AltWeeklies Wire
A Family Adriftnew
Nothing in Noah Baumbach's filmography suggests he had within him something as treacherously funny and wrenchingly sad as The Squid and the Whale.
ISO Substancenew
In many ways, Craigslist the movie is like Craigslist the Web site: genial, nonjudgmental, copious, quirky, human, and utterly decentralized.
Something Missingnew
This film about a young man's search for the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis certainly has strengths, including gorgeous art direction and clever humor, but its essence is empty.
Follow the Starsnew
A man wants a Date With Drew -- Barrymore, that is -- and he brings a video camera along while tracking down his elusive prey.
November Mournnew
Puzzle nuts and dedicated surrealists will probably have a good time sorting through this 78-minute bag of tricks. Others may find it gimmicky to a fault.
24-Hour Pouty Peoplenew
Writer/director Chris Terrio has no fear of the big questions in life but where he might have cracked wise, he tends to mope.
Bad Educationnew
Kids are learning some serious riffs at Paul Green's rock school in Philadelphia. Don Argott's documentary examines the price they pay for it.
Another Brick in the Wallnew
If the dismally morose Daybreak is any indication, the flavor of Swedish misery is remarkably similar to the kind we do here in America -- only colder and with less natural light.
Club Lifenew
A dreamy mood movie, 3-Iron is at times deliciously sensual, creepily somnolent, whimsically spiritual, and disturbingly violent. But it is never quite coherent.
Rose in Bloomnew
The title characters in this highly literate film are an unreconstructed hippie remnant from the 1960s and his dreamy-eyed teenage daughter, who live in self-imposed exile on an island off the mid-Atlantic coast.
The Grapes of Mirthnew
Jonathan Nossiter's documentary exposing the globalization of the wine industry is subversive, funny and humane.
Love, African Stylenew
A drama about Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in post-apartheid South Africa devolves into a clumsy romance.
Finder's Feenew
Damian Cunningham is an angel-faced, 7-year-old boy who's lost his mum and gets advice on how to spend a load of cash from the late, great saints.
Get Shoddynew
Be Cool is redundant to the point of being absolutely pointless, a sequel that's almost a note-for-note, beat-for-beat redo of its predecessor, only with all the entertaining stuff left out.
Tags: Be Cool, F. Gary Gray
The Camera's Weeping Eyenew
This is a gorgeous, wrenching film in which a concerned Westerner enters a dark and hidden world and, instead of merely observing it, endeavors to change it.
