AltWeeklies Wire
Club Lifenew
A dreamy mood movie, 3-Iron is at times deliciously sensual, creepily somnolent, whimsically spiritual, and disturbingly violent. But it is never quite coherent.
Rose in Bloomnew
The title characters in this highly literate film are an unreconstructed hippie remnant from the 1960s and his dreamy-eyed teenage daughter, who live in self-imposed exile on an island off the mid-Atlantic coast.
The Grapes of Mirthnew
Jonathan Nossiter's documentary exposing the globalization of the wine industry is subversive, funny and humane.
Love, African Stylenew
A drama about Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in post-apartheid South Africa devolves into a clumsy romance.
Finder's Feenew
Damian Cunningham is an angel-faced, 7-year-old boy who's lost his mum and gets advice on how to spend a load of cash from the late, great saints.
Get Shoddynew
Be Cool is redundant to the point of being absolutely pointless, a sequel that's almost a note-for-note, beat-for-beat redo of its predecessor, only with all the entertaining stuff left out.
Tags: Be Cool, F. Gary Gray
The Camera's Weeping Eyenew
This is a gorgeous, wrenching film in which a concerned Westerner enters a dark and hidden world and, instead of merely observing it, endeavors to change it.
He's Got Legsnew
The true story of a Thai transgender kickboxer inpires a well-intentioned film with a heart of gold -- and a brain of lead.
Searching for Shylocknew
Pacino plays Shakespeare's most contentious character in a a gripping, highly cinematic adaptation of a gorgeous work of theater.
Lights, Camera, Gospel!new
San Francisco's Voice of Pentecost is a church with a mission to take on Hollywood. Its production company, Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks, is working on a retelling of the Bible story of Joseph, set in a science-fiction world of the future.
Run, Dick, Runnew
If you know your history, you might suspect this film isn't quite a suspense thriller. Rather, it's a sort of updated Death of a Salesman.
Father of African Cinema Produces a Beautiful Polemicnew
The 81-year-old Senagelese director's film about girls fleeing ritual circumcision has a moral center that is painfully clear. It also expresses each character's humanity.
Cuts Like a Knifenew
To say that actress Ziyi Zhang burns like a young sword-wielding Audrey Hepburn, would slight a masterpiece that must be seen to be believed.
Crash and Yearnnew
Martin Scorsese's bio of Howard Hughes is the most sumptuous of this year's biographical films -- appropriate, given its subject matter's penchant for wasting millions chasing fantasies other men couldn't even afford to dream about.
Sour Lemonynew
The villain of Lemony Snicket, Count Olaf, just may be Jim Carrey's finest role. The rest of the movie, however, isn't quite up to Carrey's level.
