AltWeeklies Wire
Killer-Nature Flick 'The Canyon' Inadvertently Advocates Staycationsnew
A first feature for director Richard Harrah and writer Steve Allrich, The Canyon falls firmly within that vacation-from-hell subgenre recently capped by the very clever, funny, and fairly freaky A Perfect Getaway. (None of which adjectives apply here, alas.)
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
10-28-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Richard Harrah, The Canyon
The Notorious Subject of 'Bronson' Inspires a Star-Making Performancenew
Bronson is utterly revved up in a way that's showy but not at all dumbed-down. Tom Hardy's prankster-rageaholic portrayal emerges amid several flavors: ironic Pulchinella à la contemporary music-theater sensation Anthony Newley; Tom of Finland bad-muscle-daddy fantasy; and adrenaline exercise of mainstreamed, po-mo directorial testosterone.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
10-21-2009 |
Reviews
The Withdrawn Narration of 'Liverpool' Moves With the Stealth Purpose of a Folk Talenew
Liverpool may belong to the slow club of cinema -- long takes, downcast eyes, and monumental landscapes -- but the friction between its patient formalism and wild terrain is anything but staid.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Max Goldberg |
09-16-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Lisandro Alonso, Liverpool
Indie Idol Andrew Bujalski's 'Beeswax' is a Lo-Fi Standoutnew
Beeswax will surely lure Bujalski fans, but even those who think they hate mumblecore won't be disappointed by this tale. It's his best and most mature work to date, focusing on Austin, Texas twins Jeannie and Lauren.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Cheryl Eddy |
09-10-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Beeswax, Andrew Bujalski
'The Baader Meinhof Complex' Exhaustively Explores the Red Army Factionnew
Uli Edel's sober, clear-eyed view of the youthful and sexy yet arrogant and murderous, gun-toting radicals at the center of Baader-Meinhof's mythology -- a complex construct, indeed -- manages to do justice to the core of their sprawling chronology, while never overstating their narrative's obvious post-9/11 relevance.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
09-02-2009 |
Reviews
'Still Walking' Observes a Family in Quiet Crisisnew
This is Kore-eda's most truly naturalistic, let alone Ozu-like film since his first -- the comparatively bleak 1995 Maborosi -- as well as a dysfunctional-family seriocomedy uncommonly beautiful inside and out. It's a quietly funny and insightful two hours capable of inducing one pretty ecstatic afterglow.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
09-02-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Still Walking, Hirokazu Kore-eda
'Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg' Honors a Forgotten Sitcom Star from the Early Years of TVnew
Even more than the largely forgotten popular institution The Goldbergs, Yoo-Hoo commemorates the one-woman dynamo who created and sustained it: Gertrude Berg.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
07-22-2009 |
Reviews
'Downloading Nancy' Interrogates Sacrifice in the Hyperdigital Zeitgeistnew
Swedish music video director Johan Renck's first feature is largely a meditation on metaphysical atmospheres -- the suffocating air of tract homes, the cold showers of sexual dysfunction, the liquid plasma of the sickly blue computer screen -- and one woman's compulsion for escape.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Erik Morse |
07-08-2009 |
Reviews
Jennifer Lynch Steps Up -- Cruelly -- With 'Surveillance'new
With this Jennifer Lynch starts to be interesting on her own -- even more since her already-wrapped next, Hisss, is an India-shot horror fantasy based on local mythology. Which, at last, is a project one can't even imagine David Lynch doing.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
07-01-2009 |
Reviews
'Objectified''s Subjects Plot a User-Friendly Universenew
Gary Hustwit's Objectified is more an appreciation than a critique of something utterly ubiquitous -- in this case product design -- and a few stellar personalities behind it.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
06-24-2009 |
Reviews
'Lymelife' Nails a Savvy Balance of Comedy and Dramanew
Do we really need another dysfunctional-family flashback with the requisite retro pop hits, pot smoking (back when it came dirt cheap), awkward virginity loss, and nostalgically horrible decor? Sure, why not?
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
04-22-2009 |
Reviews
Art and Horror Converge in Steve McQueen's Uncompromising 'Hunger'new
Hunger is completely realized, without compromise. It's convincingly ugly in an aesthetically beautiful way, cool to the touch, admirably near-perfect, and off-putting.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
04-01-2009 |
Reviews
A New Film Imagines Vietnam If Kennedy Had Livednew
A new documentary makes the case that Kennedy's nonconfrontational tactics on the world stage during his presidency would surely have carried over to preventing that "quagmire" known here as the Vietnam War (and over there as "the American War"). Had he lived, of course.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
03-18-2009 |
Reviews
A Filmmaker and Her Subject Chronicle an Epic Immigrant Experiencenew
The Betrayal fascinates like other rare, intimate documentaries shot over long periods -- Michael Apted's Seven Up series being the most famous example.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Dennis Harvey |
02-25-2009 |
Reviews
Catching an Elusive Icon's Drift As He Sings About Pasolini and Mussolininew
Time stood still yesterday in the music Scott Walker made, and it stands still today when 30 Century Man languishes in the songs from Walker's quartet of self-titled Philips solo albums from 1967 through 1970.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Johnny Ray Huston |
01-21-2009 |
Reviews
