AltWeeklies Wire
Up in the Air: A Big-hearted Film about Corporate Downsizingnew
Ryan Bingham spends nearly his entire year traveling, hopping from company to company in his position as a "career-transition counselor," and he likes it that way.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
12-07-2009 |
Reviews
The Messenger's Bad News Comes in Threesnew
Because life, especially in wartime, can be understatedly described as "messy," it's perhaps feasible to excuse The Messenger's disarray.
The Portland Mercury |
Marjorie Skinner |
12-07-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Oren Moverman, The Messenger
You'll Probably Feel Like You've Seen Brothers Before, Even if You Haven'tnew
Ask me about Brothers 2009 four years from now and you'll probably have to press this very review into my hands as proof that it passed before my eyes.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Mike D'Angelo |
12-04-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Jim Sheridan, Brothers
The Princess and the Frog Doesn't Bring Changenew
Hyped as offering the Walt Disney corporation's first African-American animated heroine, The Princess and the Frog actually refrains from expanding our social imagination.
New York Press |
Armond White |
12-04-2009 |
Reviews
The House of the Devil Brings Back the Beelzebubnew
While he never actually appears in director Ti West's retro screamer The House of the Devil, Satan's little helpers make a welcome return to the screen, bringing their funky rituals and pentagrams along.
Willamette Week |
AP Kryza |
12-04-2009 |
Reviews
Buhl, Idaho: A Provincial Productionnew
Boise Weekly spends a day filming with Oscar-nominated producer Heather Rae on the set of her new film Buhl, Idaho.
Boise Weekly |
Jeremiah Wierenga |
12-03-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Passion and Power Explores Pleasure Technew
The vibrator's colorful, controversial history gets documented in Passion and Power.
Tucson Weekly |
Erica Nannini |
12-02-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
John Woo's Extravagant Historical Epic, Red Cliffnew
Red Cliff represents not only Woo's first Chinese film (meaning mainland and Mandarin-speaking), but also his first full-blown foray into historical epics. It turns out to be a mode of storytelling that suits him perfectly.
Everybody's Fine, but What About Bob?
Everybody’s Fine, but America’s once-greatest actor ain’t what he used to be.
Salt Lake City Weekly |
Scott Renshaw |
12-01-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Everybody's Fine, Kirk Jones
Unemployment Gets a Lift in 'Up in the Air'
George Clooney's intentionally ambiguous character Ryan Bingham is a poster boy for America's lack of ethical direction in this thought-provoking satire about America's unemployment epidemic.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
11-30-2009 |
Reviews
Do Government Subsidies for Film Production Create a 'Race to the Bottom'?new
Especially now, when so many traditional jobs have been lost, "everybody wants to be Hollywood east," Cornell University professor Susan Christopherson says. It's "sexy meets desperation." More than 40 states are actively vying for movie production business, upping the ante on subsidies in what she calls a "race to the bottom."
Chicago Reader |
Deanna Isaacs |
11-30-2009 |
Movies
'Ninja Assassin' is a Hard-R Blood-Fest with Much CG and Many Severed Limbsnew
Having braved zombies in 28 Days Later, Naomie Harris now faces a centuries-old clan of ninjas who have been hiring themselves out, Blackwater-style, as government mercenaries. Sad to say, the undead were more fun.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
11-30-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Ninja Assassin, James McTeigue
'Frog' of the South: Disney's Song and Dance About a Black Princess Croaksnew
Six decades after unleashing persistent NAACP bugaboo Song of the South, and two after firmly suppressing it, that peculiar cultural institution known as the Walt Disney Company has made a symbolic reparation by creating its first African-American princess -- and plunking her down in the middle of Jim Crow–era Louisiana!
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
11-30-2009 |
Reviews
Viggo Mortensen Helps Bring Cormac McCarthy's Post-Apocalyptic Book to Lifenew
Faithful to the novel that inspired it, the post-apocalyptic film is bleak but hauntingly beautiful, anchored by Mortensen's best performance to date.
Santa Barbara Independent |
Roger Durling |
11-30-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
How to Save CNN
When Ted Turner invented cable news in 1980 with the launch of Cable News Network, he said he wanted the news to be the star, not the talking heads. It's been almost 30 years now and the monster he created is killing its creator.
The Inlander |
Ted S. McGregor Jr. |
11-24-2009 |
Movies
