Film
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai: Impressive Swordplay in 3-D
The transformation might be complete: The crap-and-gore, genre-mincing Tasmanian devil of Asian pulp psychosis, Takashi Miike, whom we’ve…
Film
Red Lights: Robert De Niro Fails to Thrill
Like a great number of films dealing with supernatural and extraterrestrial phenomena, Red Lights is a thriller in…
Film
The Imposter: A Creepy Frenchman Cons a Texas Clan
This deft, atmospheric Errol Morris–style tour through the phenomenon that is “serial imposter” Frédéric Bourdin homes in on…
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Hope Springs: Meryl Streep Cashes a Paycheck
Although the tone of Steve Carell’s couples-counseling character in Hope Springs is consistently placid and evenhanded, it’s also…
Film
Union Square: Mira Sorvino’s Welcome Return to the Screen
Lucy (Mira Sorvino), a hot mess in a minidress and spike-heel boots, shows up in Manhattan, yappy little…
Film
On the Sly: Into the Woods With a Little Fugitive
Following the child runaways of Moonrise Kingdom, this small French drama has a 6-year-old girl (Wynona Ringer) flee…
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The Bourne Legacy: Jeremy Renner Is No Matt Damon
The Bourne films have more than just overstayed their welcome and outlasted the Ludlum books—they’ve been Van Halenized,…
Film
5 Broken Cameras: More Bad News From Palestine
Startlingly intimate and direct, this first-person doc by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi requires multiple viewings for anyone…
Film
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry: The Chinese Dissident Films His Own Beating
What with the recent U.S. embassy standoff and flight to freedom of blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, you…
Film
Klown: Danes Take a Canoe Trip to the Whorehouse
Based on a TV series in Denmark (where broadcast standards are far different than here), Klown sends two…
Film
Dark Horse: Fear and Loathing in New Jersey
People always end up the way they started out. No one ever changes, one character says in Todd…
Film
Alps: Death and Surrogacy in Greece
In a gymnasium, a clandestine four-person group meets to discuss its name. One member suggests “Alps,” explaining: “The…
Film
Farewell, My Queen: Palace Intrigue Before the Revolution
Benoît Jacquot’s soapy, sexy, lezzie adaptation of Chantal Thomas’ 2003 novel about the chaos at Versailles on the…
Film
Sacrifice: Chinese History Made Tedious
Switched-at-birth sagas don’t come much more convoluted than Chen Kaige’s latest period epic, about a doctor named Cheng…
Film
Easy Money: Crime and Punishment in Sweden
As the general run of action films blithely defies the laws of gravity and consequence, what a pleasure…
Film
Portrait of Wally: Another Saga of Stolen WWII Art
Aside from the incalculable human cost, World War II left in its wake property-rights issues whose repercussions are…
Film
Crazy Eyes: Lukas Haas as Trust-Fund Bukowski
We first encounter the subject of Crazy Eyes‘ character study mixing his drinks while damning the glittering void…
Film
Lovely Molly: Spooky House, Not Enough Horror
The “name” connected to Lovely Molly is that of director Eduardo Sánchez, one of the perpetrators of 1999’s…
Film
Trishna: Freida Pinto in a Thomas Hardy Update
I love a good bummer as much as the next man, and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles…
Film
The Well-Digger’s Daughter: A French Damsel in Much Distress
In one of The Well-Digger’s Daughter‘s most telling scenes, 18-year-old Patricia (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) spends several minutes on the…