Friday, December 4 2009
Everybody’s Fine
Frank’s essential irony -- his inability to communicate on top of his presumption that he communicates well -- is italicized repeatedly in Everybody’s Fine.
Thursday, December 3 2009
Kassim the Dream
A former child soldier in Uganda, the boxer Kassim continues to wrestle with the effects of the violence he witnessed and committed.
Wednesday, December 2 2009
Big River Man
Whether you understand Borut's patchy storytelling to be artful or actually bewildered, the film goes along for the ride.
Tuesday, December 1 2009
How to Fold a Flag
The veterans embody ideals and disappointments that most citizens, safe at home, have been encouraged to forget.
Wednesday, November 25 2009
The Road
As father and son make their way across what's left of the land, they embody myth and the harshest of realities at once, the apparent end of possibility, hope, and imagination.
Ninja Assassin
All the bloody splatting and fast editing mean that it doesn't matter what's real or not real in Ninja Assassin.
Monday, November 23 2009
Broken Embraces (Los Abrazos Rotos)
Broken Embraces remains fixed on the ways that men seek control of the not-so-elusive Lena.
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
This bad lieutenant's pain is less punishment than righteous realignment, a reflection of the nutty, debased, and utterly chaotic world around him. He's not deviant. He's the new normal.
Friday, November 20 2009
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
As she ponders her future, Bella is less aware than you are that she has very similar effects on the monster boy rivals for her affection -- glowing eyes, rising tempers, pronounced teeth, ungodly strength, usually demonstrated on others of their ilk or furniture.
The Blind Side
The pile-on of big emotional moments, accompanied by big music, is overwhelming. This is a movie demanding to be loved.
Monday, November 16 2009
Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival
The documentaries of this year's Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival show more than they tell, underlining how each story is shaped not only by subject's self-presentations, but also by the films' frames.
Friday, November 13 2009
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Intergenerational dilemmas -- how to be foxes, to be individuals and also parts of communities -- form the complicated heart of Fantastic Mr. Fox.
2012
As the action becomes less fabulous and more repetitive over 2012's 150 minutes, the philosophical debate ratchets up.
The End of Poverty?
Phillipe Diaz's powerful documentary The End of Poverty? is uncharacteristically revolutionary among today's issue documentaries, and all the more refreshing for its bluntness.
Pirate Radio
Pirate Radio leaves out any mention of the usual historical and cultural background, say, sex as a potential means of mixing races and classes.
Wednesday, November 11 2009
The Good Soldier
The familiar format of The Good Soldier helps to underscore what's extraordinary about the veterans' stories.
Tuesday, November 10 2009
Copyright Criminals
Comprised of split screens, overlapping and overlaid sounds, an assemblage of images and noise, Copyright Criminals effectively stages its argument even as it makes it.
Monday, November 9 2009
Death Bell (Gosa)
Death Bell's tight focus on students' fears embodied is elegant even as it's unsettling.
The Box
The Box feigns straightforwardness for half an hour or so, but Richard Kelly only uses the set-up as the firm handle from which he can fly off.
Friday, November 6 2009
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is concerned with lasting effects -- on individuals and especially, on communities.
