AltWeeklies Wire
'Rocket Science': A Charming Narrative
Positively winning coming-of-age drama/comedy stacks the deck with newcomer Reece Daniel Thompson as Hal Hefner, a stuttering New Jersey High School student.
Tags: Jeffrey Blitz, rocket science
'Fay Grim': Inarticulate and Grueling
Woe is he, or she, that goes in search of Hal Hartley, the mojo-handy director of Henry Fool.
Tags: Fay Grim, Hal Hartley
'ShowBusiness': The Work Behind the Curtains
Even audiences not enamored with Broadway musicals could find Dori Berinstein's documentary entertaining and informative.
'Death at a Funeral': Over the Top, Backwards
Director Frank Oz nearly redeems himself after his disastrous Stepford Wives remake with a British black comedy.
Tags: Death at a Funeral, Frank Oz
'Hostel: Part II': Not Much of a Sequel
Similarly gory and exploitative as its torture-porn predecessor, writer/director Eli Roth's horror sequel is nothing more than a makeover of Hostel substituted with female characters.
Tags: Eli Roth, Hostel: Part II
'Your Mommy Kills Animals': A Sobering Doc
A boisterous debate over what actions should be taken against organizations that abuse animals.
Angelina Jolie Talks About 'A Mighty Heart'
The star and supermom, who plays the rather homely-looking Mariane Pearl with every curly hair flawlessly in place, sat down to talk about the film at Cannes.
Maui Time |
Cole Smithey |
06-04-2007 |
Profiles & Interviews
Third Hollywood Post-9/11 Same as The Other Two
A Mighty Heart, like the other post-9/11 Hollywood movies (United 93 and World Trade Center), is a would-be documentary subject inflated with promotion in its incarnation as a narrative feature.
Cannes 2007: From the Wrong Side Up
Coming on the heels of the French elections that voted in conservative nominee Nicolas Sarkosy, the Cannes Film Festival kicked off with a whimper rather than the expected bang of its 60th anniversary.
Frontrunners by Default: An Utterly Reckless 2008 Preview
The official frontrunners are Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani -- reality, at least 18 months before the 2008 presidential election, looks different.
Maui Time |
Ted Rall |
05-15-2007 |
Commentary
Bugged: William Friedkin Follows the Trajectory of American Fear
William Friedkin ratchets up suspense and terror to an almost unbearable level with his adaptation of Tracy Letts' award-winning 2004 Off-Broadway play Bug.
Tags: Bug, William Friedkin
William Friedkin Talks About 'Bug'
I spoke with "Billy" Friedkin in the library dining room of a sleek purple and blue yacht floating beside a pier at last year's Cannes film festival where Bug won the International Critic's Prize.
Maui Time |
Cole Smithey |
05-14-2007 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Bug, William Friedkin
A Very Long Engagement: The Cannes Film Festival Turns 60
Round-the-clock screenings, celebrity interviews, crowded press conferences, elite parties, luxurious lunches, word-of-mouth buzz and chance encounters with icons of cinema fly by in a dizzying blur.
Generational Bubble: Searching for an Anti-hero in a 70s Mold
Luke Wilsons written, acted and debut-co-directed homage to offbeat 70s era satires, ala Rancho Deluxe, is a study in movie-by-committee entropy.
George Tenet: The Bush Era Finds Its Albert Speer
Careerist enablers like tell-all-too-late George Tenet are more morally repugnant than "true believer" ideologues Bush and Cheney.
Maui Time |
Ted Rall |
05-04-2007 |
Commentary
Tags: Iraq, WAR, CIA, Bush, Storm, Powell, Colin Powell, George Tenet, resignation, Slam Dunk, Tenet
