AltWeeklies Wire
'Dexter' is Killing Us Softly with Slaughternew
You know a show has gotten under your skin when it begins to trigger nightmares. That's the case with Showtime's Dexter, now winding up its third season after building, with frustrating slowness, its intertwined partnership narratives revolving around serial killer-turned-crime fighter Dexter Morgan.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Kimberly Chun |
12-04-2008 |
TV
'War Child' is Too Self-Congratulatory to Truly Engagenew
C. Karim Chrobog's debut feature documentary follows Emmanuel Jal, now based in London, as he travels to the United States to lecture and perform -- mostly for young international audiences with more liberal guilt than rhythm -- and later returns to Sudan for the first time in 18 years.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
12-04-2008 |
Reviews
The Music Soars and the Story Bores in 'Cadillac Records'new
The story obeys the same music-biography conventions that we last saw being parodied in Walk Hard. This film is by Darnell Martin, the writer-director who has largely been confined to TV since his 1994 filmmaking debut I Like It Like That, a movie pitched at Latino audiences at a time when very few other movies were. He doesn't have the advantage here of working in a field where there's no competition, and his sense of drama is incurably hackneyed and unsubtle.
Fort Worth Weekly |
Kristian Lin |
12-04-2008 |
Reviews
'Cadillac Records' is a Quick-Sketch B-Movie Biopic That Looms Largenew
Darnell Martin's film tells a story of black popular music -- its rapidly changing phases during the 1950s from the blues to race records, from rock 'n' roll to R&B -- with richly exciting characters but not one hint of exoticism.
New York Press |
Armond White |
12-04-2008 |
Reviews
'Dust' is an Unwieldy and Uneven Documentarynew
Mostly using the testimony of workmen and scientists, Bitomsky tells us about something we encounter every day but choose to ignore. Throughout the film's episodes, that transformation from fact to idea stalls at every step of the thinking process, from enumeration to visualization to extrapolation.
New York Press |
Simon Abrams |
12-04-2008 |
Reviews
'Frost/Nixon' Prioritizes Media Over Politicsnew
Frost/Nixon dramatizes the series of 1977 TV interviews that British chat host David Frost did with President Richard Nixon following his resignation after the Watergate scandal. A minor TV event -- on the level of Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs at tennis -- Howard confers it lunatic importance.
New York Press |
Armond White |
12-04-2008 |
Reviews
What Is Our Fascination with Vampire Love?new
Why, at this particular point in human history, do we require two different movies and a television show (all based on books) about humans who fall in love with vampires. What is it that makes drinking blood (and/or abstaining from garlic) so damn sexy right now?
San Antonio Current |
Jeremy Martin |
12-03-2008 |
Movies
'The Auteur' Bridges the Divide Between Porn and Comedynew
The central joke of The Auteur is the same one riffed on in Zack and Miri Make a Porno -- the absurd unsexiness of having sex on camera, made worse by the titles. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that both movies were directly inspired by the college-dorm game of making up the most ridiculous porn titles.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
12-03-2008 |
Reviews
'Ballast': The Weight of Death in the Mississippi Deltanew
Ballast is the first film from director Lance Hammer, and it would be easy to call it one of those movies where "nothing happens," except that a lot happens -- a shooting, a car chase, several beatings. These things just happen very quietly.
Willamette Week |
Aaron Mesh |
12-03-2008 |
Reviews
'Four Christmases': Holidazed and Confusednew
In the annual tradition of forgettable Vince Vaughn holiday vehicles (last year brought Fred Claus), Four Christmases is underfunny and insubstantial, but sweet and innocuous: a nice little stocking stuffer of a movie.
C-Ville Weekly |
Jonathan Kiefer |
12-03-2008 |
Reviews
'Transporter 3': Jason Statham Takes His Shirt Offnew
After the disappointingly shallow new James Bond movie, maybe a third helping of Frank Martin isn't a bad thing. The guy was never particularly deep to begin with.
Seattle Weekly |
Brian Miller |
12-02-2008 |
Reviews
Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon Carry 'Four Christmases'new
Still, Vaughn and Witherspoon can only do so much, trudging through a rogue's gallery of one-note characters and predictable setups. At its worst, Four Christmases can make you feel as beaten down and insulted as its protagonists.
Baltimore City Paper |
Al Shipley |
12-02-2008 |
Reviews
Gus Van Sant's 'Milk' is Itself a Political Actnew
Milk hits theaters amid a renewed debate over the place of homosexuals in American life. Whether the cause will help the film is anyone's guess, but there seems little doubt that the film will help the cause.
Chicago Reader |
J.R. Jones |
12-02-2008 |
Reviews
'Milk' Avoids Sentimentality and Rouses Cross-Cultural Folknew
Van Sant keeps the movie brisk and engaging, taking what could have been an endless parade of period vignettes and turning them into a reflection of Milk's seemingly boundless sense of humanity. What pulls everything together, however, is Sean Penn's spectacularly infectious performance.
Metro Times |
Jeff Meyers |
12-02-2008 |
Reviews
'Doubt' Stumbles In Transition to Film
Playwright John Patrick Shanley adapts his award-winning '60s era drama for the silver screen with mixed success.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
12-01-2008 |
Reviews
