Film
Dirty Girl: Gay Teens Hightail It out of ’80s Oklahoma
A feeble teenage-outcast movie set in 1987, Dirty Girl exists primarily as a vehicle for first-time writer/director Abe…
Film
Take Shelter: Madness Amid an Insane Economy
Standing outside his small-town Ohio home, Curtis LaForche (Michael Shannon) looks up at the ominous, slate-gray sky. The…
Film
Trespass: Nic Cage Continues His Sensible Career Path and Restrained Acting Style
A home-invasion movie as instantly forgettable as its title, Trespass is not without disturbing images: namely, Nicolas Cage…
Film
Machine Gun Preacher: Gerard Butler Finds Jesus, Saves Africa
Based on the true story of Sam Childers—ex-con, druggie, gun nut, and self-described “hillbilly from Pennsylvania” who got…
Film
I Don’t Know How She Does It: Sarah Jessica Parker Makes No Compromises
What I don’t know: why these movies keep getting made. Based on Allison Pearson’s 2002 comic bestseller, directed…
Film
Circumstance: Oppressed Women in Iran
Set in Tehran but filmed mainly in Beirut, Maryam Keshavarz’s earnest, well- intentioned first feature on women’s oppression…
Film
The Interrupters: Steve James’ Immersive New Documentary
Inspired by a 2008 New York Times Magazine article by Alex Kotlowitz, Steve James’ commanding documentary about “violence…
Film
The Hedgehog: Preteen Discontent in France
Adapted from Muriel Barbery’s international best seller The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Mona Achache’s first film follows two…
Film
Higher Ground: Vera Farmiga’s Consideration of Wavering Faith
Vera Farmiga’s directorial debut, in which the actress plays Corinne, a woman who chafes against the restrictions of…
Film
Life, Above All: A Plucky 12-Year-Old Heroine in South Africa
“AIDS” isn’t uttered until well past the halfway mark of Oliver Schmitz’s problematic South Africa–set tale about the…
Film
The Tree: Charlotte Gainsbourg as Misbehaving Widow
No one grieves onscreen quite like Charlotte Gainsbourg, here playing Dawn, made a widow within the first 10…
Film
The Names of Love: France and Its Problems
Nothing screams “French crossover comedy” like jokes about Auschwitz and childhood sexual abuse, the main rib-ticklers of Michel…
Film
Sarah’s Key: French Complicity in the Holocaust
Exposing a little-known piece of Holocaust history—the Vel’ d’Hiv roundup, in which French police arrested thousands of Jews…
Film
A Better Life: Down and Out in East L.A.
Pitched to tug at even Arizona governor Jan Brewer’s heartstrings, A Better Life takes on the combustible topic…
Film
Passione: John Turturro’s Pseudo-Musical
In his fourth film as director (and his first documentary, billed as a “musical adventure”), John Turturro plays…
Film
!Women Art Revolution: A Documentary Chronicle of Feminist Art
Like Joan Braderman’s 2009 doc The Heretics, Lynn Hershman Leeson’s lionizing chronicle of the birth, in the late…
Film
Viva Riva!: Crime in Congo
“Your country is the worst shit pile I have ever seen,” César (Hoji Fortuna), an Angolan crime boss,…
Film
The Robber: Rob. Run. Repeat
What makes Johann run—and rob? Benjamin Heisenberg’s second feature is as taut, lean, and fleet as its title…
Film
Poetry: Beautiful Senior Moments in South Korea
As in his equally exceptional previous film, Secret Sunshine (2007), Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry is a perfectly paced and…
Film
Biutiful: Javier Bardem Is Having a Bad Day
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s first film since he split from screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, with whom he created the fractured,…