AltWeeklies Wire
Filmmaker Looks to Connect with Witnesses to RFK's Funeral Trainnew
In June 1968, a train bearing the body of Robert F. Kennedy traveled from New York to Washington. Now Jon Blair is making a documentary about the myriad people who spontaneously lined the tracks along its route.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
05-19-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
The Long Term Method-Acting Project Known as Mickey Rourke Goes For The Goldnew
The Wrestler is a bleak, strangely inspiring tale of a lonely man struggling with advancing age and a desperate dedication to the brutal grind of professional wrestling.
Baltimore City Paper |
Joe MacLeod |
01-15-2009 |
Reviews
Sam Mendes Takes Aim at the Suburbs Again and Gratingly Misses the Marknew
Screenwriter Justin Haythe and director Sam Mendes are so intent on hammering home the bleak message of Richard Yates' source novel about an unhappy couple caught in the conformist suburbs that they make even Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet blank, bland, and blobby.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
01-13-2009 |
Reviews
Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon Carry 'Four Christmases'new
Still, Vaughn and Witherspoon can only do so much, trudging through a rogue's gallery of one-note characters and predictable setups. At its worst, Four Christmases can make you feel as beaten down and insulted as its protagonists.
Baltimore City Paper |
Al Shipley |
12-02-2008 |
Reviews
Cinematic Representations of Female Athletes Evolve Alongside Women's Sportsnew
What do tricked-out bikes, Canadian roller derby, prepubescent soccer players, and cops playing a 4,000-year-old Southeast Asian sport have in common? All are the subjects of documentaries screening at the Baltimore Women's Film Festival's Women in Sports shorts program.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raven Baker |
10-28-2008 |
Movies
Gil Kenan Practically Created an Entire Physical Realm for 'City of Ember'new
It's a worthy heir to other visually memorable fantasies like City of Lost Children, Brazil, and Tron -- but will Kenan be happy if his movie is only beloved by a core group of art-direction fanatics?
Baltimore City Paper |
Violet Glaze |
10-14-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Gil Kenan, City of Ember
Filmmakers Turn Lens On Baltimore's Growing Latino Populationnew
Viva El Cine Latino, a Latino short film festival, is a long-overdue examination of Baltimore's Latino culture through language and how linguistic misunderstandings can lead, through pain and confusion, to growth and catharsis.
Baltimore City Paper |
Robbie Whelan |
10-14-2008 |
Movies
'Appaloosa' Suffers From Pacing Problemsnew
Ed Harris, who co-wrote and also directed, imbues the project with the same quiet dignity Virgil and Everett comport themselves with, but his pensive, at times lethargic pace brings the action to a screeching halt once too often.
Baltimore City Paper |
Cole Hadden |
10-07-2008 |
Reviews
Director Marc Abraham Approaches Something Almost Universal in 'Flash of Genius'new
Tall and lean, Abraham's comfortably casual attire--sneakers, jeans, a white T-shirt, and a dark sport coat--belies both his early years as a sports reporter and his nearly 20 years as veteran movie producer, his diverse resume including work on 1991's The Commitments and 2006's Children of Men.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
10-07-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Flash of Genius, Marc Abraham
'Eagle Eye': The Man Who Knew Too Littlenew
DJ Caruso's latest isn't like anything Alfred Hitchcock ever made (it's much too loud for that), but it does offer clear evidence that Caruso learned almost everything he knows about storytelling from the Master.
Baltimore City Paper |
Cole Haddon |
09-30-2008 |
Reviews
'Burn After Reading' Has No Story Linenew
That's the joke of the film: There is no point.
Baltimore City Paper |
Cole Haddon |
09-16-2008 |
Reviews
'The Women' Remake is Disjointednew
Director Diane English's remake of George Cukor's 1939 adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce's satiric play keeps the men almost literally out of the picture.
Baltimore City Paper |
Wendy Ward |
09-16-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Diane English, The Women
'Disaster Movie' Has That Not So Fresh Feelingnew
The pomposity of big-budget B movies can certainly be taken down a notch, but the writing/directing team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer rely too much on trailer moments for their broad comedy.
Baltimore City Paper |
Serena Donadoni |
09-09-2008 |
Reviews
Kelley Baker Channels His Rage Into His Moviesnew
Baker has made a career of complaining. But his chief gripe is that, while making a movie is easier than ever before--just find a digital-video camera, a boom mic, and some friends--the only way to get that movie seen is through a system of festivals and studios that only bet on sure things and big names.
Baltimore City Paper |
Aaron Mesh |
09-09-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Philadelphia's Peter Rose Remaps Urban Topography in His Experimental Filmsnew
He started making films in 1965, an era when experimental filmmakers sought to escape the confines of narrative and expectations of aesthetic beauty through making work that returned ceaselessly to the basic questions of the medium.
Baltimore City Paper |
Martin L. Johnson |
09-09-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: experimental film, Peter Rose
