AltWeeklies Wire
Sacha Baron Cohen's Shock Tactics in 'Bruno' Are Ass Backwardsnew
In scene after scene, Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles throw transgressive images and suggestions at the audience, daring them to take offence. It's shock comedy based entirely on gay panic.
NOW Magazine |
Norman Wilner |
07-13-2009 |
Reviews
Latest 'Ice Age' Shamelessly Plucks Plot Twists from a Number of Other Worksnew
As it is, there's little satisfaction and even less humor to be extracted from problems attributed to the central characters that are distilled down to saccharine sound bites.
Pasadena Weekly |
Lisa Miller |
07-13-2009 |
Reviews
'Humpday': Would-Be Pornographers Talk About Transgressive Artnew
Let's save the snickering bromance jokes for another day, another movie. Seattle director Lynn Shelton is no Judd Apatow, nor does she mean Humpday to be a raunch-com.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
07-13-2009 |
Reviews
'The Hurt Locker': Kathryn Bigelow's Ticket to the Oscarsnew
This film is a career best for Bigelow: tense, compressed, and often wordless for page after page of action. With the field opened up for 10 nominees this year, this movie has a lock on an Oscar nom.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
07-13-2009 |
Reviews
Harry Potter Franchise Hits its Stride in 'Half-Blood Prince'
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the most balanced Harry Potter film to come along, perhaps because the right combination of screenwriter and director has been firmly established, along with an appropriate team of special effects wizards and talented production crew.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
07-13-2009 |
Reviews
Battered But Not Broken, Jean-Jacques Beineix Returnsnew
The embattled Parisian director brings a reissue, a retrospective and a project in progress.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-10-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Jean-Jacques Beineix, drama films
Has Kathryn Bigelow Made the 'Apocalypse Now' of Iraq?new
Although everyone makes a point of director Kathryn Bigelow's gender and height and good looks, what's germane is that even if she were short and had bushy eyebrows like Martin Scorsese, she still would be directing action pictures like no one since Sam Peckinpah and Sergio Leone. With her latest, The Hurt Locker, maybe she'll start getting the recognition she deserves.
Boston Phoenix |
Peter Keough |
07-09-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Homo Panic! at the Cinemanew
Quasi-queer movies such as Bruno and Humpday are late to the game, while Nia Vardalos' rom-com, I Hate Valentine's Day, provides better gay imagery.
New York Press |
Armond White |
07-09-2009 |
Movies
David Wain Talks 'The State' and His Futurenew
A founding member of The State, whose comedy show aired on MTV from 1993 to 1995, Wain is also a member of the comedy troupe Stella (with fellow The State alums Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black) and the director of the cult classic Wet Hot American Summer.
Tucson Weekly |
Bob Grimm |
07-08-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
'Public Enemies' Takes Historical Liberties but is Still Captivatingnew
Michael Mann continues to be a master of stylistic crime drama. Public Enemies stands alongside his Heat, Collateral and Manhunter in the genre.
Tucson Weekly |
Bob Grimm |
07-08-2009 |
Reviews
'Moon' Could Have Been Great With a Better Directornew
In Moon, we have an interesting case of great acting and a smart story that's hampered only by some bad decisions coming from the top: cheesy and manipulative music, uninteresting cinematography and a failure to let the ideas speak for themselves.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
07-08-2009 |
Reviews
'Summer Hours' is a Simple Film, but That's its Greatest Strengthnew
The Musee d'Orsay commissioned four directors to create films that feature both the gallery and living French treasure Juliette Binoche. Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours is the second in this series.
Boise Weekly |
Jeremiah Wierenga |
07-08-2009 |
Reviews
'Downloading Nancy' Interrogates Sacrifice in the Hyperdigital Zeitgeistnew
Swedish music video director Johan Renck's first feature is largely a meditation on metaphysical atmospheres -- the suffocating air of tract homes, the cold showers of sexual dysfunction, the liquid plasma of the sickly blue computer screen -- and one woman's compulsion for escape.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Erik Morse |
07-08-2009 |
Reviews
The Futurebirds Reinvent Choral Alt-Country With Contradictions Aplentynew
At first listen, the music of the Futurebirds might sound like some forgotten gem from the 1970s, but halfway through the group's eponymous debut EP, it becomes clear why this Athens-based band is generating more buzz than a beehive hit with a stick.
Charleston City Paper |
Andrea Warner |
07-08-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: The Futurebirds, alt-country
Sacha Baron Cohen Hunts for Narrow-Minded Bigots in 'Bruno'new
While so many public figures are deliberately shocking and offensive because they want us to join them in being small and mean and petty and tribal, Baron Cohen does the same thing but for the very opposite reasons. That is a good thing, and a thing very much worth celebrating -- and it's also outrageously funny to watch, too.
Charleston City Paper |
MaryAnn Johanson |
07-08-2009 |
Reviews
