AltWeeklies Wire
Riot Girrl Werewolf
Based on a novel by Annette Curtis Klause, with a title pulled from Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf, Von Garnier uses Bucharest as a vibrant backdrop for yet another predictable werewolf movie, albeit with a slight twist.
Penthouse Bloodbath
Carnahan makes an overreaching but inspired effort at reinventing the dumb gangsters with big guns motif that Quentin Tarantino created and continues to modify.
Tags: Joe Carnahan, Smokin' Aces
The Banality of Evil
Nick Cassavetes tells the tale of Jesse James Hollywood.
Tags: Alpha Dog, Nick Cassavetes
Relishing the Horrors of Childhood
Pan's Labyrinth is a surreal and dark fairytale about resistance and sacrifice from the point of view of a resourceful young child.
A Bright Light on the CIA
Robert De Niro's second outing as director pinpoints the ruthless and dogmatic sense of privileged ideology and unscrupulous secrecy that enabled the creation of the CIA.
Tags: Robert De Niro, The Good Shepherd
Forming an Inseparable Epic
Letters responds to Flags and creates pure cinematic poetry.
Will Smith Takes His Son Slumming
From the looks of Will Smith's downtrodden character in The Pursuit of Happyness, the only place for the capable actor's career to go is down.
Antihero: DiCaprio Just Gets Better
Volatile intrigue abounds in this politicized story about South African arms dealer and diamond smuggler and a former diamond mine captive desperate to reunite with his family.
Tags: Blood Diamond, Edward Zwick
Welcome to the Jungle
Tapping into a vein of horror movies with American travelers as preyed, Turistas is the first U.S. film shot entirely in Brazil.
Tags: John Stockwell, Turistas
'The Fountain' Is Just a Dying Tree
Metaphysical space age imaginings counter the death of a loved one in writer/director Darren Aronofsky's visually stunning yet superficial fantasy.
Tags: Darren Aronofsky, The Fountain
The Best Superspy Yet
Daniel Craig more than capably fills 007's shoes in a Bond film that shatters formula constraints and delivers nail-biting action in a considerably darker mode.
Tags: Casino Royale, Martin Campbell
Richard Linklater Cuts Up the Fast Food Industrial Complex
Former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren produced this film version of Eric Schlosser’s best-selling 2001 nonfiction expose “Fast Food Nation,” about the disgusting, illegal, and dangerous aspects of America’s fast food industrial complex.
Menace To Society
Harsh Time is a modern and raw reflection of the disastrous effects of war on the soldiers that survive them and the potential danger they pose.
Tags: David Ayer, Harsh Times
A Pinnacle of Comedy
Bawdy, quick-witted, and unrelentingly hilarious, Borat is possibly the funniest movie ever made.
Connecting Apartheid to Today
Noyce applies his authentic sense of cinematic storytelling to the real-life story of Patrick Chamusso, an apolitical South African oil refinery engineer who joins a revolution against the violent apartheid regime.
Tags: Catch a Fire, Philip Noyce
