AltWeeklies Wire
Seven Psychopaths gleefully guts crime-movie tropesnew
The second feature from writer/ director/ playwright/ Anglo-Irishman Martin McDonagh continues in the same deconstructive, profanely funny vein he brought to his 2008 debut In Bruges.
Ben Affleck's directing career continues to impress with Argonew
In the final scenes of Argo I was literally on the edge of my seat, leaning forward. I can't remember the last time that's happened.
Idiosyncratic vision of American empire in The Masternew
In The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood) returns to familiar themes of his short but resplendent filmography: the search for a father figure or lost son; dysfunctional family relationships; and flawed men fated to self-destruction.
A writer with power in Ruby Sparksnew
The amusing but ultimately tepid comedy Ruby Sparks has a provocative and potentially harrowing premise.
Safety Not Guaranteed raises low-key and worthwhile questionsnew
Can someone who is very serious about something laughably eccentric be treated with respect? How far can a movie dissociate itself from its plot's reason for existing and remain honest?
Woody Allen's To Rome with Love explores that whole sad clown thingnew
Ruggero Leoncavallo's famous opera Pagliacci (or Clowns) is a perfect fit for Allen's themes, if not for his lifelong identity: This is the opera where that whole sad clown thing comes from.
Hyper-violent, soul-suckingly awful Savagesnew
Savages was clearly assembled by a committee charged with synthesizing the hippest films about crime and Mexico of the last generation.
A benign, cozy world in Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdomnew
Anderson makes us long to be in the shoes of these characters by sealing his universe into a well-haberdashed container of nostalgia.
Tags: Wes Anderson, Moonrise Kingdom
Rock of Ages is good only for the nostalgianew
While the soundtrack may have your toes tapping, director Adam Shankman's staging is slapdash and silly, as if he was assembling a hair band-themed amusement park ride.
Tags: Rock of Ages
Remarkably insipid Hysteria recounts the invention of the vibratornew
What could have been a quirky and entertaining tale of Victorian London plus vibrators instead turns into 90 minutes of predictable plot lines and flat characters.
Tags: Hysteria, Vibrator Inventor
Adams Apples is a taste of Gollywoodnew
Adams Apples is a 10-part movie series revolving around three Ghanaian women and the ups and downs they go through with their relationships.
Tags: Adams Apples
A surprising killer in Bernie, Richard Linklater's Texas black comedynew
The biggest surprise about Bernie is the way it shifts from a chirpy comedy about cold-blooded murder to a tricky moral tale without weighing down its easygoing tone or casual, jokey spirit.
Tags: Bernie, Jack Black
Sacha Baron Cohen spoofs post-9/11 U.S. in The Dictatornew
The most immediate criticism of The Dictator is also its biggest strength: It is extremely offensive.
Tags: Sacha Baron Cohen, The Dictator
An Algerian immigrant teaches Canadian children in Monsieur Lazharnew
The film is a tale of healing—for the children, who despite their material comfort are suffering from emotional neglect, and for Lazhar, who is applying for political asylum after suffering a terrible trauma in Algeria.
Tags: Monsieur Lazhar
Whit Stillman returns with Damsels in Distressnew
When Stillman's first film appeared in 1990, he was hailed as New York's WASP answer to Woody Allen. His movies reflect a conservative New England sensibility, of private schools, good manners, and unfashionable social and political opinions argued eloquently and amusingly.
