AltWeeklies Wire
'Let the Right One In' is Too Coldnew
Bookended by shots of falling snow, Right One seems to take place in a snow globe, just as still, just as quiet, its compositions just as stiff, with plastic figures arranged in stock situations.
'Quantum of Solace' Gives Us a Neurotic Bondnew
One can adore Bond lore while also recognizing the need to conjure a new paradigm.
One Person Saves 'Zack and Miri': Elizabeth Banksnew
When full-scale T&A supplants a storyline rather than complementing it, a fictional send-up about making a porno begins to adopt the tedium of watching an actual porno.
'I.O.U.S.A.' is an Essential Documentarynew
The film is a grim assessment of America's precarious, unsustainable finance.
A Slice of Past Lives in 'A Girl Cut in Two'new
Veteran French filmmaker Claude Chabrol re-imagines the Stanford White murder.
Tags: Claude Chabrol, A Girl Cut in Two
Bush Gets Stoned in 'W.'new
While Oliver Stone's latest a messy movie without much momentum, it embraces a willful confusion -- one that history might prove to be a perfectly appropriate response to the last eight years.
'I Served the King of England' and 'The Duchess' Look Back to European Historynew
What we have is a mildly amusing comedy in which every female under 30 can be relied upon to disrobe.
Richard Gere and Diane Lane Reprise Old Tricksnew
This is Gere and Lane's third onscreen coupling, following The Cotton Club and Unfaithful, and they exude a palpable chemistry that carries the treacly script through many lulls.
Strangers on a Train in 'Transsiberian'new
As a representative of a badly degraded genre, this tale of treachery and drug trafficking aboard a train traveling from Beijing to Moscow has a certain workmanlike integrity.
Independent Weekly Critic Godfrey Cheshire's 'Moving Midway'new
In his first feature, Cheshire put his great big, highly engaging Southern family (considerably bigger by the close of the show than at its inception) up on the silver screen, with no less serious a literary purpose than the Bard of Oxford, yet with a light touch all his own.
'Burn After Reading': A Country for Ridiculous Mennew
Burn After Reading hearkens back to Coen classics Oh Brother Where Art Thou and The Big Lebowski, films propelled inexorably forward by bizarre characters and slashing humor.
The Gritty Indie 'Frozen River' and a Post-Sept. 11 Thriller, 'Traitor'new
Both films feature formidable performances by their leads, Melissa Leo and Don Cheadle, respectively.
Growing Old, Bitterly, in 'Elegy'new
Isabel Coixet's Elegy is a movie for old men, made by a relatively young Frenchwoman. It's also a rainy afternoon movie, and it's quite likely to annoy women of all ages, no matter what the weather.
Tags: Elegy, Isabel Coixet
The Sly 'Baghead' Spoofs Itselfnew
In Baghead's opening scene, the Duplass Bros. seem to poke fun at the self-importance of their indie universe. However, they go further: This self-deprecation becomes part of the film's goof.
Tags: Baghead, Jay and Mark Duplass
Norwegian Literary Lads Become Men in 'Reprise'new
Something of a Gen X/Y Jules and Jim, this Norwegian production tells the story of Erik and Phillip, close friends and aspiring authors.
Tags: Joachim Trier, Reprise
