AltWeeklies Wire
Film Creates Atmosphere of Gnawing, Unrelenting Tensionnew
With the possible exception of Spike Lee's 25th Hour, no recent film has distilled the post-Sept. 11 sense of anxiety and dread better than iconoclastic Austrian director Michael Haneke's The Time of the Wolf, a gripping, brilliantly conceived post-apocalyptic drama.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
09-23-2004 |
Reviews
Fry's Film Shines With Social Satirenew
His experiences prepped Fry for writing and directing the satiric social X-ray of London's glitterati in the 1930s. He takes some liberties with Evelyn Waugh's second novel, but he lives up to the book's precise comic timing and scalding satire.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
09-23-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Bright Young Things, Stephen Fry
English Comedy-Thriller Reanimates Zombie Genrenew
While drawn-out sieges prove a mainstay of the zombie genre, this film builds to moments of anguished intensity that play against the deadpan comedy that came before. Wright and his actors handle the heavy dramatics better than you'd expect.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
09-23-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Edgar Wright, Shaun of the Dead
Sky Captain Needs Work on Charactersnew
The soft-focus, Technicolor-inspired footage offers an incredibly lush fantasy world, but filmmakers fell into the Star Wars prequel trap by paying so much attention to the digital effects that they forgot to work on the slow-moving story and undeveloped characters.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Heather Kuldell |
09-15-2004 |
Reviews
The Wire Earns its Critical Acclaimnew
Each episode moves up and down the chain of command of both organizations, from junkies and street-corner pushers to Baltimore's most powerful elected leaders.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Heather Kuldell |
09-15-2004 |
TV
Murder on the Campaign Trailnew
With Silver City, Sayles lives up to the stereotype of the socially conscientious but humorless leftist. Imagine Ralph Nader trying to crack a joke on the campaign trail and you'll get a sense of Silver City's discomfort with comedy.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
09-15-2004 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: John Sayles, Silver City
Ju-on Marks Turning Point for Japanese Horrornew
Technically, this is Shimizu's third theatrical feature in a franchise begun with a made-for-TV film called Ju-on: The Curse. That might explain Shimizu's fiendish resistance to lay out the film's supernatural rules. The audience stays as off-balance as the characters.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
09-15-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Takashi Shimizu, Ju-on: The Grudge
First-Time Director Lance Rivera Never Finds the Laid-Back Tonenew
Too often The Cookout leaves comic opportunities half-baked while smothering the audience in flavorless homilies about family values.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
09-09-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Lance Rivera, The Cookout
Gallo Uses Style as a Distraction From Lack of Originalitynew
All of the negative hype and reports of boos from audiences at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival prove to be legitimate responses to Vincent Gallo's masturbatory opus, The Brown Bunny.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
09-09-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: The Brown Bunny, Vincent Gallo
Philosophical Documentary is About Everything and Nothingnew
If you yawned at the high-tech action scenes of the Matrix movies but loved all the verbiage about the nature of reality, feed your head with What the #$*! Do We Know!?
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
09-09-2004 |
Reviews
Two Danish Filmmakers Make Art Out of Playnew
Von Trier asked Leth to remake his 1967 short The Perfect Human five times according to von Trier's exacting specifications. The resulting documentary is the ambitious and at times flawed The Five Obstructions, in which Leth and his films are analyzed, scrutinized and cut to pieces by von Trier.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
09-09-2004 |
Reviews
Criminal Teaches Con Film New Tricksnew
Grifter films have become so common that audiences quickly spot their tricks. We know they'll try to con us. Argentina's con-man drama Nine Queens, and the new American remake Criminal, both realize that we're no longer easy marks.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
09-09-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Criminal, Gregory Jacobs
Lawn Chair Larry a Flimsy Excuse for a Feature Film.new
In 1982, Los Angeleno Larry Walters earned notoriety by attaching 42 weather balloons to a lawn chair and taking off on a near-fatal flight at 16,000 feet. Jeff Balsmeyer's new Australian comedy takes the episode, transplants it Down Under and recasts "Lawn Chair Larry" as Danny Deckchair in a flimsy excuse for a feature film.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
09-02-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Danny Deckchair, Jeff Balsmeyer
Bang Rajan Rumbles in the Junglenew
In 1765, when Burma's massive army invaded Siam (now called Thailand), a remote village named Bang Rajan held the attackers at bay for five months. The name "Bang Rajan" strikes patriotic chords in Thailand today, explaining why, despite characters as flat as shadow puppets, Tanit Jitnukul's film become the most successful Thai film in the country's history.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
09-02-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Bang Rajan, Tanit Jitnukul
First-Time Director Gets Stuck in a Genre Whirlpoolnew
Mean Creek feels like a supremely milquetoast film made not out of passion, but out of some assurance that a tight screenplay with all the characters' motives and artsy cinematography stacked domino-neatly in a row guarantees success. But as any game player knows, orderly dominoes are made to tumble.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
09-02-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Mean Creek, Jacob Aaron Estes
