AltWeeklies Wire
Documentary of Philippe Petit's Incredible Coup Inspires Human Spiritnew
Watching Man on Wire seven years after the fall of the Twin Towers sends chills down the spine: There is no other way to put it. The artistic coup described in this documentary is awe-inspiring and exhilarating, nothing short of a celebration of human potential and fearlessness.
Charleston City Paper |
Jason A. Zwiker |
09-11-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: James Marsh, Man on Wire
'Elite Squad' Examines Brazil's Special Police
After the humane tenor of writer/director Jose Padilha's insightful documentary Bus 174 (2002), it's surprising that the filmmaker's follow-up in an all-out, right-wing exploitation movie about Rio de Janeiro's brutal BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) squad of assassins that view all social strata of Brazilians as human detritus.
Tags: Elite Squad, Jose Padilha
'Choke': Against the Mainstream
In adapting Chuck Palahnuik's novel of sexual addiction, con artistry, and subjugated maturity screenwriter/director/actor Clark Gregg creates a fantastical brand of satire that is engaging as it is diabolically ribald.
Tags: Choke, Clark Gregg
Expect a Different Kind of Happy Ending in 'Year of the Fish'
Year of the Fish is a tawdry tale about a Chinese immigrant girl sold into Manhattan massage parlor servitude.
Tags: David Kaplan, Year of the Fish
'Humboldt County': In Pot He Trusts
Peter (Jeremy Strong) is a repressed UCLA med student who finds his inner voice after spending time in the nurturing company of some Northern California pot farmers in an inspired independent comic drama filled with nuanced performances and delicate narrative touches.
A Checklist of the Cinema Season's Hits and Missesnew
The summer movie wrap up. Film critic Matt Brunson's picks for best and worst cameo, best performance and more.
Creative Loafing (Charlotte) |
Matt Brunson |
09-11-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
Spike Lee Tries is His Hand at War in 'Miracle at St. Anna'
Lee boxes outside of his directorial weight-class with a war story bogged down with ham-handed smacks of magical realism and over-pronounced examples of racial prejudice.
Tags: Spike Lee, Miracle at St. Anna
'Obscene': The Rise and Fall of Barney Rosset
Debut filmmakers Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor tell the dynamic story of Rosset's iconic rise and fall as the owner of Grove Press and Evergreen Review, responsible for publishing such 20th century literary icons as Allen Ginsberg, Samuel Beckett, Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, Malcolm X, and Jack Kerouac.
'Battle In Seattle' Examines the WTO
A searing fictionalized telling of America's most recently effective public protest at 1999's WTO convention in Seattle, writer/director Stuart Townsend's debut feature makes a point of tracing the WTO's global stranglehold to its post WWII roots.
Tags: Stuart Townsend, Battle In Seattle
Avoid 'Towelhead'
As its openly racist title implies Towelhead is an exploitation movie that wears its shock value on its guilty sleeve.
'I Served the King of England' and 'The Grocer's Son': Churl Interruptednew
The selfish leads in two films make for familiar and unsatisfying redemption tales.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
09-11-2008 |
Reviews
'Mister Foe' Tries to Come of Age
Quirky for its own sake, Mister Foe (originally titled Hallum Foe) is an opaque attempt at a coming-of-age-via-modified-incest story that follows malcontent Hallam (Jamie Bell) after the suspicious death of his mother lands another woman (Claire Forlani) in his filthy rich father's bed.
Tags: David Mackenzie, Mister Foe
'The Women' Misses the Mark
Piecemeal and earnest to a fault, this remake of George Cukor's 1939 film relies so much on the elite world of humorless, filthy rich New York women that it excludes most of its would-be target fans.
Tags: Diane English, The Women
'Burn After Reading': The Coens Serve Up Laughs
The writing/directing team of Joel and Ethan Coen create a laugh-a-minute black comedy that pokes fun at America's surveillance-dominated existence, plastic surgery desires, and all out greed.
'Igor': A Monster Mash
John Cusack is the voice of Igor, a hunchbacked laboratory assistant to the doomed mad scientist Dr. Glickenstein (voiced by John Cleese) in this irresistible feel-good animated comedy that's rooted in early monster movie classics.
