AltWeeklies Wire
The Guy's Chick Flicknew
This Alfie feels like Bridget Jones with a sex change or "Sex and the City" from the guy's perspective. According to chick flick formula, Alfie's Englishman chauffeur in New York learns various life lessons as he progresses from a playa seducing every woman in sight to a vulnerable charmer who's been schooled and chastened by all the girls he's loved before.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
11-04-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Alfie, Charles Shyer
Film Demonstrates How to Drown in a Wineglassnew
Perhaps the filmmaker identifies more with Jack and Miles as struggling artists -- he torments them only because they should know better. But when the director ultimately treats them with generosity, Sideways suggests that, like a fine wine, Payne's sensibility is turning less sour with age.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
11-04-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Alexander Payne, Sideways
Incredibles Proves Super; Express Fails to Impressnew
No doubt future films will improve on The Polar Express' technology, but The Incredibles finds true innovation simply by wrapping wild effects around a thoughtful metaphor. Superman's not the only one who's more powerful than a locomotive.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
11-04-2004 |
Reviews
Foxx Elevates Middling Biopicnew
Jamie Foxx, as Ray Charles, brings to this movie what the director occasionally would prefer to leave behind -- the anger and the callousness, the cunning behind the charm. If only the movie contained half as much life as Foxx, it would be something truly remarkable.
Riverfront Times |
Robert Wilonsky |
11-02-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Ray, Taylor Hackford
Icky, Icky, Ickynew
The filmmakers want to have it both ways: They do everything to convince the protagonist and the audience that it might indeed be OK to run off with a 10-year-old boy, then cop out just before she's about to throw away her life.
Tags: birth, Jonathan Glazer
Exposing Utopia's Gateway to Auschwitznew
The Holocaust hangs like a shadow over everything, but this is really more a Kurt Gerron biopic, from his days onstage to his long-awaited stint as a director. Seeing Nazism as just a passing fad, he ignored the threat to himself until it was too late.
Scars and Barsnew
John Dullaghan's documentary gathers Charles Bukowski's old friends and admirers and publishers to share their tales, but most of all it lets the dead poet tell his own story in archival footage that makes him seem more alive now that he's a beloved ghost who can harm no one else, especially himself.
Dallas Observer |
Robert Wilonsky |
11-02-2004 |
Reviews
We Don't Need Another Hero
Pixar ingenuity elevates the familiar action film stylings of The Incredibles.
Salt Lake City Weekly |
Scott Renshaw |
11-01-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Brad Bird, The Incredibles
For Sheer Carnage, Saw Shreds the Competitionnew
In case it isn't already abundantly clear, this is not a casual date movie. Many will decry it as excessive or sadistic; cultural conservatives will most certainly deem it abhorrent. This is a movie for those who think Natural Born Killers wasn't sufficiently bloodthirsty.
House of Strainnew
The Grudge tries in vain to combine American and Japanese horror genre sensibilities, with clunky, derivative, disappointing results.
Jackson Free Press |
Paul Dearing |
10-29-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Takashi Shimizu, The Grudge
Buffy's Tokyo Adventurenew
The Grudge remake shows signs of Hollywood meddling, but it's still a wonderfully terrifying effort.
Tucson Weekly |
Bob Grimm |
10-28-2004 |
Reviews
Cramming Catharsisnew
While there are some nice moments, Around the Bend bombs because of uneven, forced attempts to warm the heart.
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
10-28-2004 |
Reviews
Born Againnew
If your dead husband returned to you in the body of a 10-year-old boy, would you seize the opportunity for your romance to be born again or would you call Child Welfare?
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
10-28-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: birth, Jonathan Glazer
Charlie, We Hardly Knew Yenew
Shot over the course of 10 years, underground filmmaker Jim Van Bebber tells the story we all think we know. This time, however, the story graphically unfolds from the perspective of Charles Manson.
Austin Chronicle |
Marc Savlov |
10-28-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Jim Van Bebber, The Manson Family
Bio Hazardsnew
Ray Charles, we can't stop loving you, even though this formulaic biopic lacks your original style.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
10-28-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Ray, Taylor Hackford
