Film and television reviews, features, columns, and news. 2009-07-04T21:35:00Z Copyright (c) 2009, PopMatters.com ExpressionEngine tag:popmatters.com-watch,2009:07:10 tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107871 2009-07-10T06:00:33Z 2009-07-10T06:00:33Z Matt Mazur A grand, intimate philosophical dissection of love, art, creative freedom and self-importance. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107873 2009-07-10T05:59:11Z 2009-07-10T05:59:11Z J.M. Suarez The series is developing a mythology filled with mysterious agencies, rivals, and characters that often don’t reveal their true intentions right away. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107880 2009-07-10T05:30:00Z 2009-07-10T05:30:00Z Bill Gibron Apparently, previous accomplishments and past reputation mean nothing in the "what have you done for me lately" world of Hollywood hackdom. Just because you've made excellent films as a director... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107879 2009-07-10T05:00:33Z 2009-07-10T05:00:33Z Bill Gibron I am tired of all the "social commentary" accolades. I am fed-up with the entire "holding a mirror up to homophobic America" excuses. As I was when Sacha Baron Cohen arrived on these shores with a... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107960 2009-07-09T17:43:22Z 2009-07-09T17:43:22Z Robert W. Butler tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107959 2009-07-09T17:03:16Z 2009-07-09T17:03:16Z Carrie Rickey PHILADELPHIA — Slim as lightning, Kathryn Bigelow makes movies charged with adrenaline and electricity, action thrillers like "Blue Steel" and "Point Break." The 6-footer with the radiant... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107945 2009-07-09T15:20:37Z 2009-07-09T15:20:37Z David Patrick Stearns tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107926 2009-07-09T12:55:55Z 2009-07-09T12:55:55Z Cynthia Fuchs In brief, stark moments, Duncan Jones' movie makes plain how awful it is to be so solitary, how utterly impossible it is to consider this existence a "living." ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107928 2009-07-09T11:47:35Z 2009-07-09T11:47:35Z Aaron Barnhart The nation's television critics have spent a generation — or two, if you count the DVD and VCR as representing separate epochs — watching pilots, those first episodes of the shows that... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107885 2009-07-09T10:45:42Z 2009-07-09T10:45:42Z Bill Gibron It's lasted over six years. It's become the buzz in the background of our daily lives. It's the rote response to any "support our troops" suggestion. And even with a recent 'withdrawal', there still... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107807 2009-07-09T06:00:58Z 2009-07-09T06:00:58Z Matt Mazur Clement’s near-perfect film and Wajda’s hugely influential title cannot salvage the validity of the collection as a whole. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107849 2009-07-09T05:58:19Z 2009-07-09T05:58:19Z Bruce Dancis tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107889 2009-07-08T19:40:48Z 2009-07-08T19:40:48Z Michael Phillips CHICAGO — Opening Friday, the gripping war film "The Hurt Locker" is the first narrative feature to make full, unnerving dramatic sense of the war in Iraq, and it does so without polemics or... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107875 2009-07-08T11:49:21Z 2009-07-08T11:49:21Z Jonathan Storm tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107866 2009-07-08T11:43:47Z 2009-07-08T11:43:47Z Cynthia Fuchs Burma VJ articulates a circular, daunting, and inevitable logic: visibility = life. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107806 2009-07-08T06:00:14Z 2009-07-08T06:00:14Z Thomas Britt Long-delayed season 7 includes a fiery blend of political crises, family dramas and exhilarating action sequences. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107796 2009-07-08T05:59:14Z 2009-07-08T05:59:14Z Ben Travers Steve Martin’s 2nd stab at resurrecting a classic features broader humor and international star power -- but is it funny? ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107834 2009-07-07T16:04:50Z 2009-07-07T16:04:50Z Bill Gibron It's been a hectic week here at SE&L, and before we climb the mountain of theatrical reviews coming this week (with Bruno, I Love You Beth Cooper, and The Hurt Locker... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107822 2009-07-07T12:19:22Z 2009-07-07T12:19:22Z John Anderson Among the narrowly focused special-interest groups poised to get lathered up over "Bruno" — comic-critic Sacha Baron Cohen's new exercise in carefully calibrated bad taste — are Jews.... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107821 2009-07-07T12:17:28Z 2009-07-07T12:17:28Z Moira Macdonald tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107820 2009-07-07T12:12:25Z 2009-07-07T12:12:25Z Luaine Lee GLENDALE, Calif. — Standup comedian Margaret Cho was never the polite, little Asian girl who covered her mouth when she laughed and made straight As. In fact, she was always the opposite. A... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107814 2009-07-07T10:51:37Z 2009-07-07T10:51:37Z Cynthia Fuchs In Life. Support. Music., Jason Crigler's recovery is surely inspiring -- especially as it is attributable to the family's concerted efforts. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107362 2009-07-07T06:00:13Z 2009-07-07T06:00:13Z Terrence Butcher This vibrant documentary casts light upon the duality of socio-sexual identity and identity politics. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107743 2009-07-07T05:59:40Z 2009-07-07T05:59:40Z Sarah Hentges Two rich documentaries that reveal the diversity of lesbian filmmakers as well as their common themes and experiences. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107728 2009-07-06T14:00:46Z 2009-07-06T14:00:46Z Michael Phillips CHICAGO — She is Oscar-winning, French, intense and full of interesting opinions about the quality of the bottled water in her trailer. "I think this (bottle brought over from the Peninsula... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107735 2009-07-06T13:41:46Z 2009-07-06T13:41:46Z Diane Werts tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107720 2009-07-06T11:25:27Z 2009-07-06T11:25:27Z Cynthia Fuchs In The Beaches of Agnès, the "game" of cinema is endlessly fascinating, as what was and what can be come together on screen. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107727 2009-07-06T11:10:43Z 2009-07-06T11:10:43Z Michael Phillips tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107354 2009-07-06T06:00:13Z 2009-07-06T06:00:13Z Emma Simmonds Leigh takes on ordinary and infuses blinding colour, broad comedy, crude monikers and flamboyant performances. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/feature/21.107644 2009-07-06T06:00:00Z 2009-07-06T06:00:00Z Matt Sullivan Much has been made of Michael Jackson’s identification with the character of Peter Pan, but the late singer had another literary devotion that didn’t make it into his obituaries: He was an Edgar Allan Poe fanatic. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107077 2009-07-06T05:59:02Z 2009-07-06T05:59:02Z Stuart Henderson This was the moment that the Beatles broke up. It's tough to watch footage from that night as anything other than the beginning of the long denouement to an epic story. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107700 2009-07-06T05:00:14Z 2009-07-06T05:00:14Z Bill Gibron There are literally dozens of fanboy feuds in the realm of MST3K, fights as futile as Joel vs. Mike, Sci-Fi vs. Comedy Central, Crow T. Robot Mach 1 vs. Crow 2.0 - heck, even Rifftrax vs.... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107672 2009-07-05T13:20:18Z 2009-07-05T13:20:18Z Bill Gibron Consider the short film. Actually, consider the concept of the short film first. When people hear the label, they automatically think of a couple of completely different and competing conceits. The... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107638 2009-07-04T14:55:41Z 2009-07-04T14:55:41Z Bill Gibron What, exactly, happened to Renny Harlin? How did he go from hotshot newbie with an entire career before him to a cinematic afterthought left to helm horrid hackjobs like The Covenant and... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107634 2009-07-04T14:36:25Z 2009-07-04T14:36:25Z Michael Upchurch tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107632 2009-07-04T14:32:39Z 2009-07-04T14:32:39Z Peter Larsen BURBANK, Calif. — Face to face at twin pianos, Matt Giraud and Scott MacIntyre strike the opening chords of "Don't Stop Believin'," and playing in unison the two "American Idol" finalists start... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107618 2009-07-03T19:32:15Z 2009-07-03T19:32:15Z Bill Gibron As writers, we are taught to avoid clichés. Avoid them like the plague. Avoid them like red-headed step-children at a reunion. As a literary shortcut they supposedly show sloppiness and a lack... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107611 2009-07-03T11:00:01Z 2009-07-03T11:00:01Z Cynthia Fuchs Pablo Trapero's film slows down following the splattery whirlwind of plot pieces that gets Julia inside prison. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107566 2009-07-03T11:00:00Z 2009-07-03T11:00:00Z Cynthia Fuchs Estilo Hip Hop, Guerrillero explains, "Rap has become my political weapon of choice." ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107571 2009-07-02T15:08:01Z 2009-07-02T15:08:01Z Bill Gibron Legend has it that when Italian maestro Michelangelo Antonioni came to America to make his second English language film (after the monster success of Blow-up), he was shocked by the backlash... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107558 2009-07-01T20:42:10Z 2009-07-01T20:42:10Z Bill Gibron Sometimes a movie makes a decision so dumbfounding, or takes a narrative path so peculiar, that it can't fully recuperate from such a lame left turn. It happens all the time in horror, from the false... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107535 2009-07-01T12:41:57Z 2009-07-01T12:41:57Z Bill Gibron Most independent filmmakers lack balls. Oh sure, they think that by tackling their lingering interpersonal issues, traumas tripped by memories of failed potty training and the lack of parental love,... ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/media-center/15.107512 2009-07-01T11:40:09Z 2009-07-01T11:40:09Z Matt Mazur tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107528 2009-07-01T11:00:00Z 2009-07-01T11:00:00Z Cynthia Fuchs Sensational and turbulent, the relationship between John Dillinger and Melvin Purvis sold newspapers and attracted newsreel audiences. It was good for business. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/review/5.107530 2009-07-01T11:00:00Z 2009-07-01T11:00:00Z Renee Scolaro Mora Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs alters the pattern established by the previous two films, focusing not on the herd but on action-packed, 3-D adventure. ]]> tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/blogs/short-ends-and-leader/17.107506 2009-06-30T21:30:03Z 2009-06-30T21:30:03Z Bill Gibron tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107495 2009-06-30T15:09:49Z 2009-06-30T15:09:49Z Lewis Beale tag:popmatters.com,2009:pm/news/23.107492 2009-06-30T15:03:17Z 2009-06-30T15:03:17Z Doug Nye