AltWeeklies Wire
Film Looks at Mexican-Americans Soldiersnew
Most recent documentaries examine the politics of war rather than look at the people who actually fight. But filmmaker Charley Trujillo opens "Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam" (PBS, Aug. 31, 10 p.m.) with a story about picking cotton with his parents after he returned from the Vietnam War.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Heather Kuldell |
08-26-2004 |
TV
Tags: TV
Vibrant Hero Reconsiders Revenge Filmsnew
An Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film in 2003, Hero plays less like a conventional action film than a grand master's chess game, and it unfolds with a cold yet dreamlike beauty.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
08-26-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Zhang Yimou, Hero
Recalling Music, Protest of Woodstock Eranew
Bob Smeaton's documentary of Canada's 1970 Festival Express concert tour captures the era's peace-and-love ideals unified by rock 'n' roll, as well as the more militant, violent impulses of the protest movement. Watching Festival Express is like seeing the performances of Woodstock 1969 alongside the riots of Woodstock 1999.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
08-26-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Bob Smeaton, Festival Express
Director's Cut Resurrects Cult Filmnew
Hoping to capitalize on the film's growing cult following, Kelly's story of teenager Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal), who has apocalyptic visions of the future, is being re-released theatrically. Kelly's Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut features additional '80s pop tunes and 20 more minutes of footage meant to clarify some of the story's loose ends.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-26-2004 |
Reviews
Mira Nair Spins Thackeray's Classic Heroinenew
Nair's multifaceted work has often focused on outsiders, from the Bombay strippers in her 1985 documentary India Cabaret, to the Cuban exiles living in Miami in The Perez Family. It thus seemed almost inevitable that Nair would one day turn to Vanity Fair, which she's loved since she first read it as a 16-year-old growing up in Orissa, India.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-26-2004 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Mira Nair, Vanity Fair
Networks Launch Two Spouse-Swapping Showsnew
ABC claims that Fox's "Trading Spouses: Meet Your New Mommy" (Tuesdays, 8 p.m.) ripped off its upcoming "Wife Swap." But perhaps both networks' execs caught the episode of "Chappelle's Show" when the husbands of white and black families traded households.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Heather Kuldell |
08-19-2004 |
TV
Tags: TV
Spike Lee Blows His Credibilitynew
When Spike Lee was filming She Hate Me, a friend should have taken the filmmaker aside and told him he would better serve everyone's time -- that of his cast and crew, his audience, himself -- by turning the feature into a soft-core adult film.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
08-19-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Spike Lee, She Hate Me
Postmodern Infidelity Brewsnew
We Don't Live Here Anymore often feels like Reality Bites-brand slackers playacting at tweedy adulthood, trying to convey how, in the post-college, post-kids landscape, real ennui -- and real disappointment -- set in.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-19-2004 |
Reviews
Chinese Melodrama Derailsnew
As Anna Karenina taught us, doomed love affairs and trains definitely don't mix. The Chinese film Zhou Yu's Train certainly subscribes to that deadly equation in this Instant Romance (just add tears) about a woman, a man ... and a locomotive.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-13-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Zhou Yu's Train, Zhou Sun
A Siren Confesses Her Secrets in Talky Thrillernew
In an effort to maximize the intrigue, director Patrice Leconte uses some Bernard Herman-style music to suggest a build to thriller payoff, though that build is largely a ruse. The film's first half, with its promise of deep mysteries to be cracked wide open, never materializes in its less satisfying second half.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-13-2004 |
Reviews
Three Willful Women Cope in a Post-Stalin Worldnew
Since Otar Left, a French production set in the former Russian republic of Georgia, treats the other side of emigrant life: those people -- often old, often female -- left behind, who wait for letters, money and a keyhole glimpse into life on the other side.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-13-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Julie Bertucelli, Since Otar Left
Garden State Finds Humor in Homecomingnew
Why Andrew Largeman has shut down his emotions, and how he switches them back on again, provides Garden State with its loose plot. Director Zach Braff's film shows that we can't escape our formative influences.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
08-13-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Garden State, Zach Braff
Home Makes It Hard Not to Be Movednew
First-time director Michael Mayer's flawed, at times superficial, but nevertheless affecting adaptation of Michael Cunningham's novel explores anew the profound effect relationships -- either nurturing or truncated -- can have on his characters.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
08-05-2004 |
Reviews
A Fable about Public Fear and Homeland Securitynew
The director knows exactly how to prey on our innate fears of spooky forests and unseen bogeymen, but shows too much confidence in his directing and screenwriting abilities.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
08-05-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: M. Night Shyamalan, The Village
Cabbie Becomes Pawn of Backseat Drivernew
Collateral's subject matter makes it the ideal collaboration for Tom Cruise and Michael Mann, two of cinema's most driven perfectionists.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
08-05-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Michael Mann, Collateral
