AltWeeklies Wire
'American Teen' Documents High School's 'Total Caste System' and Morenew
Documentarian Nanette Burstein spent an entire school year at the only high school in tiny Warsaw, Ind., where there is no escape from the pressure cooker of adolescence or from conservative small-town conformity.
Charleston City Paper |
Maryann Johanson |
09-03-2008 |
Reviews
Fortunately, 'Traitor' Has Don Cheadle's Moral Heftnew
Now that Traitor is done, it seems like puffing this package up with commercial viability also was a way of watering its premise down.
Charleston City Paper |
Jonathan Kiefer |
08-27-2008 |
Reviews
You'll Get Drunk Watching 'Bottle Shock'new
The story is perfect timing for our foodie-obsessed age, showing the backstory behind something we take for granted -- global wine culture -- while also delving into the finer points of winemaking, like the potential disaster of too much oxygen in producing a winning chardonnay.
Charleston City Paper |
Felicia Feaster |
08-27-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Randall Miller, Bottle Shock
Place Value: All that separates The Rocker and is star powernew
Hamlet 2 works better than The Rocker, because it actually takes star power to play a guy who doesn't have any.
Charleston City Paper |
Scott Renshaw |
08-20-2008 |
Reviews
Blackface vs. Black Faces: It's the claim of authenticity that's truly offensivenew
It isn't the act of painting the hands and face black that's offensive and harmful. It's the claim of authenticity that goes along with that act, the assumption that something real and true is being represented when someone darkens his face, paints on a huge red mouth, and shucks and jives on a stage. So Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer is offensive, as is C. Thomas Howell in Soul Man. But so is Samuel L. Jackson in Black Snake Moan, Terence Howard in Hustle & Flow, and 50 Cent on any given day.
Charleston City Paper |
Conseula Francis |
08-20-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Ben Stiller, Tropic Thunder
The Bollywood Connection: Local company ReelSports, like Sylvester Stallone and Snoop Dogg, is on the vangaurd of India's global ascentnew
What's fueling this fusion of East and West? Partly the desire of Westerners to seize the opportunity to work in an interesting and hospitable environment. Far more important, though, has been the desire of Bollywood to impress Western audiences and to make larger forays into savvy and lucrative Western markets.
Charleston City Paper |
Dan McCue |
08-20-2008 |
Movies
Tags: Chakde! India, Shimit Amin
Wealth and Privilege Have Rarely Looked So Luscious as in 'Brideshead'new
Lust for companionship. For God. For love. For real estate. For family. Everyone in Brideshead Revisited is hungry for something, and it gets them into terrific trouble.
Charleston City Paper |
Felicia Feaster |
08-06-2008 |
Reviews
Hard-Boiled, Soft-Centered: What does Casablanca mean in a post-9/11 world?new
Conservatives will lay nostalgic claim to Casablanca as an exemplar of tradition to be gotten back to; liberals like it, because its idealism is worldy, not naïve, and tough enough to triumph over both wrongness and cynicism.
It endures as a classic because both parties are essentially correct.
Charleston City Paper |
Jonathan Kiefer |
07-23-2008 |
Movies
Tags: Casablanca, Michael Curtiz
Darned to Heck: 'Hellboy II' Comes to You Streamlined and Franchisednew
Watching Hellboy II is a process. It feels like it's been tamed and corralled and commodified. Hellboy was rowdy and feral and dangerous, and already, in only its second outing, the franchise has been herded into the slaughterhouse and ground up in chuck chop and wrapped in sanitary plastic.
Charleston City Paper |
MaryAnn Johanson |
07-09-2008 |
Reviews
Steve Carell Stars in Mediocre Remake of TV Classic 'Get Smart'new
In the Apatow era, one more fallible-but-lovable man-boy may be one too many to make Get Smart's concept the laugh riot it aims to be.
Charleston City Paper |
Felicia Feaster |
06-18-2008 |
Reviews
'Son of Rambow' is Slightly Off Targetnew
Son of Rambow is an exceptionally earnest film about a blossoming, sweet friendship founded as much on loss as movie love. But it's hard not to long for more in a film that tries hard, but continually misses the mark.
Charleston City Paper |
Felicia Feaster |
05-28-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Garth Jennings, Son of Rambow
'Baby Mama' is the Latest Installment of Estro-Comedynew
Michael McCullers doesn't have writer Tina Fey's deft hand. While he does see something significant in the almost entirely sci-fi female-generated pregnancy where men are barely in the picture, his social commentary is only skin deep.
Charleston City Paper |
Felicia Feaster |
04-23-2008 |
Reviews
Women's Lib in the Form of a Jewel Heistnew
It's gotta mean something, right? In only the first few months of 2008 we've seen more than two movies about daring robberies pulled off by little people who feel, perhaps justifiably so, that they've been cheated by life while other fat lucky bastards have made out at their expense.
Charleston City Paper |
MaryAnn Johanson |
04-02-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Flawless, Michael Radford
Anything is Possible for Sol Driven Trainnew
Charleston's unorthodox Sol Driven Train dedicate themselves to an unusually healthy and consistent do-it-yourself work ethic -- on the stage and in the studio.
Charleston City Paper |
T. Ballard Lesemann |
04-02-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Lighthouse, Sol Driven Train
Princess Feministnew
What Penelope says about chasing Prince Charming.
Charleston City Paper |
Consuela Francis |
03-12-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Mark Palansky, Penelope
