AltWeeklies Wire
'Cherry Blossoms' Translates a Foreigner-in-Japan Experience Better than Sofia Coppola Couldnew
Doris Dorrie's latest movie (her first to be distributed in the U.S. since the 1990s) is good enough to remind contemporary film culture what Coppola lacks. Or put another way: Dorrie offers feminist ideas as the substance of her filmmaking and not the privilege of her femaleness.
New York Press |
Armond White |
01-15-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Cherry Blossoms, Doris Dorrie
'Notorious': Drugs-to-Bitchesnew
The Notorious B.I.G. biopic creates a mythical world of glamour and sex to further pop product.
New York Press |
Armond White |
01-15-2009 |
Reviews
Flying High with Side Project-Turned-Superstars Department of Eaglesnew
On a break from mixing an album with Grizzly Bear, in which he plays guitar, Daniel Rossen was marveling at the aftermath of his other band's appearance in a recent episode of the teen drama.
New York Press |
Nicole Brydson |
01-15-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Pink Floyd Bio Reveals All the Cracks in the Wallnew
Nothing in these pages is pretty, and the collective story doesn't seem to be so much about rock stars as about human beings going through the trajectory of life: being young and having a dream, moving toward the realization of that dream, achieving success and then dealing with the emotional and psychological fallout.
New York Press |
Aileen Torres |
01-15-2009 |
Nonfiction
'Hot, Flat, and Crowded' is the Same Old Thomas Friedmannew
When some time ago a friend of mine told me that Thomas Friedman's new book was going to be a kind of environmentalist clarion call against American consumerism, I almost died laughing.
New York Press |
Matt Taibbi |
01-15-2009 |
Nonfiction
There Are More Pressing Issues Than Same-Sex Marriage for LGBT Communitynew
The LGBT political movement has become so impassioned by bourgeois equality values that it's turned its back on the needy of its own "community." AIDS claimed untold numbers of mentors, teachers, artists and role models, and current generations need to assume these roles.
New York Press |
Charlie Vazquez |
01-09-2009 |
LGBT
Carlos Reygadas' 'Silent Light' is More Posing for the Poseursnew
In Reygadas' facetious approach to his subject matter, he pushes Art buttons: lots of rewound clocks and that big Dreyeresque moment confronting death. It lacks the wit and feeling of Frank Borzage's Three Comrades where a thrown watch transcends time and death.
New York Press |
Armond White |
01-08-2009 |
Reviews
A Hawk and a Hacksaw Does Eastern Europe with an American Accentnew
Jeremy Barnes first heard Bulgarian women's choirs while driving through West Texas in 1996, and he was hooked. He moved to Hungary two years ago to live among and learn from some of the area's masters but has always sought to interpret traditional styles through the contemporary lens of his American background.
New York Press |
Amre Klimchak |
01-08-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Vagabond Opera Sings Outside the Boxnew
It isn't uncommon to be let down by something that comes along calling itself "opera," only to find out that it either has nothing at all to do with opera, or that it's basically a musical. But the Portland, Ore.–based Vagabond Opera actually lives up to its name.
New York Press |
Ryan Tracy |
01-08-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Vagabond Opera
Jim Carrey Misses in the Buzz-Kill Comedy 'Yes Man'new
Too bad Yes Man is directed by Peyton Reed, a tone-deaf, buzz-kill comedy specialist. You've never seen Carrey flail like he does under Reed's incompetence -- although the Quasimodo face he makes with scotch tape and some of his rubber-legged paroxysms are inspired.
New York Press |
Armond White |
12-18-2008 |
Reviews
Will Smith Needs Cinema Lessons to Cure His Scowls in 'Seven Pounds'new
A glib, charming movie star -- but resourceless actor -- Smith must think scrunching-up his face and looking worried for two hours shows serious concentration and emotional gravity. Apparently, he is unaware of the ways that movies and movie stars communicate depth and sincerity.
New York Press |
Armond White |
12-18-2008 |
Reviews
The Hype for Mickey Rourke in 'The Wrestler' is an Embarrassmentnew
Rourke's too good for this crap and has proved it consistently throughout his up-and-down career. Forget The Wrestler's hype; it's worth remembering Rourke's finest performance and best film, Walter Hill's 1989 Johnny Handsome.
New York Press |
Armond White |
12-18-2008 |
Reviews
In the Midst of a Fiscal Crisis, Will New York State Break its Addiction to Consultants?new
A new report from one of New York's largest unions says that the state's addiction to hiring consultants to do the work that state employees are more than capable of doing is unnecessarily costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year and adding to the already out-of-control deficit.
New York Press |
Allen McDuffee |
12-18-2008 |
Politics
On Broadway, Understudying for a Celeb Can be a Nightmarenew
Understudying can be rewarding, but it can also be a slap-in-the-face kind of gig -- few if any rehearsals, the anxiety of being called to perform at very short notice and the lingering possibility of never performing -- but throw in the fame factor, and "tough" isn't quite the word for it anymore.
New York Press |
Dana Rossi |
12-18-2008 |
Theater
Kelly Reichardt on Working with Michelle Williams and the Realities of Being Poornew
A relentlessly independent director working far outside the confines of the studio system, Reichardt has fashioned a film that illuminates the ways in which people treat one another, from compassion to indifference, during tough times. She spoke us about her new film.
New York Press |
Christopher Wallenberg |
12-11-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
