AltWeeklies Wire
Jacques Rivette Adapts a Classic of French Realist Fictionnew
The Duchess of Langeais is a work of extraordinarily subtle beauty and concentrated meaning.
How to Stop Worrying and Love Lucas, Spielberg and 'Raiders'new
When I reviewed Raiders, I wrote not so much about its contents -- which struck me as aggressively inane -- but about the experience of seeing it at the Village Twin. To me, everything that night was of a piece, all of it depressing evidence of a tripartite decline.
'Married Life' is Familiar but Rewardingnew
The pleasures of the film Married Life could be compared to the midpoint of a happy marriage; while some films elicit the ecstatic rush one might feel with a new lover, Ira Sachs' sleek, smart tale comforts us with its familiarity, routine and trust.
Tags: Ira Sachs, Married Life
The Scary Film Projectnew
Amid the obligatory splattered brains and oozing entrails, Romero examines the ubiquity of our multimedia culture, a world where "if it's not on video, it's not real," and assails how the YouTube generation has become desensitized to violence, disaster, war and death.
Persepolis More Like a Non-Iranian Filmnew
Persepolis is confidently cosmopolitan in its outlook and resonances. Yet it's also an indirect reminder that Iranian culture has been strangely (and, one might add, tragically) bifurcated for going on three decades now.
Robert Redford Gets Preachynew
Amid the torrent of similarly opportunistic fare coming out of Hollywood this fall, Lions for Lambs is the singularly sanctimonious, heavy-handed and counterproductive of the lot.
Tags: Lions for Lambs, Robert Redford
Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe Face Off -- Sort ofnew
Is it not unavoidably frustrating in a movie when the two main antagonists almost never see each other?
Tags: American Gangster, Ridley Scott
The Intricate Puzzles of 'Michael Clayton'new
Tony Gilroy's film may turn out to be the earliest major Oscar candidate out of the gate, but it's also a commendable rarity: a film of genuine artistic ambition that is also extravagantly entertaining.
Tags: Michael Clayton, Tony Gilroy
'Across the Universe' isn't Audacious Enoughnew
Director Julie Taymor attempts to take the entire decade of the 1960s, fold it flat and slide it into the record sleeve of a Beatles LP.
Tags: Across the Universe, Julie Taymor
'The Kingdom' Has Powernew
Surprisingly, the best of this year's lot of war movies thus far is The Kingdom, an action movie with characters filled by Hollywood central casting.
Tags: Peter Berg, The Kingdom
David Cronenberg's Crime Film Updates a Sacred Mythnew
Following the 2005 critical success of A History of Violence, there's a natural impulse to view David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises as a formerly maverick director's continuing foray into accessible, even mainstream, filmmaking.
'In the Valley of Elah' Tries to Be a Mystery & an Iraq Filmnew
Unfortunately, Haggis doesn't have the stylistic chops to do "restrained" in the way that, say, Sidney Lumet can. His would-be restraint ends up committing the cardinal sin of being dull, dull, dull.
'Hurricane on the Bayou' Captures How Man Contributed to Katrinanew
Narrated by Meryl Streep, the 2006 film was originally intended to provide viewers with a scenic trip through the wetlands of New Orleans. Three months after the initial footage was shot in 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the city, bringing the film's warnings to life.
'Fully Awake' Celebrates the Black Mountain Collegenew
Josef Albers, Anni Albers, Arthur Penn, David Tudor, John Cage, Merce Cuningham, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, M.C. Richards, Charles Olsen, Robert Creeley, Franz Kline ... It is amazing to think that all of these art-world luminaries once immersed themselves in creative experimentation in a remote, isolated college in the mountains of North Carolina.
'Superbad': Seth and Evan Go to the Mini-martnew
The R rating comes from the language, an almost non-stop flurry of F-bombs and sexual references that sounds like Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob having an argument with characters from a David Mamet play.
