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Todd R. RamlowFeaturesBeing Political: An Interview with Peter FriedmanIf I didn't believe films had the power to promote social change, I wouldn't make them. Best in ShowTell people you are interviewing Christopher Guest and generally you will get a blank stare. Sex Education: Interview with John WatersNo one is ever going to eat dog shit again. So if that's what you're looking for, move on! Reviews
AntichristAntichrist in many ways seems Lars Von Trier's rejoinder to the criticism that he "hates women," as if daring us to watch what we expect to see. [23 October 2009] 
FameThe real struggle faced by kids in today's Fame is how to negotiate cultural demands for sexual morality and conservatism while maintaining outsized sexual personas in public. [25 September 2009] 
Capitalism: A Love StoryIn Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore is on target in his indictment of the top 1% of the population, those who own or control 95% of U.S. wealth. [23 September 2009] 
The Informant!The Informant! recalls the excuses made by numerous underlings of authoritarian institutions over the course of the past century who have justified their exploitative practices by claiming they were just following orders. [18 September 2009] 
Melrose Place: Series PremiereMelrose Place suggests that with the evolving sophistication of video technology, the distinction between "porn" and "reality" is increasingly blurred. [16 September 2009] 
Post GradIf only Post Grad challenged such presumptions and hubris, it might make its rom-com cliches more tolerable. [21 August 2009] 
Funny PeopleBromances like Funny People do a disservice to the friendship capabilities of straight men, making them seem stunted. [1 August 2009] 
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood PrinceIn Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, complicated teenaged sexual desires are the counterpart to the sacrificial love oft touted by Dumbledore. [14 July 2009] 
Night at the Museum: Battle of the SmithsonianIn Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, the real heroes of history are women, native peoples, and "others" of all sorts. [22 May 2009] 
Little AshesLittle Ashes glosses over García Lorca's complex political investments and insists that his activities were driven by his inability to be "out." 
Angels & DemonsA Harvard professor is an unlikely candidate for the hero of a summer blockbuster, and Angels & Demons demonstrates exactly why. The film is filled with talk, talk, talk. [15 May 2009] 
X-Men Origins: WolverineScary as Hugh Jackman's vascular body may be, it's also perfectly appropriate as a visual extension of the weaponization of Wolverine. [1 May 2009] 
Every Little StepEvery Little Step is all about repetition, documenting the casting of the 2006 Broadway revival of A Chorus Line, a musical about the casting of a Broadway musical. [17 April 2009] The Cougar: Series PremiereCertainly, there is some pleasure (and a little bit of sympathetic pain) to be had in watching The Cougar's contestants make total asses of themselves. [15 April 2009] 
The Tudors: Season Three PremiereThe Tudors reminds us that, like Islam and Judaism today, Christianity has had, and undoubtedly continues to have, its own fundamentalists, ideologues, and terrorists. [9 April 2009] Pedro: The MoviePedro recalls a moment in reality TV when the genre had real political edge. [6 April 2009] 
Alien TrespassAlien Trespass won't let our knowledge of the stereotypes it incorporates do the work and make the critique. [3 April 2009] 
WatchmenFor Rorschach, there are clear lines between good and evil, and in this he is the most traditional of the superheroes in Watchmen. [6 March 2009] 
Reaper: Season Two PremiereSam, Andi, Sock, and Ben demonstrate that pulling oneself up by the bootstraps is more difficult than the normative fantasies of the American Dream would have us believe. [3 March 2009] 
FanboysThat the boys are so earnest in their dedication to the Star Wars oeuvre signals their stunted adolescence. [20 February 2009] RuPaul’s Drag RaceRuPaul's Drag Race is the illegitimate offspring of Project Runway and Make Me a Supermodel. [18 February 2009] BromanceWhile most of it is typical MTV reality fare, Bromance's cultivation of male drama queens makes this show especially queer. [27 January 2009] Homeless Youth TelevisionThe front page of HYTV lays out a series of linked pages for "programs" that spoof recent high-profile/major network reality fare. It's a rather clever conceit. [19 November 2008] 
Criminal Minds: Season Four PremiereThe fourth season premiere of Criminal Minds revisits 9/11 anxieties, as Special Agent Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) stumbles dazedly around a street in lower Manhattan, having nearly been blown to smithereens by a car bomb. [24 September 2008] Heroes: Season Three PremiereThe real excitement of the new season of Heroes is its promise to expand the series' assortment of baddies: their unabashed queerness and freakery make for more fun. [22 September 2008] 
CSI: Miami: Season Seven PremiereCSI: Miami foregrounds, in its best episodes, the effects of transnational capitalism. 
The WomenDespite its title, The Women is not an update of George Cukor's diva smackdown of the same name. [12 September 2008] Privileged: Series PremiereThe CW's new Privileged introduces a snarky, maybe-lefty, aspiring journalist who means to expose the corruption and cronyism of contemporary capitalism. [9 September 2008] BonesIn Bones' fourth season premiere, Booth's unilateralism looks rather Jurassic even as it is all too familiar. [3 September 2008] 
Henry Poole is HereYour faith and your patience won't fare well for sitting through the slow-moving, lackluster Henry Poole is Here. [15 August 2008] 
The HappeningThe Happening features an effectively stylized physical environment: rarely have clouds drifting overhead and wind blowing through trees and a sunny day been filmed so ominously. [13 June 2008] Starz Inside: Comic Books UnboundComic Books Unbound offers only cursory consideration of the media conglomeration that has made comic-film box office domination possible. [10 June 2008] Nip/TuckThis is classic Nip/Tuck, a moment of complication, perhaps even "truth," amongst the regular soap operatics. It's one of the rewards for sitting through much of the rest of the show. [22 January 2008] 
Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World: The Complete First SeasonThe show reasserts the dominant logic of recent lesbian and gay politics that idealizes hetero-style domesticity. [20 November 2007] 
Outing RileyThis is Outing Riley's general message of liberal tolerance: if we knew more about each other, we could all get along. [16 November 2007] 
Life is WildWhile Life is Wild is structured as a sort of fishes-out-of-water tale, it is more accurately described as a neo-colonial fantasy. [5 October 2007] 
Aliens in AmericaAliens in America critiques U.S. disciplining of differences of all sorts, despite the usual trumpeting of a dedication to "multiculturalism" and "diversity." [1 October 2007] 
HeroesThe disease furthers Heroes' allegorizing of its genetic mutants as outsiders, aliens, and queers. [26 September 2007] BonesIt's this kind of story, so spectacularly excessive, yet taken by Bones and Co. with such perfect seriousness, that impels Bones into the realm of camp. [25 September 2007] 
The Big Bang TheoryThe Bang Theory's translation of Beauty and the Geek to a sitcom format is not nearly fresh. [24 September 2007] 
Hairspray (2007) (2007)Hairspray doesn't just replay Waters' film, it extends and complicates the original parody. [20 July 2007] 
Wedding WarsThe film's fantasy of the collective power of nationally organized queer labor resistance is alluring. [6 July 2007] 
HeroesHeroes' set-up was both simple ("Save the cheerleader, save the world") and impressively complex. [25 May 2007] The RichesGreed and amorality are the real currency of "the American dream," as The Riches demonstrates by equating small-time grifting with large-scale corporate corruption. [7 May 2007] The TudorsThe Tudors is pointed in its critical assessment of Enlightenment philosophy, whose legacies (individualism, liberal humanism) still adhere in today's world. [26 April 2007] 
Whole New Thing (2005)Despite the promise of its representation of queer childhood, Whole New Thing ends up telling the same old story. [6 April 2007] 
She Likes Girls: 6 Romantic and Sexy Lesbian Short Films (2006)She Likes Girls is a welcome antidote to common, overly serious lesbian drama, and quite refreshing in its light-heartedness. [15 February 2007] Rules of EngagementGirls want intimacy, while all guys want are spectacular and exotic sex acts. Urgh. [5 February 2007] The L WordScared and excited, Phyllis became a symbol of what's best and most complex about The L Word, that a secure sense of identity is never easy. [23 January 2007] RomeThe lofty political rhetoric disguising base power-grabbing in Rome is all too familiar in a contemporary US context. [17 January 2007] Gay, Straight, or Taken?Why not call it what it is? The show is about gaydar, that mythical power of instant identification that gay men and some women seem to wield so naturally. [15 January 2007] 
Wonder Showzen: Season TwoWhat starts out as critique of entertainment exploitation of children and U.S. cultural shibboleths ends as anti-PC masturbation. [21 November 2006] 
Ugly BettyIn Ugly Betty, "beauty" appears to be the primary barrier in the way of women's equality, to the point of ignoring other structural discriminations. [5 October 2006] 
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema (2006)Fabulous! might have been more accurately titled, "Assimilate! The Mainstream Commercial Success of Gay and Lesbian Cinema." [28 September 2006] nip/tuckThrough the various clients' histories and desires, nip/tuck inquires into current arrangements of social power. [12 September 2006] Trantasia (2006)For good or bad, many of the performers believe they will "make it." Such belief is a symptom our incessant celebrity worship. [7 August 2006] Boys Briefs 4: Six Short Films About Guys Who Hustle (2006)Gigolo demonstrates how the queer hustler -- tragic, romantic, and heroic -- still has the power to shock and to demand social change. [21 July 2006] 
Valley of the Dolls (Special Edition) / Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1967/1970)Dolls and Beyond might help us see that we are, today, all living smack in the middle of the valley of the dolls. [12 June 2006] 
Tim McGraw: ReflectedMcGraw's perfectly coiffed and toned body looks positively metrosexual. [6 April 2006] 
Pepper DennisPepper 'wants it all', family, romance and a successful career, yet is now realizing she might not get it. It's enough to make a girl crazy. [4 April 2006] 
TransgenerationTransgeneration is a more comprehensive and complicated look at the difficulties faced by transgender individuals than Duncan Tucker's Transamerica. [27 March 2006] 
Miracle WorkersPerhaps the most objectionable aspect of Miracle Workers is its invocation of the charity model of disability management, conjoined with its lottery logic. [20 March 2006] 
The Zodiac (2006)The Zodiac so altered our consciousness that we can now easily imagine a serial killer with no motivation other than achieving a public spectacle. [17 March 2006] 
Modern MenThe problem here is that the show presumes from the outset that there are essential differences between men and women, and if men could only learn to embrace their feminine sides, the war of the sexes would finally be over. [16 March 2006] 
Top ChefStephen insists on the importance of the wine to any meal, how it brings out the flavors of a dish when appropriately paired. He's right, but he's so prissy about it that you can't help but hate him. [15 March 2006] 
The New Adventures of Old ChristineWhat Susan Faludi has called the 'backlash' against women is still in full effect, if not even Julia Louis-Dreyfus can get a character on air who even tries to break free. [13 March 2006] 
Project Runway: The Complete First SeasonThere is more to Project Runway than stereotypically 'gay' entertainment, even if it is relentlessly histrionic and campy. [14 December 2005] 
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)It is sad, though perhaps 'realistic,' that the lesson of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is that all institutions and authority, Good or Evil, are corrupt. [18 November 2005] 
Dear Wendy (2005)It's difficult to resist getting all psychoanalytic on Dear Wendy, as it is excessively Freudian in its phallic imagery. [9 October 2005] 
SmallvilleSeason Five of Smallville continues to reward comics fans with details taken from Superman's various incarnations over the years. [29 September 2005] 
Killer InstinctDespite its frequent reveling in eroticized violence against women, Killer Instinct demonstrates some awareness of the problem. 
Love, Inc.Like Sex and the City, Love, Inc. features a quartet of single women in the Big Apple, each with her own issue. [22 September 2005] 
The Arthur Dong Collection: Stories from the War on Homosexuality (2005)The documentary clearly shows that the 'war on homosexuality' is far from over. [31 August 2005] 
The Chronicles of NarniaParents will want the moral lessons and be glad that the violence of the books is downplayed here. Kids will want the magic. [14 July 2005] 
Batman Begins (2005)Christian Bale brings a menace to Batman, making him radically distinct from alter ego Bruce Wayne. [16 June 2005] 
The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D (2005)Robert Rodriguez is at his enfant terrible game again, for the second time this year. [10 June 2005]
SmallvilleLex's desire for all things Clark turned increasingly fraught and increasingly intimate this season, often bordering on the homoerotic. [23 May 2005] 
Dynasty: The Complete First SeasonIt should come as no surprise that Dynasty: The Complete First Season oozes the '80s. [18 April 2005] 
The Question of God: Sigmund Freud & C. S. Lewis, with Dr. Armand NicholiThe Question of God presumes the answer to its titular 'question' to be yes. [31 March 2005] 
D.E.B.S. (2005)D.E.B.S. challenges us to rethink our straight-up relationship to the genres it parodies. [25 March 2005] 
Blind JusticeBlind Justice attempts to depict how, institutionally and individually, we try to 'deal with' disability. [10 March 2005] 
The Battle of Algiers: Criterion Collection (1967)Things are never as simple as administrations would like us (and themselves) to believe. [17 January 2005] 
Wickedly PerfectLike most reality shows, Wickedly Perfect relies on cat-fighting and bitch-slapping (figurative only at this point, but one can hope). [12 January 2005] 
Festival Express (2004)All these musicians wanted to do was to escape from the youth rebelliousness that they are supposed to have influenced and represented. [10 September 2004] 
Thunderbirds (2004)The only possible reason I can see for this screen version is the marketing opportunities embodied by the Thunderbirds themselves and their 'super-advanced technology' ships and gadgets. [30 July 2004] 
South Park: The Complete Fourth SeasonOriginally airing from April until December of 2000, the episodes take frequent aim at U.S. culture and politics. [28 June 2004] 
Dogville (2003)The accusation that the film is 'anti-American' says less about Von Trier than it does about the American psyche. [15 April 2004] 
South Park: The Complete Third SeasonIn a world filled with bumbling and ineffectual adults, the boys are each other's only source of support and information. [13 January 2004] 
Angels in AmericaBy far the most resonant aspect of Angels in America today is its exposure of simplistic struggles over definitions of 'good' and 'evil'. [22 December 2003] 
Secondhand Lions (2003)The phallic imagery of guns as associated with male potency is everywhere in Secondhand Lions. [18 September 2003] 
Silverlake Life: The View from Here (1993)Shortly after he and his lover Mark Massi were diagnosed with full-blown AIDS, filmmaker Tom Joslin began a film and video diary of their experiences. [11 August 2003] 
Cremaster 3 (2002)The Cremaster cycle rewards with stunning visuals, concepts, and questions that will rattle around your head for days. [3 July 2003] 
Charlie’s Angels: The Complete First SeasonAs one fan observes, 'Charlie's Angels' represented an 'escape from traditional feminine constraints, at least as far as '70s television was capable.' [30 June 2003] 
The Hulk (2003)In Hulk, the comic books' critique of institutional authority and the way U.S. culture perceives and deals with difference is evacuated. [19 June 2003] 
The Lone RangerPut any man, but especially a pretty man-boy, in a stylized cowboy suit and he's bound to come off looking like one of the Village People. And the Lone Ranger does. [3 March 2003] 
Daredevil (2003)The good news is that Johnson's Daredevil follows Marvel's disability politics. [13 February 2003] 
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)As Nemesis amply demonstrates, the franchise is getting quite long in the tooth. [13 December 2002] 
Ghost Ship (2002)The best surprise of 'Ghost Ship' is that it's surprisingly good, spooky, fun, and stylish. [24 October 2002] 
Birds of PreyFollows neither the super-crip model of disability perception, where an individual's 'triumph' over disability is celebrated through public tokenism, nor the common perception of disability merely as an object of pity. [15 October 2002] 
Swept Away (2002)What Swept Away calls love, I would call the usual terror and degradation that keeps battered women in dangerous relationships. [10 October 2002] 
Red Dragon (2002)What is most politically problematic about Red Dragon is how it furthers the relationship between physical disability and psychopathology. [3 October 2002] 
FireflyFirefly is more complicated in its framing story and moral dimensions than the usual sci-fi or Western fare. [23 September 2002] 
Buffy the Vampire SlayerAs to the rejection of my understanding of the connection between lesbianism and witchcraft on 'Buffy', I have never said that BVS's creator or writers made a conscious (and consciously homophobic) decision to directly cast lesbianism as social pathology and physical addiction. [18 June 2002]
Buffy the Vampire SlayerThis was a tragic ending to one of prime-time television's most engaging love stories. More disturbing, as well as more socially and politically troublesome, however, is that Tara's death completes what has become a rather homophobic and pathological representation of lesbian desires and relationships over the course of the past season. [4 June 2002] 
Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones (2002)There are so very many characters playing central roles in the second half of the series, and accounting for all of their geneses is tricky indeed. [15 May 2002] 
The Sweetest Thing (2002)The Sweetest Thing targets moviegoers who seek out the familiar and formulaic. [11 April 2002] 
Sorority Boys (2002)If there is a movie that might make me agree with conservative pundits assailing the 'vulgarity' and gross-out humor of contemporary U.S. culture and much recent Hollywood teen fare, 'Sorority Boys' would be it. [21 March 2002] 
Queen of the Damned (2002)In 'Queen of the Damned', there's something more than a little obvious about the vampire Lestat as goth rock superstar. [21 February 2002] 
Crossroads (2002)Unlike the audiences at most movie previews, these folks at 'Crossroads' were amped. [14 February 2002] 
The Mothman Prophecies (2002)As John (Richard Gere) begins to question his own journalistic rigor and even his sanity, a number of inconsistencies in the stories of the mothman crop up. [24 January 2002] 
Charlotte Gray (2001)The obvious reason for the glut of overly celebratory WWII films of the past few years is nostalgia for a time in American life when things like international politics and warfare were clear-cut. [10 January 2002] 
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)What is potentially most urgent about 'The Fellowship of the Ring' is how it reflects the tenor of our time. [18 December 2001] 
Not Another Teen Movie (2001)What is perhaps most successful about 'Not Another Teen Movie' is its commentary on the obsessive and incessant whiteness of the genre. [13 December 2001] 
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)The makers of 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' are banking on the fact that so very many people 'have' read the books, so that the confusion of those Luddites who haven't read them matters very little. [15 November 2001] 
Shallow Hal (2001)What is unfortunate about 'Hal' is that while the Farrellys' previous offerings were, for all their sophomoric dick and fart humor, somewhat good-spirited, their new film is just plain old mean. [8 November 2001] 
Madonna Live: Drowned World 2001The difference between Em's lyrical violence against women and Madonna's battered video self-portraits is that in Em's songs, violence against women is always nasty, ugly, and despicable (contrary to those who would claim he 'glorifies' it), unlike the video-screen Madonna of 'Drowned World', who is bloodied and bruised but nevertheless glamorous. [27 August 2001] 
Will & GraceWill & Grace was an eight-year advertisement for a 'commercialized gay identity' that did nothing to challenge current constitutions of power. [1 January 1995] 
American Dad!American Dad! skewers its all-American dad Stan to impel its critique of Bush America. 
Wonder Boys (2000)Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys is very much concerned with the boys its title declares (or, rather, with a certain sort of boyish behavior). More to the point, it actually seems to wonder, as we do and as the characters do, what is to be done with them. 
Valentine (2001)Valentine's message is that women who overstep their bounds deserve physical, motional, and sexual abuse, because of how they perpetually victimize men. And so, what is actually scariest about 'Valentine' is the film's tacit attitude that these girls had it coming. 
The Virgin Suicides (1999)And yet, for its many pleasures, I find myself conflicted in thinking about The Virgin Suicides. 
The Tao of Steve (2000)As Dex's juvenile philosophy alone amply demonstrates, where their dicks are involved, guys really aren't that smart. 
Swordfish (2001)What is most distressing about 'Swordfish' is John Travolta. More and more, Travolta is becoming a caricature of himself as action anti/hero. 
Ride with the Devil (1999)Ride with the Devil is essentially two films in one. The first is a story of loyalty - to family, community, and nation - tested in the social and political upheavals of civil war. The second is a story of male bonding and love in a homosocial order, the negotiation of male-male desire, and male domestication, all triangulated and enabled through the body of a woman. 
Pokemon The Movie 2000 (2000)Pokemon The Movie 2000, however, shares no similar instruction; instead, it promotes gender inequality and contradictory ethical lessons. In the end, P2K spurs children to consume more product, in order to perpetuate the Pokemon global dominion. 
Pollock (2000)Where the story of Pollock's life gets, at least to me, most interesting, and where the film 'Pollock' becomes most engaging, is in the connected story of the artist's wife, Lee Krasner. 
Le Placard (The Closet) (2000)What happens when you find yourself watching an ostensibly 'gay movie' in which only one gay character appears, and in a secondary role?" 
Kids WB Presents Pokémon 3: The Movie (2001)By far, the best Pokémon battle in the film is between Ash's sidekick Misty (Rachael Lillis) and the orphaned Molly: in 'Pokémon 3' girls can kick ass too. 
Our Lady of the Assassins (2001)Initially a rather deft and timely exploration of the human consequences of the politics and business of drugs, by the end, 'Our Lady of the Assassins' is content merely to linger on the spectacle and eroticization of casual violence. 
Orphans (1997/2000)In the Glasgow, Scotland harbor, on a cloudy windy morning after a storm, a man's bleeding body floats on a frail piece of wood. For all its artsy beauty, this poster image for Orphans, the writing and directing debut of actor Peter Mullan, is misleading, for it depicts perhaps the only serene moment in the film, one that interrupts the stabbing, shooting, screaming, inclement weather, and other calamities that rage on as four grown-up siblings mourn their mother's early death. 
The Ninth Gate (1999)In The Ninth Gate, perennial provocateur Roman Polanski throws in his contribution to the millennial apocalypse/Armageddon/hell-on-earth films that have recently been such a staple of the action/adventure genre. 
Not One Less (1999)Zhang Yimou's new film, Not One Less, feels like a movie that, somehow, I am 'supposed' to like, and I am not just a little bit anxiety-ridden in admitting that, really, I think it is actually somewhat dreadful. 
The Next Best Thing (2000)I must admit, against all my better judgment, I actually rather enjoyed Madonna's new film, The Next Best Thing. 
Monkeybone (2001)In 'Monkeybone', we are given visual representation of (presumably) every man's internal struggle, between his social conscience and his unbridled testosterone frenzy. 
Malena (2000)Here the past is not dead or inert, it always influences the future... 'Malena' recognizes the futility of its own nostalgia. 
Moulin Rouge (2001)I imagine that at the 'real' Moulin Rouge, the thrill wasn't just a bit of nipple and a flash of panties, but the whole entertainment package, which no doubt included exuberant 'daring' new music intended to shock and titillate the sensitivity of the bourgeoisie -- kind of like rock-and-roll or punk in our times. 
The Mexican (2001)'The Mexican' follows the turbulent near-end of the relationship between hapless Mafia gopher Jerry Welbach (Brad) and his obsessive, psycho-babbling girlfriend Samantha Barzel (Julia), who reduces everything in her life to 'blame-shifting' and others' inability to express their emotions. 
The Man Who Cried (2001)...a sprawling affair, filled with bad accents (Cate Blanchett's tortured 'Russian'), tired cliches about studly horsemen and young girls' sexual awakenings, and really bad lip-syncing to Italian opera. 
Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale (2001)'Keep the River on Your Right' is an exemplary piece of documentary filmmaking. Not only do the writer-directors narrate the life of a truly remarkable and complex individual, they also give Schneebaum much latitude in narrating his own life. 
K-PAX (2001)K-PAX trots out all the old cliches about humanity's barbarism, intolerance, and generalicky-ness. Yeah, we know, we're all a bunch of spoiled brats. 
Jeepers Creepers (2001)If these characters are tedious, what is most annoying about 'Jeepers Creepers' is The Creeper itself. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer my slasher flick psycho killers to be decidedly human. 
Italian for Beginners (2001)Where 'Italian for Beginners' differs from other Dogme 95 fare is that its end isn't totally catastrophic. This isn't to say it has a happy ending, just that it doesn't end with the usual emotional wasteland littered by human wreckage. 
Hannibal (2001)As his immense popularity suggests, there is something about Lecter that appeals to 'us', there appears to be some level on which 'we' all wish we could be a little more like him, which is precisely what the filmmakers are banking on. And this is, in the end, the scariest thing about 'Hannibal' -- its perverse worship of the cannibalistic Doctor. 
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)Hedwig and the Angry Inch's insight into the fluidity of gender is made all the more powerful by Hedwig's own attempts to puzzle through these conundrums. The film doesn't moralize, or try to give set answers. 
Hearts in Atlantis (2001)The nostalgia infusing 'Hearts in Atlantis' often makes the film infuriating, as well as just plain dopey. 
Freddy Got Fingered (2001)'Freddy Got Fingered' lowers the bar, and not just a little bit, for what has been popularly passing as 'comedy' in recent days. 
Dancer in the Dark (2000)'Dancer in the Dark', for all its fantastical musical excursions and all its tear-jerkiness nevertheless brings home the sobering reminder that justice does not always prevail. 
Dogma (1999)Kevin Smith's recent offering, Dogma, is truly the cinematic equivalent of Michael Stipe's over-burdened generational angst and swollen lyrics. 
Dracula 2000 / Shadow of the Vampire (2000) - PopMatters Film Review )Frankly, it doesn't seem coincidental that these films are being released around the holidays; certainly Dracula's bloodsucking lust appeals on some level to our own holiday consumer frenzies. 
Deterrence (1998)Deterrence, Rod Lurie's directorial debut, two years in the works, repeats the many overworked cliches of the nuclear paranoia pics of the early '80s, but comes nowhere near the achievement of kiddie classics like War Games, Fail Safe, The Longest Day, or even the melodramatic made-for-TV event, The Day After. 
Dungeons & Dragons (2000)With all this avowed dedication to D&D, its values and ethics, its alternative vision of a utopic world, and all the time it took Courtney Solomon to secure funding for the film, you would think he could have come up with a much better movie than the one we see here. 
Best in Show (2000)The question I am left with, in relation to all these other characters, is what, if anything, are they satirizing?" 
The Beach (2000)Leo's much anticipated follow up to the record smashing Titanic has finally arrived, and it is, perhaps not so surprisingly, considering the hype to be lived up to -- an unmitigated flop. 
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)Interestingly, in one of 'A.I.''s inconsistencies, we are shown a society obsessive about controlling consumption and the conservation of resources, which nevertheless is still steadfastly consumer-driven: the answer to all our problems can be found in the perfect product, in this case a robotic child. |
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