AltWeeklies Wire
Footloose remake gives us something old and something newnew
Director Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow, Black Snake Moan) places his affinity for Southern settings front and center by transplanting the original film's Utah setting to a burg in Georgia.
Mozart's Sister acknowledges complexity even as it invents factsnew
Filmmaker Rene Feret doesn't massage what we know about how Nannerl's talents were allowed to wither, purely on account of her gender, in order to create a comforting narrative.
George Clooney's New Election Thriller, The Ides of Marchnew
Three years into the Obama presidency, Clooney makes a movie about a Democratic candidate whose high-minded oratory belies someone who, when pressed, surrenders his ideals for the sake of political expedience and self-preservation.
Fighting robots and Spielberg's daddy issues in Real Steelnew
After a while, the fighting scenes feel like a reward you get every 10 minutes for sitting through the movie's incessantly sappiness.
Young lovers and Rip City in Gus Van Sant's Restlessnew
This is a love story that doesn't put too much in its lovers' way, even though it does put a time limit on it.
Tags: Restless, Gus Van Sant
The Watchful Eyes of Intelligent Young Girls in Higher Ground and The Hedgehognew
In two films hitting art houses this weekend, the watchful eyes of intelligent young girls become an effective lens into the mystifying, sad and sometimes violent ways of adults.
Moneyball Explores New Strategies for Successnew
The new film Moneyball may be about an old pastime, baseball, but it's reminiscent of a film about a more contemporary activity.
Tags: Moneyball
Male Heartbreak in Nasty, Nihilistic Bellflowernew
If you're a not a man who just got screwed over by a woman you thought you loved, and you now spend your days in a stifling rage, muttering "That bitch!" every time you think of, well, that bitch, then there is really no reason for you to go see Bellflower.
The Future Charts Modern Anxietynew
The Future follows Sophie and Jason (July and Hamish Linklater, both of them sincere and focused), a couple in their mid-30s emerging from an agonizingly believable extended adolescence.
Tags: The Future
Aliens land in an English slum in Attack the Blocknew
In Attack the Block, English comedy writer/ performer and first-time filmmaker Joe Cornish trumps political shortcomings with brilliant, surprising filmmaking, turning a modest sci-fi comedy into the perfect example of what fun movies should be like.
Two brothers duke it out MMA-style in Warriornew
I was totally unprepared for the quality and gritty emotional depth of Warrior. Its real lessons about betrayal, familial strife and America's widening stratification are universal and timeless.
Hunting Nazis in The Debtnew
The Debt is an American remake of the 2007 Israeli drama-thriller HaHov, which concerns the particularly fraught world of Nazi hunting.
A Rogue Irish Cop in The Guardnew
Despite his proclivities for booze, hookers and the occasional tab of acid, you would want this cop on your side.
A Parallel World Comes Into View in Another Earthnew
One of the best things about Another Earth is that it's genuinely unpredictable. It also gives you space to ask tantalizing questions as you watch.
A Holocaust Mystery in Sarah's Keynew
Sarah's Key tells the story of an American expat journalist in Paris who discovers that the apartment she's about to move into has a deeply unsettling connection to the past.
Tags: Sarah's Key
