AltWeeklies Wire
Evocation of Madness
An immaculately art-directed plunge into bewilderment, Stay begins with a disorienting car crash that recalls the opening of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Blue.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
10-27-2005 |
Reviews
Unreal World
This film about a journalist's investigation of two former song-and-joke partners would have been more convincing with actors who played both sides of their characters.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
10-27-2005 |
Reviews
Reality Bites
Cynics have suggested that Hollywood loves no subject more than itself. And Reel Paradise proves that you don't need a big studio--or even the pretense of fiction--to make a self-important movie about movies.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
10-20-2005 |
Reviews
Sugarcoated Tale
This DreamWorks production about a little girl and a special horse is slow-moving and treacly, and--unless you actually buy that bit of marketing flimflam about being "inspired by a true story"--it yields no surprises.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
10-20-2005 |
Reviews
Character Deferences
Set in Minnesota's Iron Range as Anita Hill testifies against Clarence Thomas on TV, North Country is a new Warner Bros. movie in the spirit of the old. It's based on one woman miner's crusade to be treated with decency.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
10-20-2005 |
Reviews
A Reporter in Search of a Novel
Given a lurid case, a reporter becomes a film-noir character, stalking dark alleys in search of light. This setup works even if the reporter is a squeaky-voiced gay narcissist who combines the mannerisms of the Deep South with those of the Manhattan intellectual.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
10-20-2005 |
Reviews
Green Street Hooligans
It's understandable that Elijah Wood should want to atone for being a hobbit.
Washington City Paper |
Louis Bayard |
10-14-2005 |
Reviews
The War Within
American cinema has enjoyed a long love affair with the antihero, but the protagonist of The War Within may just take the cake.
Washington City Paper |
Jason Powell |
10-14-2005 |
Reviews
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till
The horrific death of 14-year-old Emmett Till is not an untold story -- at least not as presented by Keith A. Beauchamp's vivid documentary.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
10-14-2005 |
Reviews
The Singing Defective
This is Hollywood's sorta-true version of Domino Harvey's story of a model turned bounty-hunter.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
10-14-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Tony Scott, Domino
The Singing Defective
In this film, the ideal '50s housewife goes beyond rearing her children and keeping a spotless home. She instantly defuses her spouse's alcoholic rages, with a quip, a bright smile, or, when things got especially tense, maybe a flung bowl of Jell-O.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
10-14-2005 |
Reviews
Solitary Refinement
Amid a glut of onscreen romances that contain between 90 and 99 percent schtick, Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown mercifully varies the boy-meets-girl formula. Yet Crowe's latest homage to Crowe is overstuffed and blunt.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
10-14-2005 |
Reviews
Waiting...
Let me tell you from experience: When restaurant workers struggle to find the humor in their soul-sucking jobs, they’re not thinking about genitals.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
10-07-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Rob McKittrick, Waiting ...
In Her Shoes
If for no other reason, admire In Her Shoes for this: Perhaps for the first time in a gooey family film, the introduction of a grandma actually improves the story.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
10-07-2005 |
Reviews
Vegetable Matters
Lumpy and tuberish, the clay-on-wire creations of animator Nick Park sag with the weight of years. Yet who'd have guessed that clay could feel so light?
Washington City Paper |
Louis Bayard |
10-07-2005 |
Reviews
