AltWeeklies Wire
Hayao Miyazaki Dives Under the Sea for His Latest Environmental Fairy Talenew
Loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, by way of Jules Verne, Miyazaki's Ponyo sticks to Andersen's basic story of an enchanted sea creature and her love for a human -- except, in the Miyazaki version, the mermaid princess is an anthropomorphic goldfish, and her handsome prince is a 5-year-old schoolboy still in full possession of his baby teeth.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
08-14-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Ponyo, Hayao Miyazaki
'Somers Town' Gets at the Heart of Working-Class Londonnew
Without ever trivializing his characters’ meager circumstances or resorting to the rags-to-riches fantasy of Slumdog Millionaire, Shane Meadows has made a lovely film about the ability of the imagination to offset the harshness of reality.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
08-10-2009 |
Reviews
That Old Black Potter Magic Continues to Beguile in 'Half-Blood Prince'new
Going a few shades blacker than 2007's already funereal Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, this penultimate Potterpicture includes the firebombing of a series regular's home, an episode of demonic possession that wouldn't look out of place in an Exorcist movie, and multiple attempts on the life of Harry himself. The greater threat, however, is those unseen forces that compete for the hearts and minds of impressionable boy wizards.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-17-2009 |
Reviews
'Away We Go' Is an Unaffecting Work of Staggering Vacuitynew
Not surprisingly, in Dave Eggers' first original screenplay, Away We Go, the characters never shut up.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
06-05-2009 |
Reviews
Freaks and Freaks: 'Frownland'new
Like a signal flare rising above the streets of L.A.'s Fairfax District, Frownland announces that underground cinema is alive and well.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-01-2009 |
Reviews
Boxing, Sex and Madness: 'Tyson'new
In a new Tyson documentary, the boxer tells it in his own words.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-01-2009 |
Reviews
Spy vs. Spy: Tony Gilroy’s 'Duplicity'new
Julia Roberts goes mano a mano with Clive Owen.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
03-20-2009 |
Reviews
Framed Like a Rembrandt, 'Everlasting Moments' Looks Great, But Misses the Big Picturenew
Lovely to look at but too slow and deliberate to get lost in, Jan Troell's Everlasting Moments is a tribute to still photography filtered through a portrait of working-class life wracked by war and want in early-20th-century Sweden.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
03-05-2009 |
Reviews
'Crossing Over': Wayne Kramer's Borderline Offensivenew
Haven't we been here before? The inbred mutant offspring of Crash and Babel, Crossing Over treats the subject of illegal immigrants coming to (and from) Los Angeles with the same vulgarity Kramer brought to his 2006 children-in-peril thriller, Running Scared.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
02-27-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Wayne Kramer, Crossing Over
We're Just Not That Into Drew Barrymore's Latestnew
Greg Behrendt’s know-it-all bossiness may work for a putative self-help handbook, but it doesn’t set quite the right tone for a chick flick aimed at a generation of females who, whether they know it or not, have been sufficiently empowered by the women’s movement to want to direct their own lives.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
02-13-2009 |
Reviews
Tom Tykwer Zings 'The International'new
What, might you ask, is the cause of all this cloak-and-dagger skullduggery? Well, I could tell you, but then I’d have to bore you.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
02-13-2009 |
Reviews
Couscous de Coeur: 'The Secret of the Grain'new
The French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche is that rare thing at the movies these days: an intelligent humanist.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
01-30-2009 |
Reviews
Will Smith Encores His 'Pursuit of Happyness'new
Watching Smith and Muccino's latest collaboration, Seven Pounds, I marveled (to paraphrase the great Jermaine Jackson) that something so right could go so wrong.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
12-19-2008 |
Reviews
'The Class': To Sir, With Attitudenew
French cinema is famously dialogue-heavy, but next to Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale, The Class qualifies hands down as the chattiest movie of the year.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
12-19-2008 |
Reviews
The Long and (Oscar-) Worthy Road to Redemption of 'The Reader'new
Like Doubt, Stephen Daldry's The Reader is low-budget, high-profile and beamed straight at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Category of High Moral Tone.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
12-12-2008 |
Reviews
