AltWeeklies Wire
Oh, Canadanew
The Toronto Film Festival forecasts a so-so film season.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
09-24-2012 |
Movies
'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus': City Paper Grade B+new
The narrative is a showy gloss on the Faust legend with Tom Waits as a carny-huckster Beelzebub and Christopher Plummer as a monk-turned-immortal showman, and its reliance on oft-told tales and fairy tale archetypes is welcome given how the narrative seems to unravel rather than unfold.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Shaun Brady |
01-12-2010 |
Reviews
Consciously Collective: How Four Filmmakers Redefine Our Visual Historynew
Defining the archive as "a repository for any personal memories, shared histories, objects and documents through which we revisit the history of our time," Robert Cargni has assembled four programs by filmmakers who rework the archives of our visual culture.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Shaun Brady |
12-15-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Going for the Gold at the Toronto International Film Festivalnew
The Toronto International Film Festival is often a venue for anointing the preordained, the first stop on the studios' long march toward Oscar season. But it's the surprises that shine through.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
09-29-2009 |
Movies
Director R.J. Cutler Talks About 'The September Issue'new
Cutler talked with us about Vogue, creative director Grace Coddington and coming face to face with the devil herself, only to find she's not that scary after all.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Molly Eichel |
09-15-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Bobcat Goldthwait Talks About the Rebirth of His Careernew
Make no mistake -- Goldthwait is fully aware of his place in the culture. "If somebody told me Michael Winslow was making movies," he says of his Police Academy co-star, "I'd be kinda skeptical. I'd have a very arched eyebrow."
Philadelphia City Paper |
Shaun Brady |
09-08-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
The Epic, Overstuffed 'Inglourious Basterds' is WWII Through a Tarantino Lensnew
Tarantino is more interested in tailoring the WWII movie to fit his preoccupations than the other way around. He even manages to satisfy his foot fetish by having an errant high heel play a pivotal role in the climactic sequence.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
08-25-2009 |
Reviews
Francis Ford Coppola Talks About His Return to Smaller, More Personal Filmmakingnew
After a decade spent trying to mount a pair of costly passion projects, Coppola abruptly shifted gears and embarked on what he calls his "second career," which began with 2007's Youth Without Youth and continues with Tetro, the story of estranged brothers nursing the emotional wounds of their upbringing by a domineering orchestra conductor father.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
07-20-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Tetro, Francis Ford Coppola
'Bruno' Fails to Detonate With the Force of its Predecessornew
The movie's provocations connect only fitfully, and despite its comparatively strong narrative, it feels less of a piece than Borat, and more like an overlong episode of Sacha Baron Cohen's TV show.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
07-14-2009 |
Reviews
Kathryn Bigelow Talks About Taking Risks in 'The Hurt Locker'new
Bigelow says the main idea was to simulate the "surprise and chaos and randomness" of combat. "I've never been in combat," she says. "I've never been in a war. But I think that chaos is probably pretty much unimaginable unless you've been there."
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
07-14-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Natural Performances Save Dave Eggers, Vendela Vida and Sam Mendes from Themselvesnew
Its opening scene, a deadpan discussion of "vaginal flavors" during oral sex, threatens 90 minutes of the sort of self-satisfied wise-assery that too often intrudes on Dave Eggers' fiction. But Away We Go soon settles into a less strident pace, driven less by its authors' whims than by the casual airs of its leads.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Shaun Brady |
06-16-2009 |
Reviews
Pixar's 'Up' Starts out Strong but Falls Flatnew
Up's striking opening sequence is a tremendous passage, one that the rest of the movie, perhaps not surprisingly, fails to live up to.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
06-02-2009 |
Reviews
'Sunshine Cleaning' Is Too Neatnew
Mystifyingly buzzed-about at Sundance 2008, Christine Jeffs' Sunshine Cleaning is a serviceable but none-too-distinct take on the second-chance story. Also reviewed: The Edge of Love.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
03-24-2009 |
Reviews
Desperate Times: An Interview with 'Wendy and Lucy' Director Kelly Reichardtnew
The accident of timing has everything to do with how a movie is received, and there's no question Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy hits home more forcefully now than when it premiered last May. The spare, lyrical story seems tailor-made for hard times, when even the formerly comfortable are staring destitution in the face.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
01-27-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Daydream Believer: 'Waltz With Bashir'new
Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman reconstructs a tragedy using animations and his own experiences as a grunt soldier.
Philadelphia City Paper |
Sam Adams |
01-27-2009 |
Reviews
