AltWeeklies Wire
'Bronson' Fails at Melding Violence, Artsy Filmmaking and Naked Penisesnew
Knowing that there's an audience of action-loving young men who'll pay to see violence and bloodshed, director Nicolas Winding Refn loaded his movie up with fighting, Dada-esque mime sequences and full frontal male nudity. Because: Huh?
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
12-10-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Bronson, Nicolas Winding Refn
John Hillcoat's 'The Road': Brutalism on Celluloidnew
"One for The Road," I said to the ticket taker. "Ha ha ha, that's not the first time I've heard that," he said. And that was the last laugh I had at the movies that day.
Dig Boston |
David Day |
12-09-2009 |
Reviews
Mandela's Lessons Come Across Loud and Clear in 'Invictus'
Morgan Freeman's brilliant performance as Nelson Mandela is the kind of transformation that Academy Award members aggressively reward come Oscar season. Whether or not they'll be as impressed with Anthony Peckham's airy adaptation of John Carlin's book Playing the Enemy is questionable.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
12-07-2009 |
Reviews
'Up In The Air' Steers Clear of the Predictable Route, Lands the Emotionnew
Jason Reitman's very loose and awfully affecting adaptation of Walter Kirn's 2001 novel about Ryan Bingham, who, when he's not busy traversing the flyover states delivering pink slips, delivers motivational speeches about emptying out one's metaphoric backpack.
Dallas Observer |
Robert Wilonsky |
12-07-2009 |
Reviews
Up in the Air: A Big-hearted Film about Corporate Downsizingnew
Ryan Bingham spends nearly his entire year traveling, hopping from company to company in his position as a "career-transition counselor," and he likes it that way.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
12-07-2009 |
Reviews
The Messenger's Bad News Comes in Threesnew
Because life, especially in wartime, can be understatedly described as "messy," it's perhaps feasible to excuse The Messenger's disarray.
The Portland Mercury |
Marjorie Skinner |
12-07-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Oren Moverman, The Messenger
You'll Probably Feel Like You've Seen Brothers Before, Even if You Haven'tnew
Ask me about Brothers 2009 four years from now and you'll probably have to press this very review into my hands as proof that it passed before my eyes.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Mike D'Angelo |
12-04-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Jim Sheridan, Brothers
The Princess and the Frog Doesn't Bring Changenew
Hyped as offering the Walt Disney corporation's first African-American animated heroine, The Princess and the Frog actually refrains from expanding our social imagination.
New York Press |
Armond White |
12-04-2009 |
Reviews
The House of the Devil Brings Back the Beelzebubnew
While he never actually appears in director Ti West's retro screamer The House of the Devil, Satan's little helpers make a welcome return to the screen, bringing their funky rituals and pentagrams along.
Willamette Week |
AP Kryza |
12-04-2009 |
Reviews
John Woo's Extravagant Historical Epic, Red Cliffnew
Red Cliff represents not only Woo's first Chinese film (meaning mainland and Mandarin-speaking), but also his first full-blown foray into historical epics. It turns out to be a mode of storytelling that suits him perfectly.
Everybody's Fine, but What About Bob?
Everybody’s Fine, but America’s once-greatest actor ain’t what he used to be.
Salt Lake City Weekly |
Scott Renshaw |
12-01-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Everybody's Fine, Kirk Jones
Unemployment Gets a Lift in 'Up in the Air'
George Clooney's intentionally ambiguous character Ryan Bingham is a poster boy for America's lack of ethical direction in this thought-provoking satire about America's unemployment epidemic.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
11-30-2009 |
Reviews
'Ninja Assassin' is a Hard-R Blood-Fest with Much CG and Many Severed Limbsnew
Having braved zombies in 28 Days Later, Naomie Harris now faces a centuries-old clan of ninjas who have been hiring themselves out, Blackwater-style, as government mercenaries. Sad to say, the undead were more fun.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
11-30-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Ninja Assassin, James McTeigue
'Frog' of the South: Disney's Song and Dance About a Black Princess Croaksnew
Six decades after unleashing persistent NAACP bugaboo Song of the South, and two after firmly suppressing it, that peculiar cultural institution known as the Walt Disney Company has made a symbolic reparation by creating its first African-American princess -- and plunking her down in the middle of Jim Crow–era Louisiana!
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
11-30-2009 |
Reviews
Despite Rich Source Material, 'The Road' is Lacking One Thing: Ideas
The Road is a one-note road version of Waiting for Godot, minus Samuel Beckett's brilliant sense of existentialist humor.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
11-23-2009 |
Reviews
