AltWeeklies Wire
Jiri Menzel is Still Depicting How History Swallows Little Livesnew
Using accelerated motion, period music, and silent sequences in black-and-white to suggest history as farce, Menzel makes a mocking spectacle of Czechoslovakia in the 20th century.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
10-22-2008 |
Reviews
'Saw' Killer Tobin Bell on Character-Acting and Torture Pornnew
Bell, who plays Jigsaw in the Saw movies, is a Hollywood "that guy" on par with the late J.T. Walsh and the comedic David Koechner -- one who now rivals the Freddy Kruegers and Jason Voorheeses of the world in terms of horror-icon status.
San Antonio Current |
Clint Hale |
10-22-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'90210' and 'Gossip Girl': A High-School Rivalrynew
The similarities between the two shows end with the setup, though, and the differences are illustrative of how subtle variations in tone can mean the difference between a melodramatic primetime mess and light (really light) cultural critique
San Antonio Current |
Luke Baumgarten |
10-08-2008 |
Movies
Nick and Norah's Adventures Get Tiringnew
The characters crisscross Manhattan through adventures and emotional highs and lows — including a string of celebrity cameos and a rather creative sexual encounter in a recording studio — that rightly leaves audiences feeling just as worn out by the time the sun finally rises.
San Antonio Current |
Cole Haddon |
10-01-2008 |
Reviews
'Blindness': Fade to Whitenew
Blindness, a screen adaptation of Portuguese author Jose Saramago's novel, explores the probable effects of a widespread and incurable epidemic in the present day, though the storyline's most far-fetched aspects suggest the film is really an obtuse metaphor never fully elaborated.
San Antonio Current |
Jeremy Martin |
10-01-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Fernando Meirelles, Blindness
'The Lucky Ones': Back From Iraq, But Lost in Americanew
The Lucky Ones is a road movie, but, though Colee, Fred Cheever, and T.K. Poole cover more than 1,700 miles after deplaning at JFK, the film is remarkably indifferent to the physical landscape of the United States.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
10-01-2008 |
Reviews
'Sons of Anarchy' is Not the New 'Sopranos'new
Sons of Anarchy is the antithesis of The Sopranos. Well, no. The antithesis of The Sopranos is something like The 700 Club. As far as crime family dramas go, though, these two are fire and ice. Sopranos was good. This is not.
San Antonio Current |
Luke Baumgarten |
09-24-2008 |
TV
Tags: FX, Sons of Anarchy
Is Anyone (Besides Will Smith) Prepared to Wear the Title of Box Office King?new
The status of Hollywood's leading men is somewhat dire. That is, of course, unless studio-made stars like funnyman (if you can call him that) Dane Cook are the solution.
San Antonio Current |
Clint Hale |
09-24-2008 |
Movies
'August Evening': Apolitical Immigration Argumentnew
Alamo City is no land of golden opportunity, offering only dog tracks, layoffs, and day-labor lines to Spanish speakers with limited educations and no paperwork.
San Antonio Current |
Jeremy Martin |
09-17-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: August Evening, Chris Eska
'Burn After Reading' is No Lebowskinew
The writing is as solid as you'd hope, though the humor in this story of two bumbling gym employees who accidentally blackmail an ex-CIA agent and immediately get in over their heads with national-security heavies is mostly dry, situational, and low-key.
San Antonio Current |
Jeremy Martin |
09-10-2008 |
Reviews
'In Search of a Midnight Kiss': 'Annie Hall' for Coldplay Fansnew
The relationship dynamics in Holdridge's script feel true to now, when online come-ons have largely replaced the bar scene, hardcore pornography is a casual conversation topic, and "internet infidelity" is a potential relationship killer.
San Antonio Current |
Jeremy Martin |
09-03-2008 |
Reviews
Director Deb Hagan Jumps Head First into 'College'new
If Hagan knew her binge-drinking freshman year at the University of Delaware would actually be used as research for her first feature film 15 years later, she might've stayed around an extra couple of semesters just to make sure she understood the full meaning of the term "riding the porcelain bus."
San Antonio Current |
Kiko Martinez |
09-03-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'Tropic Thunder' Wasn't the Expected Rambo-style Satirenew
What I got, and what I should have expected, was a rather well-produced and spectacle-driven broad action-comedy that should satisfy anyone not expecting a wealth of subtle or subversive humor. Duh, right?
San Antonio Current |
Brian Villalobos |
08-13-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Ben Stiller, Tropic Thunder
'In Plain Sight' is Just Plain Badnew
After a half-decade of success as a station of lovable neurotics — Tony Shaloub's eponymous Monk; the idiosyncratic spies of Burn Notice, etc. — USA's thrown a curveball in the character of Mary Shannon, a neurotic who is quite the opposite of lovable.
San Antonio Current |
Luke Baumgarten |
08-13-2008 |
TV
'Step Brothers' Wastes Its Comedy Giantsnew
Even avoiding Semi-Talla-Anchor-Blades-of-Dewey comparisons, the jokes are old. But underneath the recycling is a sadder story of several very talented comic giants, including Judd Apatow, wasting their credentials on tired gags.
San Antonio Current |
G. Brian Davis |
07-23-2008 |
Reviews
