AltWeeklies Wire
Hollywood Product: Cinematic Equivalent to Lump of Coalnew
Based on John Grisham's Skipping Christmas, the movie could gain some depth by revealing characters' motivations the way the book does instead of using dialogue simply as a break between slapstick bits.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Heather Kuldell |
12-02-2004 |
Reviews
Blues Revue Is a Mixed Bag of Bluesnew
The blues are a changeable thing, made up of equal parts ecstasy and despair. But the combination packaged into a 106-minute form makes for an odd laughter and tears rhythm.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
12-02-2004 |
Reviews
I Am David Chronicles a Journey That Takes a Preachy Turnnew
Based on Anne Holm's 1963 novel North to Freedom, I Am David takes a taut tale and gradually deflates it. David begins as a compelling escape thriller, but as the story becomes more symbolic, it takes on schmaltzy baggage that brings it heavily to the ground.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
12-02-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Paul Feig, I Am David
Closer Offers a Stylish, Superficial Take on Modern Relationshipsnew
Closer is all very saucy and sharp-witted, but it isn't exactly a startling, incisive read on modern relationships. An NPR-styled date film, it's meant to provoke moderate uneasiness and enough heated conversation to last through a drink and an appetizer.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
12-02-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Mike Nichols, Closer
Hollywood Product: Sponge Delights Adults and Kids Alikenew
Quippy snippets about the sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea include flesh factor (just about every character is seen in their underwear), cameo (David Hasselhoff) and best line ("You're a knuckle-headed spaz-a-tron").
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Heather Kuldell |
11-26-2004 |
Reviews
Atmospheric Thriller Loses Steamnew
The Machinist is the kind of story that probably sounded great on paper, with its mounting sense of dread and spooky flourishes like a refrigerator oozing some problematic fluid. But writer Scott Kosar's psychological thriller is relatively lifeless onscreen.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
11-26-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Brad Anderson, The Machinist
Alexander the Not So Greatnew
With Alexander, under the command of Oliver Stone, the resurgent genre marches to its Waterloo. At nearly three enervating hours, Stone's trudge through the life of Alexander the Great could put epic films in bad odor for years.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
11-26-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Oliver Stone, Alexander
Liam Neeson Gives Haunting Performance as Sex Expert in Kinseynew
The biopic Kinsey lays out just how much we didn't know before the Indiana professor began his explosive explorations. The film engrossingly shows how Kinsey's research resisted the forces of ignorance and moralism, breaking ground with the publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male in 1948 and its feminine follow-up in 1953.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
11-26-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Bill Condon, Kinsey
Holiday Films Focus on the Fixatednew
A round-up of opening throughout the holiday season.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
11-24-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Various Directors, Various Films
"Horror" Film a Funny Piece of No-Budget Drive-In Schlocknew
If you can get past the gore -- and with glimpses of steaming entrails, that’s a pretty big "if" -- you’ll find Seed of Chucky to be a silly, sloppy, yet surprisingly funny piece of no-budget drive-in schlock.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
11-18-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Don Mancini, Seed of Chucky
National Treasure Desecrates American Iconsnew
The Declaration of Independence gets stolen, shot at, dabbed with lemon juice, buffeted with blow dryers, dropped in busy streets and dangled above bottomless pits. Fortunately, Cage's character doesn't shove it up his ass to smuggle it out of the National Archives.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
11-18-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: National Treasure, Jon Turteltaub
Fractured, Frantic Tarnation Finds Salvation in Pop Culturenew
Tarnation is a chaotic, moving and sometimes histrionic autobiographical memoir of Jonathan Caouette that suggests pop culture -- whether cult movies like Liquid Sky or a Houston new wave gay club -- offered him an escape from his grim home life in a Texas suburb.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
11-18-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Jonathan Caouette, Tarnation
Hollywood Product: New Bridget Jones Not Better Than Originalnew
As the prat-falling, foul-mouthed Bridget, Zellweger hilariously embodies modern female insecurities, but Edge of Reason mostly proves stale and obvious.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
11-11-2004 |
Reviews
Undertow Evokes Fairy Tale, Myth and the Cain and Abel Storynew
Filmmaker David Gordon Green cultivates a mood of impending bloodshed, but by evoking Southern horror flicks and crime potboilers of the 1970s. Using natural light and shaky camera work, Undertow plays out like the bad dream you might have after watching a night of R-rated films.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
11-04-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: David Gordon Green, Undertow
Documentary Charts Parallel Paths of Two Bandsnew
Members of the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre started off as friends, grooving on shared interests and the contact high of close collaboration with like-minded souls. Then fame strikes.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
11-04-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Dig!, Ondi Timoner
