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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…
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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…
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Toast: An English Foodie’s Coming-of-Age
Premiered as a BBC1 telefilm, now flaunting its wasteful widescreen in theaters, Toast adapts the autobiography of Nigel…
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Footloose: Not as Terrible as It Should Be
Starring dancer Kenny Wormald and directed by Craig Brewer, Footloose is an extraordinarily faithful remake, recycling four songs…
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Blackthorn: Sam Shepard as Butch Cassidy
Riffing on how outlaw Butch Cassidy’s life might have gone had he survived in South America, this modest…
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The Black Power Mix Tape 1967-1975: Tales From the Revolution
“The revolution will not be televised.” So Gil Scott-Heron asserted in 1970, and so it was not—at least…
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Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival: Now in Its 16th Queer Year
Two history lessons at this year's festival.
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The Woman: The Cannibal in the Basement
Pretentious muddle trumps splattery satire in this high-minded indie button-pusher, which is only fleetingly as transgressive as its…
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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…
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Battle for Brooklyn: Gentrification and Its Discontents
Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley’s documentary recounts the tireless anti–Atlantic Yards efforts of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn co-founder…
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Jane’s Journey: A Mash Note to the Famed Primatologist
Spectacularly photographed and journalistically lame, Jane’s Journey blows a 107-minute kiss to Dr. Jane Goodall, the 70-something primatologist-turned-conservationist.…
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The Ides of March: Ryan Gosling and George Clooney Make Political Sausage
George Clooney’s fourth directorial effort is a loose adaptation of Farragut North, a 2008 behind-the-political-campaign play by Beau…
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Connected: Please Turn Off Your Cellphones!
Connected opens with director Tiffany Shlain confessing to cell-phone addiction, a focus on herself that’s indicative of this…
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Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life: The French Pop Icon and His Monsters
French cartoonist Joann Sfar’s first feature is an ambitious attempt to cage the career of legendary French singer/songwriter/scamp…
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Sarah Palin: You Betcha!: The (Non-) Candidate Flees the Cameras
This documentary represents Nick Broomfield’s attempt to, as he puts it, “find out about the real Sarah from…
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Aurora: Crime and Existentialism in Romania
Romanian director Cristi Puiu’s Aurora is a continuous search for meaning—a murder mystery, shot vérité-style, in which, for…
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Restless: Again, Gus Van Sant Goes Lurking Among the Teens
Too morbid to be a crowd-pleaser a la Good Will Hunting but nowhere near as confrontationally inscrutable as…
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Mysteries of Lisbon: Four Hours of Raúl Ruiz
“Convoluted” does not begin to describe this four-hour-plus movie, based on a sprawling three-volume novel by prolific 19th-century…
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50/50: Seth Rogen Can’t Stop Being Seth Rogen
One scene captures the tricky tonal balance of cancer comedy 50/50. Adam, the straight-edge radio producer played by…
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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…