AltWeeklies Wire
MacGrubernew
Another movie from a Saturday Night Live sketch, this time set free from the constraints of Network Television and the usual PG-13 rating of Guaranteed Comedy Safety and Mediocrity.
Baltimore City Paper |
Joe MacLeod |
05-21-2010 |
Reviews
Jameel Saleem's Debut Feature Follows a Guy's Romantic Misadventuresnew
What makes Cream Soda work is how vulnerable his male characters are willing to be. When talking about his love life, he admits that some things were funny then, and some were only funny in hindsight.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
03-23-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Cream Soda, Jameel Saleem
Novelist Michael Kimball Pieces Together a New Kind of Narrative in '60 Writers/60 Places'new
On one hand, 60 Writers is little more than a series of vignettes featuring authors reading an excerpt of their works in some setting, shot with a static single-camera set up. On the other hand, it is a single-viewing experience composed of 60 completely different elements.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
02-09-2010 |
Reviews
Sumptuous Period Picture is the Best Romantic Comedy of the Seasonnew
The Young Victoria delivers something woefully few movies have lately: a believable and engrossing love story. It chronicles the early life of Queen Victoria (Emily Blunt) from her sheltered childhood to the early years of her reign, which began when she was 18.
Baltimore City Paper |
Anna Ditkoff |
12-29-2009 |
Reviews
Graham Reznick Ventures into the Genre Woods and Twists Out the Unique 'I Can See You'new
I Can See You takes its characters out to the woods for the scare of their lives, but it isn't overly concerned with subtext. Reznick draws on the non-narrative avant-garde for inspiration; ultimately, his movie has as much in common with David Lynch's weirdest moments or Stan Brakhage as The Blair Witch Project.
Baltimore City Paper |
Steve Erickson |
11-03-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Graham Reznick, I Can See You
'Cold Souls' is a Delightfully Coy, if Featherweight, Comedynew
Writer/director Sophie Barthes' debut feature is a philosophical meditation hiding behind a science-fiction premise and all wrapped up in a intelligently nutty comedy of manners.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
09-08-2009 |
Reviews
'Adam' is Pretty Schmaltzynew
The movie's trajectory is more that of a made-for-TV special than a feature, and its subplot concerning Beth's fraudulent father is completely extraneous.
Baltimore City Paper |
Jeff Niesel |
08-25-2009 |
Reviews
Guys Wide Shut: 'Humpday' Calls Bromance's Bluffnew
Lynn Shelton's winning indie comedy is about two thirtysomething men contemplating taking their friendship to the alternative lifestyle edge to win an amateur porn competition, and what is revealed as they go under the microscope ... err, video camera.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
08-04-2009 |
Reviews
The New 'Pelham': Just Another Mindless Tony Scott Productnew
Like almost every single one of Scott's movies since 1998's Enemy of the State, though, Pelham's inevitable critical drubbing probably won't stop it from making pretty good money.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
06-16-2009 |
Reviews
Jim Jarmusch's Latest Strips Narrative Cinema Down to Minimalist Allegorynew
The Limits of Control has proven to be extremely divisive, but the negative reactions testify to the shock that innovative cinema can produce.
Baltimore City Paper |
Steve Erickson |
06-02-2009 |
Reviews
The Long Term Method-Acting Project Known as Mickey Rourke Goes For The Goldnew
The Wrestler is a bleak, strangely inspiring tale of a lonely man struggling with advancing age and a desperate dedication to the brutal grind of professional wrestling.
Baltimore City Paper |
Joe MacLeod |
01-15-2009 |
Reviews
Sam Mendes Takes Aim at the Suburbs Again and Gratingly Misses the Marknew
Screenwriter Justin Haythe and director Sam Mendes are so intent on hammering home the bleak message of Richard Yates' source novel about an unhappy couple caught in the conformist suburbs that they make even Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet blank, bland, and blobby.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
01-13-2009 |
Reviews
Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon Carry 'Four Christmases'new
Still, Vaughn and Witherspoon can only do so much, trudging through a rogue's gallery of one-note characters and predictable setups. At its worst, Four Christmases can make you feel as beaten down and insulted as its protagonists.
Baltimore City Paper |
Al Shipley |
12-02-2008 |
Reviews
'Appaloosa' Suffers From Pacing Problemsnew
Ed Harris, who co-wrote and also directed, imbues the project with the same quiet dignity Virgil and Everett comport themselves with, but his pensive, at times lethargic pace brings the action to a screeching halt once too often.
Baltimore City Paper |
Cole Hadden |
10-07-2008 |
Reviews
'Eagle Eye': The Man Who Knew Too Littlenew
DJ Caruso's latest isn't like anything Alfred Hitchcock ever made (it's much too loud for that), but it does offer clear evidence that Caruso learned almost everything he knows about storytelling from the Master.
Baltimore City Paper |
Cole Haddon |
09-30-2008 |
Reviews
