AltWeeklies Wire
'Step Brothers': Blended Family Valuesnew
Director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell relish working on an absurdist high wire, and the whole point of their movies isn't how any one scene relates to another but rather how much they can chip away at the logic that holds most movies together. Baghead also reviews.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-25-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Was Roman Polanski a Pedophile?new

Along its winding road to crucifying the American judiciary, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired grinds some very blunt axes, makes some dizzying leaps to judgment and does a lot of silly editing with movie clips.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
07-18-2008 |
Reviews
'Mamma Mia!' Big-Screen Musical Drains the Fun Out of ABBAnew
For all its halfhearted stabs at catering to the transatlantic youth market (with a little gift tucked in for the stage show’'s voluminous gay following), Mamma Mia! is a (Shirley) valentine to 50-something we're-not-done-yet broads.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
07-18-2008 |
Reviews
Heath Ledger Cements His Legend Playing Nemesis to Christian Bale's Gotham City Heronew

What a brooding pleasure it is to return to Nolan's Gotham City -- if pleasure is the right word for a movie that gazes so deeply and sometimes despairingly into the souls of restless men.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
07-18-2008 |
Reviews
'Generation Kill' Author Evan Wright Talks Ass Time, Crack Highs and Why Roadblocks Killnew

Wright, who wrote parts of the script and was involved in other aspects of the production, has invited me over before the series debut for a private screening. But though we started the show more than a half-hour ago, we haven't gotten very far -- five minutes in at best. Despite apologetically promising to let me watch, Wright keeps pausing the DVD to offer behind-the-scenes tidbits that suddenly evolve into fascinating non sequiturs and counterintuitive spiels about the war. I'm not complaining.
L.A. Weekly |
Matthew Fleischer |
07-11-2008 |
TV
Heath Ledger's Final Days Among the Massesnew

Birthed in a big loft in midtown Manhattan by one Los Angeleno, Amato, and one New Yorker, Jon Ramos, in 2002, the collective was transformed in the fall of 2006, when the members set up shop in Hollywood, and Amato's longtime friend, Heath Ledger, started channeling some of his creative energy, and eventually, money, into the company. It was at the Masses that Ledger and his peers converged around a notion; taught each other how to shoot, light and edit; plotted out music and record labels; and sought to develop a little engine of creativity.
L.A. Weekly |
Randall Roberts |
07-11-2008 |
Movies
John Waters: The Trash Auteur Speaks Out -- Way Outnew

On gay marriage, the presidential race, the corrupting influence of irony and the release of his new 'Til Death Do Us Part DVD.
L.A. Weekly |
Steven Mikulan |
07-07-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'Hancock', America's Low-rent Superhero, Just in Time for the Recessionnew
Even bearing in mind the conventional wisdom that superman movies keep coming back to cheer us through hard times, I'm not clear whether Hancock is meant to be a representative of the homeless, a midcareer-burnout case or a troubled brother from another planet.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
07-07-2008 |
Reviews
Director Timur Bekmambetov's Stock Rises with Action Fansnew

Bekmambetov happily agrees that the movie may be the year's fastest, bloodiest and chattiest Hollywood picture, but he denies that it's a celebration of ruthlessness.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
06-27-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
'The Love Guru': Mike Myers' Cosmic Goofnew

Mostly it's dreary dick jokes and elephant poop, slack directing by Marco Schnabel (a second unit on the Austin Powers movies) and, of all fatal errors, Mike Myers shooting for cuddly.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
06-20-2008 |
Reviews
'Kit Kittredge': As American As Overpriced Dollsnew

In Mattel co-production, all it takes to cure the Depression is a little Miss Sunshine.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
06-20-2008 |
Reviews
Director Sergei Bodrov Retraces the Footsteps of Genghis Khannew

Just over a decade ago, Bodrov made his mark in the West with his Academy Award–nominated movie Prisoner of the Mountains. After frustrating stints as a director-for-hire, he did the smart thing and made the movie he wanted to make.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
06-13-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Controversy at Cannes: 'The Headless Woman'new

At Cannes, one can reliably emerge from seeing a near masterpiece only to discover that everyone -- or at least the influential industry trade newspapers -- has declared the very same movie une catastrophe! Such is the case with The Headless Woman.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-30-2008 |
Movies
Norwegian Pie: Joachim Trier's 'Reprise'new
Like their American youth-movie counterparts, the 20-something guy friends of Norwegian director Trier's Reprise spend a lot of time talking about and clumsily pursuing the fairer sex. Only, his characters are as much (or more) concerned with getting published as getting laid.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-30-2008 |
Reviews
Despite the Labels, SATC Movie is a Canal Street Knockoffnew
Trust me, there's precious little to give away other than labels, for though Sex and the City is every bit as busy as its HBO progenitor was, it's mostly plotless, not to mention pointless.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
05-30-2008 |
Reviews