Film
Tall as Trees: Local Director Seeks Uplift in Slums of Manila
When the press notes tell you that a neophyte local director (Gil Ponce) quit his job, sold…
Film
Chicago 10: Not the 60s Again!
Thirteen months after Hubert Humphrey was nominated for president in a hall ringed with barbed wire and…
Film
BabAziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul: Sufi Wanderers Find Beauty Amid the Dunes
Even though one of the earliest appeals of cinema was the window it opened onto other cultures…
Film
Funny Games: Michael Haneke Tortures Naomi Watts
An easy movie to despise but an impossible one to shake, Michael Haneke’s brilliant exercise in audience…
Film
Time and Winds: Minimalism From Turkey
Time and Winds is a film bewitched by the rhythms of everyday life in a remote Turkish…
Film
The Counterfeiters: The Holocaust Again, Fresh From the Oscars
Near the beginning of The Counterfeiters, a fact-based Holocaust drama by Austrian filmmaker Stefan Ruzowitzky, we meet Jewish…
Film
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day: Amy Adams Trapped in Vintage Britcom!
For an obscure tale of a virginal London governess who discovers her true calling running interference for…
Film
Girls Rock!: Meet the New Radiohead?
“That girl thinks she’s the queen of the neighborhood—I’ve got news for you, SHE IS!” Bikini…
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The Duchess of Langeais: More of Jacques Rivettes Cinema Trickery
Having returned from Africa, “held prisoner by savages for two years before fleeing,” the Marquis de Montriveau…
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Yes, Nicole Kidman Acts Despite the Botox
American Gangster Universal, $29.98 Director Ridley Scott’s take on the true-life tale of Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas…
Film
The Bank Job: Jason Statham Goes Back to the 70s
The English media have spent the better part of a year back-and-forthing over the true-or-false plot points of…
Film
The Business of Being Born: Eeeww! Ricki Lake Naked and Squirming!
Most of the advance buzz about The Business of Being Born has centered around an image of…
Film
The Bands Visit: Peace in the Middle East (If Only on Film)
The Band’s Visit made headlines last fall after being disqualified as Israel’s foreign-language submission to the 2008 Academy…
Film
Semi-Pro: Woody Harrelson Outjumps Will Ferrell
Better than Blades of Glory, which wasn’t nearly as good as Talladega Nights, which was a little…
Film
Military Intelligence and You!: Shallow Satire in Retro Garb
There’s an amusing 15-minute short buried in Dale Kutzera’s debut feature, a spoof of World War II–era…
Film
Penelope: Christina Ricci as Porcine Sex Symbol
“A Fairy Tale Like No Other”? Penelope‘s influences are right up front—there’s the Tim Burton production design…
Film
The Cool School: California Mods Define an Era
Taking its title from a 1964 Artforum article linking the rebellious spirit and bop attitudes of West Coast…
Film
Eden: What a Cook-Tease
The movies could use more performers who look as if they’d just stepped off the opera stage.…
Film
Vantage Point: Even Matthew Fox Cannot Save the POTUS
Remember the 1985 movie version of the Parker Brothers whodunit board game Clue, with its pre-DVD-era gimmick of…
Film
Alices House: Another Middling Art-House Movie
Alice’s House is an utterly average foreign art-house film, with all the strengths and flaws that label…