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Cynthia FuchsPopMatters Film and TV EditorAbout Cynthia Fuchs Cynthia Fuchs is director of Film & Media Studies, as well as Associate Professor of English, African American Studies, and Film & Video Studies, at George Mason University. She has published articles on Buffy and Dark Angel; Shakira; Jay-Z; Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise; Taxi Driver; hip-hop, Michael Jackson, Prince, Juvenile and Cash Money, "gangsta rap", the Spice Girls, queer punks, alternative masculinities in rock, "bad" kids in Bully and George Washington, the war in Iraq, and Vietnam war movies. She edited Spike Lee: Interviews (University of Mississippi Press 2002), and co-edited Between the Sheets, In the Streets: Queer, Lesbian, and Gay Documentary (University of Minnesota 1997). She is currently co-editing "Iraq War Cultures" and writing a book on Iraq war documentaries. Features FilmThe Best Movies of 2007[18.Jan.08] :. Fuchs' picks for the year's best movies reveal the difficulty of the quest, uncovering in their seeming failures more remarkable potentials.  TVKen Burns' Arithmetic of War: 'The War' Premieres Tonight[21.Sep.07] :. To its credit, The War considers the terrible effects of difference. But even as it argues that representations can make differences, it also exemplifies how limited vision can reinforce them.  TV"Gods Warriors": Raging Fires[21.Aug.07] :. Christiane Amanpour does not back down from difficult questions. She opens her six-hour report, airing over three nights on CNN, by noting that Jerusalem, the "so-called city of peace, has been torn by centuries of war."  TVTime Is Standing Still: White Light/Black Rain[6.Aug.07] :. HBO's new Hiroshima and Nagasaki documentary is at once simple and infinitely complex. The atomic bombs were disasters both man-made and calculated.  FilmUnbridled with Life: Interview with Mira Nair[22.Mar.07] :. With The Namesake, based on Jhumpa Lahiri's popular novel, Mira Nair has found an ideal subject -- a family full of complex characters who spend their lives traversing traditions and expectations. Featured Article FilmPaul Robeson: Showing a Little Grit[8.Mar.07] :. Today, Paul Robeson seems impossible. How could one man have accomplished so much, commanded such respect, be so large and legendary, even during his lifetime? Featured Article MusicDixie-chicked[21.Feb.07] :. Introducing the Chicks' Grammys performance, Joan Baez called them "three brave women who are still 'not ready to make nice.'" It may be the long way, but it's the right way too. Film A Symbol of Transition: Interview with Guillermo del ToroPopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2006 War Stories: Top 12 Films of 2006Reviews FilmThe Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian[16.May.08] :. Prince Caspian includes mêlée after mêlée, as well as recriminations against the commander in chief who goes in without an exit strategy or even much of a battle plan.  FilmReprise[16.May.08] :. Anguished and ambitious, the man-boy writers in Joachim Trier's Reprise imagine themselves into alternate lives.  FilmThe Fall[15.May.08] :. The story Roy tells reflects both their desires, revealed throughout The Fall in brilliantly colored images.  FilmUnsettled[14.May.08] :. Adam Hootnick's trenchant, intelligent documentary, Unsettled, concerns the forced evacuation of Israeli settlers from Gaza and the West Bank in 2005.  TVFrontline: Storm Over Everest[13.May.08] :. As Storm Over Everest shows, it's impossible to know any single story of the disaster in 1996, to know exactly how it was for the 15 climbers who perished or even for those who survived. TV Nova: A Walk to BeautifulFilm Speed RacerFilm RedbeltFilm What Happens in VegasFilm Then She Found MePopMatters Pick FilmThe Flight of the Red Balloon (Le Voyage du ballon rouge)[7.May.08] :. In Hou Hsiao-hsien's first French film, interactions are mirrored and refracted, images of images, reflections of longing. TV Independent Lens: Nā Kamalei: The Men of HulaFilm Son of RambowPopMatters Pick FilmStandard Operating Procedure[2.May.08] :. Errol Morris' new documentary, Standard Operating Procedure, remembers the pictures' effects -- the shock, the outrage, and the anger that greeted their release. Film Made of HonorFilm Iron ManFilm CJ7 (Cheung Gong 7 hou)TV SharkFilm DeceptionFilm Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantánamo BayFilm Baby MamaFilm Without the KingFilm Jellyfish (Meduzot)Film The Life Before Her EyesFilm Forbidden KingdomTV American Experience: Roberto ClementeFilm Forgetting Sarah MarshallFilm Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?Film 88 MinutesFilm The VisitorFilm Young@HeartTV American Experience: Walt WhitmanTV King CornFilm Street KingsFilm Smart PeopleFilm My Blueberry NightsFilm Body of WarFilm Fighting For LifeFilm Shine a LightFilm LeatherheadsFilm Nim's IslandFilm The RuinsTV Black in America - Eyewitness to Murder: The King AssassinationFilm FlawlessTV CompañerasFilm Shotgun StoriesFilm Stop-LossFilm 21Film Chapter 27TV Peter & the WolfTV Autism: the MusicalFilm The GrandFilm Drillbit TaylorFilm Shutter (2008)Film Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna)Featured Article TVNice Bombs[19.Mar.08] :. Airing on Sundance as part of its "Iraq War Anniversary" programming, Nice Bombs is an extraordinary film, the story focused through personal experience and resonating outward. TV The SituationTV Iron Ladies of LiberiaFilm DoomsdayFilm Funny GamesFilm Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!Film Never Back DownFilm Snow AngelsPopMatters Pick FilmParanoid Park[12.Mar.08] :. The movie realizes Alex's desperate, poetic subjectivity in layers. His halting voiceover is perfectly unmatched with the uneven editing and skips back and forth in time. Film Girls Rock!TV Canterbury's LawFilm 10,000 B.C.Film The Bank JobFilm Married LifeFilm Miss Pettigrew Lives for a DayTV New AmsterdamFilm PenelopeFilm Semi-ProFilm Chicago 10Film City of Men (Cidade Dos Homens)Film The Other Boleyn GirlFilm The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher)TV The GatesTV Hard Road HomeTV Buffalo BillPopMatters Pick FilmBe Kind Rewind[22.Feb.08] :. A set of relationships -- father and son, past and present, fiction and something like history -- forms the foundation of Be Kind Rewind, another gently antic film by Michel Gondry. Film Charlie BartlettFilm Vantage PointTV Joe Louis: America's Hero… BetrayedFilm The SignalPopMatters Pick FilmTaxi to the Dark Side[20.Feb.08] :. Methodically, relentlessly, Gibney's Oscar-nominated documentary assembles stories, evidence, and testimony from witnesses and experts. TV Banished: American Ethnic CleansingsTV DexterFilm Diary of the DeadFilm The Spiderwick ChroniclesFilm Step Up 2 The StreetsFilm JumperFilm Definitely, MaybeFilm Caramel (Sukkar banat)TV JerichoPopMatters Pick FilmLiberty Kid[11.Feb.08] :. It's not long before this small, extraordinary movie begins to unveil its many dimensions. Film In BrugesFilm Fool's GoldFilm The Hottie & the NottieFilm Welcome Home Roscoe JenkinsTV Bernard and DorisTV Lipstick JunglePopMatters Pick Film4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days[5.Feb.08] :. The clock is ticking in the very first moment of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. It's Romania, 1987, and time is running down. Film The EyeTV Prince Among SlavesFilm HoneydripperFilm Over Her Dead BodyFilm Orthodox StanceFilm Shoot DownFilm BeaufortFilm RamboFilm UntraceableFilm How She MoveFilm TeethFilm The Band's Visit (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret)Film CloverfieldFilm Cassandra's DreamFilm Mad MoneyFilm 27 DressesTV Andrew Jenks, Room 335TV Val Lewton: The Man in the ShadowsTV Oswald's Ghost: American ExperienceTV Comanche MoonTV Terminator: The Sarah Connor ChroniclesFilm First SundayFilm The Pirates Who Dont Do Anything: A VeggieTales MovieFilm Terror's AdvocateFilm ProtagonistFilm King CornFilm Lake of FirePopMatters Pick FilmThere Will Be Blood[4.Jan.08] :. Land, oil, blood. There will be lots of all in Paul Thomas Anderson's stunning new movie. Film One Missed Call (2008)Film PersepolisFilm The Killing of John LennonFilm The Orphanage (El Orfanato)Film Aliens vs. Predator: RequiemFilm The Great DebatersFilm The Bucket ListFilm The Water Horse: Legend of the DeepFilm Charlie Wilson's WarPopMatters Pick FilmSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street[21.Dec.07] :. Sweeney Todd is delirious with blood and violence: bright red spurting from the barber's expert slashes, necks snapping and bodies crumpling. Film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox StoryFilm P.S. I Love YouFilm National Treasure: Book of SecretsFilm Youth Without YouthTV Missing in MiG AlleyTV Hard as NailsFilm The Kite RunnerFilm I Am LegendFilm Alvin and the ChipmunksFilm Billy the KidFilm NankingFilm The Perfect HolidayPopMatters Pick FilmWar/Dance[11.Dec.07] :. As Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine's documentary frames it, survival in Uganda's war zones is political and moral, an effort to sort out the frankly unimaginable horrors that have shaped the children's existence. Film The WalkerFilm The Golden CompassFilm AtonementFilm Grace Is GoneTV Sand and SorrowFilm What Would Jesus Buy?Film AwakePopMatters Pick FilmOswalds Ghost[30.Nov.07] :. The question at the center of Oswald's Ghost is less about facts and figures, the unsolved case, than it is about perception. Film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon)PopMatters Pick FilmConfessions of a Superhero[29.Nov.07] :. Less an exposé than a graceful, sometimes sad, reverie, the documentary features gorgeous still photos, casual-seeming sidewalk footage, and fascinating talking heads. Film The SavagesFilm Starting Out in the EveningFilm August RushPopMatters Pick FilmI'm Not There[21.Nov.07] :. Dylan Per Se is a trip, an embodiment of potential meanings for fans and detractors, a performative opportunity for movie stars. Film Stephen King's The MistFilm HitmanFilm EnchantedFilm This ChristmasFilm Margot at the WeddingTV I Am An Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETAFilm Mr. Magoriums Wonder EmporiumFilm RedactedFilm BeowulfFilm Love in the Time of CholeraFilm Southland TalesFilm HollyTV DarkonFilm Fred ClausPopMatters Pick FilmNo Country for Old Men[9.Nov.07] :. The desolate landscape and moral layout evoke old Westerns, but the film, based on Cormac McCarthy's novel, also reconsiders the genre's conventions, comparing now and "the old times." Film Lions for LambsFilm P2Film Desert BayouFilm ControlTV The UnitFilm Darfur NowFilm American GangsterFilm Bee MovieFilm Martian ChildTV To Die in JerusalemTV Criminal MindsTV The UndertakingFilm Mr. UntouchableFilm Before the Devil Knows You're DeadFilm Music WithinPopMatters Pick FilmJimmy Carter Man from Plains[26.Oct.07] :. He's not like Bill Clinton, he's not a rock star. He is instead a politician and a diplomat, facing rejection and resentment as well as respect, absorbing all responses as part of an ongoing, crucial "conversation". Film Dan in Real LifeFilm Reservation RoadFilm Meeting ResistanceTV Planet in PerilTV Run Granny RunFilm 30 Days of NightFilm Gone Baby GoneFilm RenditionFilm Things We Lost in the FireFilm The Darjeeling LimitedFilm Lars and the Real GirlFilm Elizabeth: The Golden AgeFilm We Own the NightFilm SleuthPopMatters Pick FilmMy Kid Could Paint That[10.Oct.07] :. My Kid Could Paint That asks viewers to ponder how certainty and doubt reinforce one another, how the need for truth creates its own truth. PopMatters Pick TV49 Up[9.Oct.07] :. As the Up films regularly incorporate footage from previous installments, the portraits have become increasingly layered and meditative. Film Strange CultureTV The BoondocksPopMatters Pick TVBreaking Point[5.Oct.07] :. Pulling together a remarkable range of material, this beautifully written, incisive, and powerful documentary reminds you how much you miss nightly Koppel. PopMatters Pick FilmMichael Clayton[5.Oct.07] :. The film's strength lies in its poetic inclinations, its meditation on the ways that money, politics, and fear shape moral choices. PopMatters Pick FilmLust, Caution (Se, jie)[5.Oct.07] :. The primary question in Lust, Caution (Se, jie) is: "What is real?" Film The Last WinterFilm The Hearbreak Kid (2007)Film The KingdomFilm The Game PlanFilm The Jane Austen Book ClubFilm Feast of LoveTV Bionic WomanTV LifeTV CanePopMatters Pick TVLittle Rock Central: 50 Years Later[25.Sep.07] :. The film is not so much interested in comparing then and now as it is in telling the stories of students and teachers still struggling to make sense of segregation, ongoing if shapeshifted. PopMatters Pick FilmInto the Wild[21.Sep.07] :. Into the Wild reveals the sense of loss that drove Chris McCandless. It also shows that it isn't only his. PopMatters Pick FilmThe Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford[21.Sep.07] :. By turns brutal and lyrical, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford considers Wild Western mythology and masculinity, violence and madness. Film Across the UniverseFilm Resident Evil: ExtinctionFilm Good Luck ChuckFilm In the Valley of ElahTV LumoTV K-VilleTV Prison BreakPopMatters Pick TVLifting the Veil[14.Sep.07] :. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy counters George Bush's "confident" display with her own observations: "Now we've come back six years later," she narrates, "to ask if life for women in Afghanistan is any better in a liberated country." Film The Brave OnePopMatters Pick FilmEastern Promises[14.Sep.07] :. Eastern Promises crosses up and recombines stories of parents and children, even violence and history. Film Mr. WoodcockFilm The Hunting PartyFilm In the Shadow of the MoonFeatured Article TVThe Camden 28[11.Sep.07] :. Anthony Giacchino's The Camden 28, airing tonight as part of PBS' outstanding POV series, considers the complexities of the crime, the arrest, and the trial, as all these aspects "make a statement." TV Tell Me You Love MeTV Alive Day Memories: Home from IraqFilm 3:10 to YumaFilm The Devil Came on HorsebackFilm Shoot Em UpFilm HalloweenFilm Ten CanoesTV Made in L.A.Film Quiet CityFilm Death SentenceFilm The Hottest StateFilm Self-MedicatedFilm DedicationTV Children of the StormTV Libby, MontanaFilm September DawnFilm Illegal TenderFilm The Nanny DiariesFilm Resurrecting the ChampFilm Right at Your DoorFilm Mr. Bean's Holiday (Les Vacances de Mr. Bean)Film Primo Levi's Journey (La Strada di Levi)Film The King of Kong: A Fistful of QuartersFilm The Last LegionFilm SuperbadFilm The Invasion (2007)Film Death at a FuneralFilm The 11th HourFilm If I Didnt CarePopMatters Pick FilmSummercamp![14.Aug.07] :. Respectful and perceptive, Summercamp! isn't quite what you expect. Film SkinwalkersFilm Rush Hour 3Film Rocket ScienceFilm 2 Days in ParisFilm I Know Who Killed MeFilm MolièrePopMatters Pick FilmThe Bourne Ultimatum[3.Aug.07] :. Bourne is the logical product of the secret CIA program that made him, the dark routes by which a desire for surveillance and security gives way to brutal dominion and extreme measures. Film El CantanteFilm InterviewFilm Becoming JaneTV Following SeanFilm The Simpsons MoviePopMatters Pick FilmNo End in Sight (2007)[27.Jul.07] :. Charles Ferguson's smart, meticulous documentary No End in Sight explains the first year in Iraq in detail, at once alarming and dismal. Film No Reservations (2007)Film Arctic TaleTV DamagesTV Prison Town, USAFilm Goya's Ghosts (Los Fantasmas de Goya) (2006)PopMatters Pick FilmSunshine (2007)[20.Jul.07] :. The notion of loss pervades Sunshine, even as calculations of self are increasingly complex. Film I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)Film Shadow Company (2006)PopMatters PickFilmNice Bombs (2006)[18.Jul.07] :. Though it seems casual, even random, Nice Bombs manages a consistently acute observation of tensions between troops and citizens, expectations and realities. Film My Best Friend (Mon meilleur ami) (2006)Film Captivity (2007)TV State of MindPopMatters Pick FilmTalk To Me (2007)[13.Jul.07] :. Part biopic, part portrait of an era, Talk to Me presents an ongoing dilemma -- what does it mean to be "black enough" and how does "talk" shape the question and answers? Film Broken English (2007)Film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)Film Introducing the Dwights (2007)TV Spielberg on SpielbergPopMatters Pick FilmRescue Dawn (2007)[6.Jul.07] :. Dieter's dedication grants him passion and strength, but the film never lets you forget the paradox he lives, his illicit status and the fact that "America" cannot rescue him. Film Joshua (2007)Film Transformers (2007)TV |