AltWeeklies Wire
'Notorious': Drugs-to-Bitchesnew
The Notorious B.I.G. biopic creates a mythical world of glamour and sex to further pop product.
New York Press |
Armond White |
01-15-2009 |
Reviews
Biopic 'Notorious' Has Biggie-Sized Moral Lessonsnew
It's not acting that makes Notorious a miss. It's that the plot lines are convoluted, the genre's cliches are in full effect (from audio flashbacks to magazine-cover montages), and the whole thing screams both "Too soon!" and "Too innocent!"
Willamette Week |
Casey Jarman |
01-14-2009 |
Reviews
'Milk' Is a Fitting Tributenew
The success of Milk is due in part to The Times of Harvey Milk, the Oscar-winning documentary that Van Sant uses as a template. But Milk exceeds its source material.
Eugene Weekly |
Jason Blair |
12-16-2008 |
Reviews
'Milk' is Refreshingnew
Biopic balances mainstream Hollywood with gay politics.
Fast Forward Weekly |
Bryn Evans |
12-11-2008 |
Reviews
'Milk' is Compelling from Start to Finishnew
Gus Van Sant shows that not only can he put a story together; he can do it better than just about anyone working in film.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
12-11-2008 |
Reviews
Steven Soderbergh's Che Opus is Indulgentnew
Out-perversing Gus Van Sant's Milk, Soderbergh makes a four-hour-plus biopic about a historical figure without providing a glimmer of charm or narrative coherence.
New York Press |
Armond White |
12-11-2008 |
Reviews
Remembering the Lessons of Harvey Milknew
As the 30th anniversary of his assassination approached last week, coupled with the opening of the new Sean Penn biopic on his life, it became clear that the lessons of Milk are being lost to the newest generation of the LGBT community.
'Cadillac Records' is 'Dreamgirls' Litenew
Biopics are by nature formulaic, and music biopics even more so, so it should probably come as no surprise that Cadillac Records, which is essentially several music biopics in one, is all formula, all the time.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
12-04-2008 |
Reviews
Gus Van Sant's 'Milk' is Itself a Political Actnew
Milk hits theaters amid a renewed debate over the place of homosexuals in American life. Whether the cause will help the film is anyone's guess, but there seems little doubt that the film will help the cause.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
12-02-2008 |
Reviews
'Milk' Avoids Sentimentality and Rouses Cross-Cultural Folknew
Van Sant keeps the movie brisk and engaging, taking what could have been an endless parade of period vignettes and turning them into a reflection of Milk's seemingly boundless sense of humanity. What pulls everything together, however, is Sean Penn's spectacularly infectious performance.
Metro Times |
Jeff Meyers |
12-02-2008 |
Reviews
Gus Van Sant Delivers the Story of Harvey Milk in His Most Political Film to Datenew
Milk, starring Sean Penn, seems to have transformed Van Sant from an aloof, apolitical outsider into a defender of gay rights.
Willamette Week |
Staff |
11-12-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'The Express' is Silly, Simplistic, and Absurdnew
Gary Fleder's film is an unspeakably twee and sanitized Ernie Davis biopic that transforms this tale of an athlete dying young into a work of groan-inducing campiness.
The Memphis Flyer |
Addison Engelking |
10-20-2008 |
Reviews
