AltWeeklies Wire
One Word: Plasticnew
Fans of The Graduate should skip this strange comedy, which posits that the real-life inspiration for counterculture icon Benjamin Braddock grew up to be a cheesy, brainless high-tech zillionaire doing yoga and driving a Mercedes around Half Moon Bay.
Austin Chronicle |
Marrit Ingman |
12-27-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Rob Reiner, Rumor Has It ...
No Business Like Show Businessnew
The movie's wonderfully over-the-top performances often feel constrained by first-time film director Susan Stroman, whose inexperience behind the camera is all too apparent.
Austin Chronicle |
Steve Davis |
12-27-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Susan Stroman, The Producers
The Price of Freedom Is Eternal Vengeancenew
Munich is dense, thoughtful filmmaking that nonetheless flies along: Seething with multilayered, subtextual arguments, it’s also a heck of a thriller.
Austin Chronicle |
Marc Savlov |
12-27-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Munich, Steven Spielberg
L'Chaimnew
This Israeli comedy is a wholly original movie that's set and filmed entirely within the insular realm of Jerusalem’s ultra-orthodox Hasidim.
Austin Chronicle |
Marc Savlov |
12-21-2005 |
Reviews
Run Jackass, Runnew
This Farrelly brothers comedy purports to have a message about treating the intellectually challenged as regular human beings, which is about as disingenuous as a comedy about seeing past a person’s body size that stars Gwyneth Paltrow in a fat suit.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
12-21-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Barry W. Blaustein, The Ringer
Girls, Interruptednew
Well, we’re not in Chicago anymore, or even its soundstage approximation, but that hasn’t stopped Oscar-nominated director Rob Marshall from fashioning another epic spectacle out of two squabbling women in (a sort-of) show business.
Austin Chronicle |
Kimberley Jones |
12-21-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Memoirs of a Geisha, Rob Marshall
The Life of a Persian Polymathnew
Houston-based, Iranian-born filmmaker Mashayekh relates the story of the pioneering 11th-century mathematician, astronomer, and poet, and reminds Western audiences that there’s more to Iran and the Middle East than suicide bombers and hummus.
Austin Chronicle |
Marc Savlov |
12-21-2005 |
Reviews
See Dick and Jane Run Agroundnew
The original version of this comedy was little countercultural, a lot class-conscious, and a touch subversive; this remake is all farce when what is needed is satire.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
12-21-2005 |
Reviews
No Bargain at Any Pricenew
This unasked-for sequel fuses the original concept with the well-worn formula of the family-vacation romp.
Austin Chronicle |
Marrit Ingman |
12-21-2005 |
Reviews
Delivering the Unexpectednew
The award-winning stories in this collection illustrate what separates workaday journalism from craft.
Austin Chronicle |
Nora Ankrum |
12-16-2005 |
Nonfiction
Western Weepienew
The beautifully wrought film is a tragic love story (not a "gay cowboy movie") that’s defined by its staggering heartbreak.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
12-15-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
The Eighth Wonder of the Worldnew
Peter Jackson's remake is a corker of an action/monster movie: part RKO serial; part square-jawed, manly romp; and part classic journey into the unknown that recalls and references Heart of Darkness.
Austin Chronicle |
Marc Savlov |
12-15-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: King Kong, Peter Jackson
Shelter From the Stormnew
There's a sweet bent to this simple South African film about a multicultural group of employees at a Cape Town animal shelter who find both goodness and hope in their troubled lives.
Austin Chronicle |
Steve Davis |
12-15-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Cape of Good Hope, Mark Bamford
All in the Familynew
This likable romantic comedy runs the gamut of emotions -- hitting tenderness, rage, remorse, and everything in between -- but there are too many characters with too little chemistry to be a real keeper.
Austin Chronicle |
Kimberley Jones |
12-15-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: The Family Stone, Thomas Bezucha
Oil Makes the World Go Roundnew
One of the most uncompromising movies of the year, Syriana is like a living tableaux composed from all the stories that lurk just behind the news, the stories that put human faces on the demand for oil.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
12-08-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Stephen Gaghan, Syriana
