AltWeeklies Wire
'Elegy' Captures the Pathos of Love Lostnew
Elegy, based on the Philip Roth novel The Dying Animal, is a funeral song not just for a lost love, after all, but a lost man.
Baltimore City Paper |
Wendy Ward |
08-26-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Elegy, Isabel Coixet
Anna Faris Produces Her Way to Ditsy Comedic Successnew
The twist here is that Faris not only conceived of the idea but also produced the movie for Adam Sandler's Happy Madison Productions -- a feat sure to inspire legions of young women, who are rarely taken seriously in big-screen comedy, even a woman who is one of her generation's funniest actresses.
Baltimore City Paper |
Cole Haddon |
08-26-2008 |
Reviews
Woody Allen Muses Over the Women in His Moviesnew
Woody Allen has had nothing but complicated relationships with the women in his life, and while he's still getting along swimmingly with latest muse, Scarlett Johansson, history says that, like all good things, this, too, must come to an end.
Baltimore City Paper |
Cole Haddon |
08-19-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Human Desire Becomes Almost Kinky In 'The Duchess of Langeais'new
If you've been feasting on a steady cinematic diet of superhero blockbusters this summer, this adaptation of Honore de Balzac's novel, directed by lesser known (in this country) French New Wave alumnus Jacques Rivette, is like switching to Melba toast after too many banana splits.
Baltimore City Paper |
Violet Glaze |
07-29-2008 |
Reviews
'Nim's Island' Stays Focused on Its Girl Heronew
Living out many a young person's fantasy, preteen Nim Rusoe occupies a tropic island with her scientist father, Jack, and assorted domesticated beach/forest/sea animals such as lizards, pelicans, and seals, but no monkeys--nor anyone else, since her beloved mother died at sea.
Baltimore City Paper |
Wendy Ward |
07-29-2008 |
Reviews
'Mamma Mia!' Cast Sings Much Evilnew
Like those freakish deep-sea creatures living happily in a toxic soup of methane brine miles beneath the water's surface, the cast of Mamma Mia! is unaware they're living in an equally noxious ABBA-rich environment.
Baltimore City Paper |
Violet Glaze |
07-22-2008 |
Reviews
Roger Spottiswoode's Western-Do-Gooder-in-the-Third-World Flick Lacks Heartnew
The script suggests that the whole point of the brutal Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s was the moral redemption of a cynical British journalist and a guilty American ex-army wife.
Baltimore City Paper |
Geoffrey Himes |
07-08-2008 |
Reviews
Young Novelists Navigate Ambition and Their 20s in Coming-of-Age Flick, 'Reprise'new
Although it has its moments, for the most part it is a shopworn story of young, well-off people who confuse celebrity with greatness and suffering with an unsatisfactory job.
Baltimore City Paper |
Martin L. Johnson |
07-01-2008 |
Reviews
German Director Matthias Glasner Crafts a Remarkably Human Examination of Fear and Desirenew
While its first 20 minutes, which include a lengthy, brutal rape scene, suggest leanings toward artsploitation, the rest of the movie, released straight to DVD this week, is sober and completely uninterested in shock value.
Baltimore City Paper |
Steve Erickson |
07-01-2008 |
Reviews
'Mongol' Desperately Wants to be 'Braveheart'new
You can see these aspirations in every shot, but its meandering, anti-climactic story arcs and an unrealized main character handicap the movie from early on.
Baltimore City Paper |
Cole Haddon |
06-24-2008 |
Reviews
Digital Video Has Become as Unreliable a Narrator as Celluloidnew
Hollywood has finally started to respond to the success of YouTube and other online video sites. Cloverfield, Redacted, and Diary of the Dead purported to be "found" videos, made by someone who didn't plan for their footage to wind up in a movie theater. But video looks too good to be "real."
Baltimore City Paper |
Martin L. Johnson |
06-24-2008 |
Movies
African-American Male Exotic Dancers Protect Their Rights in 'Don't Hate'new
The documentary patiently deconstructs the myth of adult entertainment as the last refuge of the unemployed and anti-social through the story of Jim Bell's fight against one Maryland county legislature's attempts to outlaw the traditional etiquette for tipping an exotic dancer.
Baltimore City Paper |
Violet Glaze |
06-03-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Out and Proud Neil Patrick Harris Loves Playing Comedy's Favorite Pussy Houndnew
The result of Harris' willingness to poke a little fun at himself is a new Cult of NPH, with T-shirts and even a (New Line-run) What Would NPH Do? web site that Harris says confuses him more than flatters him--though he admits, with a smirk, to visiting it more than he probably should.
Baltimore City Paper |
Cole Haddon |
04-29-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'The Grand' Feels Like Inflated Sketch Comedynew
Writer and director Zak Penn's episodic comedy features a huge cast slouching toward and through a poker tournament, with every scene, from the table to the backstory inserts, feeling like an improv session.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
04-15-2008 |
Reviews
Unpolished Actors Shine in 'The Year My Parents Went on Vacation'new
Director Cao Hamburger's key achievement in this finely crafted, rich, visually appealing, and absorbing story of an extreme latchkey childhood is in the unvarnished behavior of the youngest cast members.
Baltimore City Paper |
Joe MacLeod |
04-15-2008 |
Reviews
