your Wifenew
Sachs keeps the love-trianlge story in swift forward motion with moments of knife's edge suspense and surprises within surprises.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
04-04-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Ira Sachs, Married Life
'Race' a Bad Rip-off of Hollywood Thrillersnew
Race is Bollywood masala (commercial) film at its worst, a concoction of disjointed scenes dressed up as eye candy in the form of pretty boys and beauties in an absurd story that wouldn't even hold up in a fantasy world, let alone the real world it supposedly portrays.
Shepherd Express |
R. Paul Dhillon |
03-28-2008 |
Reviews
Double-crossed in Londonnew
The Bank Job delivers all the pleasures expected from a crime-heist picture.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
03-07-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Roger Donaldson, The Bank Job
'Cassandra's Dream': When Dreams Go Wrongnew
Woody Allen's murder-thriller is a movie Alfred Hitchcock might make were he alive today.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
01-25-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Woody Allen, Cassandra's Dream
A Boy and His Monsternew
The Water Horse rises well above the level of most contemporary family films. It's moving and amusing, addresses the concerns of adulthood and childhood and is intelligent rather than merely smart allecky or even clever.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
01-11-2008 |
Reviews
Minds Not Wastednew
An admirable spirit of social uplift animates The Great Debaters.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
01-11-2008 |
Reviews
From Texas to Afghanistannew
Directed by Mike Nichols and written by Aaron Sorkin, Charlie Wilson's War would be farcical if it weren't close to the truth.
Shepherd Express |
David Luhrssen |
01-04-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Mike Nichols, Charlie Wilson's War
