AltWeeklies Wire
Pedro Almodovar Goes Deep in Newest Flicknew
Almodovar's latest film manages to balance queeny bravado and a malaise so deeply buried it approaches the hysteria of classic Hollywood melodramas. Married to gay misbehavior, this makes for a heady brew.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
01-21-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Pedro Almodóvar, Bad Education
What Should Be Edgy Flick Never Deliversnew
The opening promises an edgy action flick that the rest of the film never delivers. Consider it an Assault on Carpenter's originality and your own spare time.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
01-13-2005 |
Reviews
Cinematic Swoon Over Operatic Action Flicknew
In addition to its essential love story, House of Flying Daggers is a class tale of characters who are pawns in larger political forces and whose endless battles have a sad futility. The characters fight for their masters, squandering lives that should be spent in love.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
01-13-2005 |
Reviews
Hotshot Go-Getter Meets Family Mannew
Weitz's film is a soulful plea for a return to warm and fuzzy values like raising decent children and treating people with compassion in a world that has become hardwired for mercenary tactics born out of economic fear.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
01-13-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Paul Weitz, In Good Company
A Pedophile Hunts for Redemptionnew
By placing a pedophile at the center of the story, director Nicole Kassell enters uncomfortable territory. Fortunately, Kevin Bacon's controlled, empathetic performance makes The Woodsman into an honest bid to respect the sinner while hating the sin.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
01-13-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Nicole Kassell, The Woodsman
Renaissance Mennew
Filmmaker Rodney Evans builds a bridge between generations, linking young, gay African-American artists of today with those of the Harlem Renaissance. The film's subject proves so rich with potential that Evans doesn't know what to do with it all.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
01-06-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Brother to Brother, Rodney Evans
Gripping Hotel Rwanda Salutes Unlikely Heronew
Just as Schindler's List recounted the unexpected heroism of the apolitical industrialist-turned-savior of Holocaust-era Jews, Hotel Rwanda salutes an obscure hotel manager who rescued 1,200 lives during the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
01-06-2005 |
Reviews
Tags: Terry George, Hotel Rwanda
Spacey Serves up Ham and Cheese in Darin Biopicnew
This insufferable vanity project is most excruciating for revealing that beneath the super cool, ironic distance of Kevin Spacey's actorly street cred beats the heart of a hambone.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
12-30-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Kevin Spacey, beyond the sea
The Worst of Times vs. the Best of Timesnew
A reviewer who found this year's films uninspiring debates with a colleague who asserts it's been an incredible year for movies.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman and Felicia Feaster |
12-30-2004 |
Profiles & Interviews
Unforgettable Tale Celebrates 50th Anniversarynew
Few films have punched as wide a hole through America’s self-image of incorruptibility as On the Waterfront.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
12-16-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Elia Kazan, On the Waterfront
Little Sugar but Lots of Ham in Lemony Snicket new
The film adaptation puts director Brad Silberling in a position as precarious as any the Baudelaires ever face. Silberling struggles to resist Hollywood's knee-jerk love of happy endings while staying faithful to Snicket's cheerful contempt for upbeat material.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
12-16-2004 |
Reviews
Patronizing Spanglish Requires Suspension of Beliefnew
This film is pure pidgin entertainment. Communicating badly in either tongue, Spanglish is a mutation of comedy and drama that makes you want to cringe and laugh in all the wrong places.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
12-16-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Spanglish, James L. Brooks
A Very Long Engagement is no Amelienew
A Very Long Engagement sports a benign, romantic-sounding title, but arrives with the shocking force of a mail bomb, not a love note.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
12-16-2004 |
Reviews
Providing the Minimum Requirement of Movie Mayhemnew
Debut director David Goyer wrote all three Blade films and improves on the sleek, empty music video of the first, but falls short of the gothic, propulsive video game of the second. Though more gritty and humorous, Blade Trinity tries too hard to be edgy.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
12-09-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Blade Trinity, David Goyer
The Inheritance Portrays the Sapping of a Soulnew
The family dynasty storyline and wife vying with mama for sonny boy's affection can give The Inheritance a mildly soapy, "Dallas" groove. But it's that hollow angst at the center that gives the film its final air of sadness and resignation.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
12-09-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Per Fly, The Inheritance
