AltWeeklies Wire
Self-rockualizationnew
Girls Rock! is a scream. Fortunately, it's also a good movie.
Willamette Week |
Amy McCullough |
03-05-2008 |
Reviews
'Penelope' is a Fairy Tale With No Shortage of Fracturesnew
Maybe Penelope's sufferings are her mother's fault. But the movie has only itself to blame for its blemishes.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
02-27-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Mark Palansky, Penelope
Where's George A. Romero?new
Coming on the heels of Cloverfield, a similar but far more ambitious film, Diary of the Dead doesn't have the impact that it should -- especially given the fact that it's a Romero zombie film -- and ultimately does little to add to the genre.
Willamette Week |
David Walker |
02-13-2008 |
Reviews
Toothed-vagina Ladies are Getting Away with Murdernew
I'm perfectly willing to accept that growing up next to a nuclear reactor might cause a girl to develop interlocking incisors in her vagina. (Things happen.) But I'm a little more skeptical that a year and a half of sexual abstinence will turn a teenage boy into a rapist.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
01-23-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Mitchell Lichtenstein, Teeth
Contrasts are 'Youth Without Youth''s Strengthsnew
At first blush, Francis Ford Coppola appears to be having a late midlife crisis.
Willamette Week |
Saundra Sorenson |
01-09-2008 |
Reviews
Thicker Than Waternew
Paul Thomas Anderson brings out the devil in Daniel Day-Lewis.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
01-09-2008 |
Reviews
The Gloomy Cinematic Gifts of Christmasnew
Ah, the holidays -- that time when our thoughts naturally turn to slashed throats, drug addiction, child rape and putting dad in a nursing homes. Hence Sweeney Todd, The Kite Runner, Walk Hard and The Savages.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
12-19-2007 |
Reviews
'I Am Legend': Apocalypse Nahnew
The biggest problem -- the one that prevents the film from rising above mediocrity -- is that it sometimes grabs you by the balls, yet it's afraid to twist like an apocalypse should.
Willamette Week |
Ap Kryza |
12-12-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Francis Lawrence, I Am Legend
'Juno' Turns on a Heroine's Choicenew
I walked into Juno expecting to love it, and halfway through was beginning to think I didn't care for it very much. But the film soldiers on, and develops a gravity to match its gravidity.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
12-12-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Juno, Jason Reitman
What Does 'The Golden Compass' Have Those Other Fantasy Flicks Didn't?new
To put it briefly, Nicole Kidman, polar bears and a boycott from the Catholic League.
Willamette Week |
Ben Waterhouse |
12-05-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Chris Weitz, The Golden Compass
Tone Deafnew
Joe Wright doesn't have a clue how to film Ian Mcewan's novel, Atonement.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
12-05-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Atonement, Joe Wright
Director Richard Kelly's Sophomoric Sophmore Filmnew
Once upon a time, writer-director Kelly gave us the fine and sensitive Donnie Darko, a work that succeeded in building eeriness and foreboding with minimal violence. Not so in Southland Tales.
Willamette Week |
N.P. Thompson |
11-14-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Richard Kelly, Southland Tales
'King Corn': The Quiet, Scary Documentarynew
King Corn feels like a tonic not only for the ills of American food production, but for the shrillness of the nation's documentaries as well.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
11-07-2007 |
Reviews
Denzel vs. Russell: The Winner Gets All the Heroinnew
American Gangster is a blunt brick of a movie; neither very stylish nor terribly complex, it still takes 157 minutes to batter home its muscular tale of men who speak softly and carry big guns.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
10-31-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: American Gangster, Ridley Scott
'Lake of Fire' Elevates Abortion Debatenew
It's strange to describe an abortion documentary as a labor of love, but Lake of Fire -- an elegant film, exhaustive in scope -- is precisely that.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
10-24-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Lake of Fire, Tony Kaye
