AltWeeklies Wire
Can a Teen Pregnancy Flick Win the Oscar?new
It depends on how you look at comedy. Juno is the lone comedy among films that in retrospect might mark 2007 as the Year of Drear.
Charleston City Paper |
John Stoehr |
02-20-2008 |
Movies
Tags: Juno
Latest Rambo Most Concise of Seriesnew
Not that the Vietnam vet ever stopped to smell the roses, but this is the wrong place to look for narrative twists or witty dialogue. Rambo doesn't even have a catchphrase or a worthy speech to make. He's too busy blowing shit up.
Charleston City Paper |
Nick Smith |
02-06-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Rambo, Sylvester Stallone
Not Up to Snuffnew
The problem Untraceable is it gives its hero little to do beyond tapping on computer keys and fretting in a maternal way about her daughter and the younger FBI agents under her care.
Charleston City Paper |
Maryann Johanson |
01-30-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Gregory Hoblit, Untraceable
Boys Don't Crynew
Why the best romantic comedies aren't about women.
Charleston City Paper |
Conseula Francis |
01-23-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: 27 Dresses, Anne Fletcher
The Spooky Art of 'The Orphanage'new
The Orphanage is an effective, desperately unsettling ghost story that shows Hollywood how a horror movie should be done.
Charleston City Paper |
Nick Smith |
01-23-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Juan Antonio Bayona, The Orphanage
Type Castingnew
Jack plays Jack, Morgan plays Morgan, and The Bucket List plods along.
Charleston City Paper |
Scott Renshaw |
01-09-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Rob Reiner, The Bucket List
Say Hello to 'The Merkin Man'new
What a perfect place for a TV special like Devin Dukes' Gettin' Around the Lowcountry, a short film similar to public TV-style magazine shows, that visits charming locales for in-depth looks at South Carolina's most colorful inhabitants.
Charleston City Paper |
Nick Smith |
01-09-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Devin Dukes, The Merkin Man
Strop the Musicnew
Sweeney Todd delivers grand spectacle, dull tunes.
Charleston City Paper |
Scott Renshaw |
12-19-2007 |
Reviews
Twisted Sistersnew
Noah Baumbach casts perfect actors to play estranged family
Charleston City Paper |
MaryAnn Johanson |
12-19-2007 |
Reviews
'Disappearances' Sets the Western Back Eastnew
What if this Western took place in New England, where culture and tradition were firmly rooted, where characters were aware of the consequences of their actions, but were forced to pursue a dark path partly driven by human desire and folly, partly driven by fate?
Charleston City Paper |
John Stoehr |
11-07-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: disappearances, Jay Craven
A Deep Sense of Place Inspired 'Disappearances'new
Some time ago, filmmaker Jay Craven decided to make a Western, the kind of story that typically features characters whose epic struggle unfolds in a land devoid of law, tradition, religion, and culture. Here's the catch: he wanted it to take place in New England.
Charleston City Paper |
John Stoehr |
10-31-2007 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: disappearances, Jay Craven
The Edward Scissorhands for South Carolinanew
Pearl Fryar's cavernous voice is a major reason this big-screen profile of the Bishopville, S.C., topiary artist is appealing.
Charleston City Paper |
Chris Haire |
10-10-2007 |
Reviews
Cynthia Hill Examines the Plight of Low-paid Field Handsnew
In The Guestworker, the closest Hill gets to editorializing is juxtaposing images of a farmer eating a family meal in his house with those of the guestworkers' shoddier living conditions.
Charleston City Paper |
Nick Smith |
10-10-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Cyntha Hill, The Guestworker
'The Kingdom' Offers a Smackdownnew
It seems like a Hollywood blockbuster, but Peter Berg's latest induces a bit of shaming about cycles of hate and violence that we must be fully cognizant of if we're ever to break them.
Charleston City Paper |
Maryann Johanson |
09-27-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Peter Berg, The Kingdom
'Becoming Jane': Austen Herself Would Approvenew
The film succeeds, even if it is almost entirely invented, because it captures both the aching romanticism and the cold, hard practicalities of Austen's fiction -- and in a way, it even does Austen one better.
Charleston City Paper |
MaryAnn Johanson |
08-08-2007 |
Reviews
Tags: Becoming Jane, Julian Jarrold
