AltWeeklies Wire
'Treeless Mountain' is an Exception to the Sentimental Rulenew
Korean-American director So Yong Kim's semi-autobiographical film has a premise especially ripe for mawkishness. But it evades schmaltz, in no small part because the Korean actresses themselves are so resolutely dry-eyed.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
06-17-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: So Yong Kim, Treeless Mountain
Post-'Multiplicity' Michael Keaton: Sadder, Wisernew
The Merry Gentleman is nearly an excellent three-way character study of isolation and regret within the confines of a muted crime plot. But Keaton, as superb as he is with actors (most likely owing to his being an underrated actor himself), doesn't have the directorial delicacy to balance it.
Willamette Week |
Alex Peterson |
06-17-2009 |
Reviews
'Management' Gets a Little Mired in Quirkiness for its Own Sakenew
Management can't be accused of excessive realism, but it does give your good will the benefit of the doubt. Stephen Belber and company have sense enough to find their own contrivance suspicious, but heart enough, thankfully, to want to indulge it anyway.
C-Ville Weekly |
Jonathan Kiefer |
06-17-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Stephen Belber, Management
Michael Keaton Directs Himself in 'The Merry Gentleman'new
If films were punctuation marks, Michael Keaton's most famous vehicle, Batman, would be an exclamation point. But this one is an ellipsis, and it challenges a viewer to imagine what lurks between the dots.
San Antonio Current |
Steven G. Kellman |
06-17-2009 |
Reviews
The New 'Pelham': Just Another Mindless Tony Scott Productnew
Like almost every single one of Scott's movies since 1998's Enemy of the State, though, Pelham's inevitable critical drubbing probably won't stop it from making pretty good money.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
06-16-2009 |
Reviews
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
Baked Hope: Clay Animation '$9.99' Hits a Narrative Wall
Adapted from short stories by Etgar Keret, the film's tag line, that it's an animated feature which "offers slightly less than $10 worth about the meaning of life," is unfortunately all too true about a movie whose visuals far outweigh its dramatic reach.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
06-15-2009 |
Reviews
'The Proposal' Shows That a Familiar Recipe Still Works With the Right Ingredients
Director Anne Fletcher's film is funnier and more charming than it seems to have any right to be.
Salt Lake City Weekly |
Scott Renshaw |
06-15-2009 |
Reviews
With 'Whatever Works,' Woody Allen Announces His Demise
Here's a movie that feels thrown together, as if Allen is attempting to purge as many films as he can before he shuffles off his mortal coil. His legacy is going in an emotionally threadbare direction.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
06-15-2009 |
Reviews
'Management' Ends Up Engaging Despite Early Misstepsnew
Steve Zahn is at his most puppyish as the star of Management, but remember that puppies are those creatures that chew up your slippers, pee all over the place, and generally refuse to do what they’re told.
Tags: Stephen Belber, Management
'Pelham' Remake Makes It Out of the Station Only to Jump the Tracksnew
Director Tony Scott turns a presciently post-9/11 movie into an explicitly post-9/11 movie. Make that post-post-9/11: The chief bad guy only looks like a terrorist, when in fact he's an even scarier, more au courant foe -- a commodities trader!
Nashville Scene |
Jim Ridley |
06-12-2009 |
Reviews
'The Hangover' Will Leave You Laughing—and Perhaps Feeling Guiltynew
Some unlucky bastards rue the sins of male celebratory debauchery in The Hangover, a bachelor-party film that really doesn't focus on the party itself.
Tucson Weekly |
Bob Grimm |
06-11-2009 |
Reviews
'Easy Virtue' Neither Delights nor Disappointsnew
Easy Virtue does a few amusing things with the British manor-house comedy, but mostly it sticks politely to form and, in the manner of a good Englishman, neither excels beyond its station nor falls into disgrace.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
06-11-2009 |
Reviews
The Demigods of Canadian Metalnew
Anvil! The Story of Anvil picks up two decades after Canadian metal group Anvil's career, and the band is right back where it started--in Toronto, playing the odd gig and working day jobs to get by.
Boise Weekly |
Jeremiah Wierenga |
06-11-2009 |
Reviews
Jessica Biel and Her Director Are Equally Uneasy with Cowardnew
The biggest deficit in Easy Virtue is Jessica Biel, whose clomping, smugly false grasp of Noel Coward's diction would likely have her banned from the grounds of any summer stock company worth its salt.
Orlando Weekly |
Justin Strout |
06-11-2009 |
Reviews
