Film Dunce: Rocky
"Nobody's ever gone the distance with Creed, and if I can go that distance, you see, and that bell rings and I'm still standin', I'm gonna know for the first time in my life, see, that I weren't just another bum from the neighborhood." [Tara Pierson Hoey]
A Prophet
A Prophet is not the Arab-Gallic Grand Theft Auto. Rather, director Auidard simply puts his characters in a fish tank and poses a Darwinian fight for survival. [David Harris]
Rediscover: Withnail and I
We take another look at Bruce Robinson's comic masterpiece, a film that brought both a Richard E. Grant and notoriously dangerous drinking game into the world. [Lauren Westerfield]
Brooklyn's Finest
Antoine Fuqua's energetic and gritty film feels like a spiritual successor to New Jack City. [Rafael Gaitan]
Screw You, Oscar 2010
The Academy Awards lets us down once again with safe choices for Best Picture. Spectrum Culture proudly presents....alternatives!
Alice in Wonderland
Tim Burton certainly deserves a cookie or something for not turning Alice in Wonderland into a teenaged goth nightmare as many of us expected of him. [Danny Djeljosevic]
The Yellow Handkerchief
When the film's titular yellow handkerchief shows up at the end of the film, it is done for weepy, sentimental effect rather than add anything new about the characters. [David Harris]
Film Dunce: Akira
"Hah! You don't like what you're hearing, do ya? Makes you angry? So what are you gonna do now? Well, Kaneda? WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO NOW?" [Rafael Gaitan]
Harlan - In the Shadow of Jew Süss
Harlan - In the Shadow of Jew Süss is a standard-issue talking-head documentary whose fascinating and important subject matter is dealt with in a regrettably bland and uninspired way. [Shannon Gramas]
Rediscover: Revanche
Revanche probes into the existence of faith and how the shared human experience connects us all more than we would like to think. [David Harris]
Phyllis and Harold
Cindy Kleine's Phyllis and Harold is a documentary account of her parents' rocky marriage, is devoid of any qualities that could elevate the film above anything more than a well-crafted home video. [David Harris]
The Crazies
An initial sense of dread is tossed aside and reason out the window as this silly film becomes more and more incoherent. [David Harris]
Cop Out
Kevin Smith is a funny, tremendously likable raconteur, but if the 2000s proved anything it showed that Smith is a monumentally lazy man. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Oeuvre: Richard Linklater
Waking Life
Waking Life is consistently at its finest when it does focus on the arguments it's trying to make, and instead slowly emphasizing how the unconscious mind can be trying to articulate what the waking world can't force itself to confront. [Nathan Kamal]
The Ghost Writer
This could have been an exciting political thriller, a biting "War on Terror" satire, an intriguing mystery movie or all three, and yet somehow The Ghost Writer ends up being mostly just boring. [Shannon Gramas]
Film Dunce: Caddyshack
"You're a lot of woman, you know that? Yeah, wanna make 14 dollars the hard way?" [Melissa Muenz]
Videocracy
Videocracy makes no claims at objectivity and handles its rage well, although the pitch of it sometimes comes off as the indignant foot-stamping of an irate citizen. [Jesse Cataldo]
Revisit: Swimming to Cambodia
Spalding Gray's art illuminates the fragility of human nature, asking not why we are fragile, but why that fragility causes us to act in the ways that we do, lashing out at each other, maintaining chasms of misunderstanding between us rather than bridging them. [Zac Dillon]
Eyes Wide Open
Director Haim Tabakman's full-length feature debut, Eyes Wide Open, is nothing short of the first sign of an incredible filmmaker. [Nathan Kamal]
The Art of the Steal
Despite early hints, the eventual focus is not the intricate game of creative expression defined by dollars but an often-histrionic take on the ownership controversy. [Jesse Cataldo]
Shutter Island
Shutter Island suffers from keeping us in the dark. Technically beautiful and at times frightening, the film takes place too much in its own head. [David Harris]
Oeuvre: Richard Linklater
The Newton Boys
The ads made the movie seem like it was going to be a big romp, but really it's more of a lark, as breezy and easygoing as a movie about federal crimes could conceivably get, entirely in line with Linklater's naturalistic, people-oriented sensibility. [Andrei Alupului]
Lourdes
It's funny, the way our minds and hearts respond to a miracle: no sooner does that which we desire most appear before us than we question it, doubt it - imagine it taken away. [Lauren Westerfield]
Film Dunce: The Shawshank Redemption
"If I hear so much as a mouse fart in here the rest of the night I swear by God and sonny Jesus you will all visit the infirmary. Every last motherfucker in here." [Danny Djeljosevic]
Revisit: Wings of Desire
More a tone poem or a mediation on existence, Wim Wenders' modern classic Wings of Desire is anything but a narrative film that relies on plot points and telegraphic filmic gimmicks. [David Harris]
October Country
October Country focuses on the working class quandary where want and need are mixed up, leading to useless spending and seeking out emotional satisfaction from abusive partners who don't have our best interests in mind. [David Harris]
The Wolfman
Shame that the scenes in between the good werewolf bits are workmanlike at best and dull at the worst -- and more often the latter. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Oeuvre: Richard Linklater
subUrbia
Where most of Linklater's films concern the aimless, harmless wandering of Generation X, subUrbia is concerned with the pessimistic, self-destructive relationship Generation Y has with cynicism. [Morgan Davis]
The Red Riding Trilogy
Red Riding's really only kind of all right, a series of diminishing returns with maybe one intact film in there, followed by a weak spin-off and completed by a lame clip show/feel-bad schmaltzfest. [Andrei Alupului]
Film Dunce: Thelma and Louise
"Where do you get off behaving that way with women you don't even know, huh? How'd you feel if someone did that to your mother or your sister or your wife?" [Lauren Westerfield]
Terribly Happy
Terribly Happy is a film that can't figure out what it wants to be. Is it a horror film about a town with a terrible secret? Is it a character study lacking an interesting protagonist? [David Harris]
Revisit: Che
Broken into two parts, the first chronicling Guevara's success in Cuba and the second his failure in Bolivia, Che eschews the conventions that water down most biopics to present a verité vision of Guevara in action. [David Harris]
District 13: Ultimatum
Where the film really betrays its predecessor is in its inexcusable midtempo pacing, which must be attributed to the departure of original director Pierre Morel. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Ajami
Directors Shani and Copti themselves are respectively Israeli and Palestinian, and their combined direction and portrayal of day-to-day life and attitudes is nothing short of astonishing. [Nathan Kamal]
Oeuvre: Richard Linklater
Before Sunrise
Featuring a day where the young Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy), two perfect strangers, jump off a train together to stroll the streets of Vienna, Before Sunrise may be one of the few perfect romantic films ever created. [David Harris]
Saint John of Las Vegas
Saint John is never boring as a film, but it's also a slowly paced, frequently frustrating one. [Nathan Kamal]
Film Dunce: Saturday Night Fever
"No, Tony! You can't fuck the future. The future fucks you! It catches up with you and it fucks you if you ain't planned for it!" [Jesse Cataldo]
North Face
For those willing to wait out the unnecessary exposition and grandstanding, North Face is a gripping and terrifying journey with enough close calls and death-defying stunts to thrill any adrenaline junkie. [David Harris]
Rediscover: California Split
Written by a gambling addict, starring at least one gambling addict and directed by a heavy gambler, the production's truthfulness is deeply rooted in its makers' own histories. [Andrei Alupului]
44 Inch Chest
44 Inch Chest might be the first film ever made about a mopey gangster. No surprise that the film comes from the minds who wrote Sexy Beast [Danny Djeljosevic]
Word is Out
Although filmed in the '70s, Word is Out is still very much alive with the ability to move and inspire. [Allyn Sterling]
Edge of Darkness
Though Mel Gibson gets right back on the horse that threw him off, Edge of Darkness is not the triumphant return to the screen for the tarnished star. [David Harris]
Oeuvre: Richard Linklater
Dazed and Confused
The horny jock, the nerdy intellectual, the stoner who can't seem to shut up, all of them seem to be people inhabiting Linklater's film rather than stock characters to be used. [Nathan Kamal]
A Room and a Half
A Room and a Half suffers in that it is an essentially autobiographical story that is not actually an autobiography - it attempts to infer someone else's perspective and symbolic order of images. [Andrei Alupului]
Film Dunce: Psycho
"I think I must have one of those faces you can't help believing." [Andrei Alupului]
The Paranoids
The Paranoids is a dreamy, occasionally disorienting dark comedy that succeeds, not so much in making revolutionary declarations of its own, but rather in exploring stereotypical characters from an intriguing angle. [Lauren Westerfield]
The Girl on the Train
The 64-year-old André Téchiné isn't interested in a soapy weeper but a complex story that takes on the dilemmas of anti-Semitism, drugs and neglect in modern France. [David Harris]
Fish Tank
What this movie really gets right is the cultural currency that music takes on in youth, the way it dictates the delineations between kids, and the subtle distinctions that can be drawn from them. [Andrei Alupului]
Oeuvre: Richard Linklater
Slacker
Slacker is impossible to mistake for anything but a Linklater film: it lacks narrative structure, choosing instead to seamlessly flow through a day in the life of the city of Austin. [Morgan Davis]
Mine
The only really discernible point of view contained in the film is that this situation is a bummer and hopefully these people can get their dogs back. [Andrei Alupului]
Sweetgrass
Rather than fill in the empty spaces with voiceover and interviews, the directors just let the cameras roll and allow us to witness the final drive of sheep over Montana's Beartooth mountains. [David Harris]
Revisit: Rashomon
Rashomon's position amongst the all-time classics will grow more secure as time goes by. [James Shelledy]
The Book of Eli
Perhaps most infuriating of all is Denzel Washington's character lacks, well, character. His Eli is nothing more than a cipher for Jesus or any other prophet, yet this prophet lacks any temptation: first, middle or last. [David Harris]
The Lovely Bones
To further depress you about the supreme waste of talent at work in this film, the score is by Brian Eno. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Oeuvre: Richard Linklater
The Early Years
Linklater's first feature length project is useful mostly in terms of context, a hopelessly flawed film perched on a spindly foundation of good intentions. [Jesse Cataldo]
Garbage Dreams
Garbage Dreams is not only a group study but a discourse on our relationship with garbage, specifically the sheer amount of trash a city produces. [Jesse Cataldo]
Bitch Slap
So much slow motion. So much campiness. So many straining tank tops. We've come a long way, baby. [Nathan Kamal]
Film Dunce: Swingers
Perhaps the dated nature of Swingers actually helps it in the long run. [Nathan Kamal]
Flooding with Love for the Kid
Believe it. A one-man film based on the source material of Sylvester Stallone's First Blood. And it's really, really good! [Andrei Alupului]
Rediscover: The Human Condition
What is most astonishing about The Human Condition is its wholesale condemnation of Japan's militarism in such a short time following World War II. [David Harris]
Crazy Heart
The fact that Crazy Heart is still so compelling in spite of its predictable, almost clichéd, plot is a testament to its acting and directing. [James Shelledy]
Youth in Revolt
Youth in Revolt tries hard to look and sound different from other coming-of-age sex comedies, but in the end, the differences are merely superficial. [James Shelledy]
The White Ribbon
As a dramatist, Michael Haneke's sensitivity to the explosive nature of human feeling leads to some really stunning moments. [Andrei Alupului]
Film Dunce: Back to the Future
The Zemeckis we know from Forrest Gump and Contact is introduced here, where the Huey Lewis-loving man-child Fox shreds so hot on a Gibson hollow-body that Chuck Berry is inspired to follow suit. [Chris Middleman]
A Single Man
A Single Man is a thought-provoking, cautionary tragedy that masterfully encapsulates life's fleeting pleasures that we do not appreciate until it's too late. [David Harris]
Police, Adjective
Police, Adjective is an examination of the way that language affects our daily life, and how the systems we create can turn poisonous to actual human concerns through an obsession with and abuse of language. [Andrei Alupului]
Nine
Nine cannot help but be a limp facsimile of a film that is so full of life and brio. [David Harris]
Avatar
Avatar may be technically amazing with a script that is too formulaic, but it certainly does not lack heart. [David Harris]
Up in the Air
If Reitman and Clooney both took more risks, Up in the Air could have soared. [David Harris]
Broken Embraces
Broken Embraces is an auteurist misstep, the kind of film that exposes its maker's preoccupations and gives away his shortcomings. [Teri Carson]
Ricky
Ricky is unextraordinary and tedious in every sense; a movie that feels like an imposition. [Andrei Alupului]
A Town Called Panic
A Town Called Panic is a genuinely unique and frequently hilarious film. [Andrei Alupului]
Hannah Free
Sympathetic viewers may overlook the film's glaring inadequacies for the sake of its message [Lauren Westerfield]
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, seems to plot its bizarre interior confabulations as stepping-stones on a trail to nowhere. [Jesse Cataldo]
Home
Home is a contemporary and enticing tale of spiraling humor and darkness; an environmental "horror" movie where a happy home is transformed into a nightmare due to extreme environmental influences. [Teri Carson]
Oh My God
Unfortunately, no matter how ambitious a filmmaker is, a topic that has perplexed the whole of humanity for recorded history can't quite be covered in 98 minutes. [Nathan Kamal]
Big River Man
Big River Man follows a world-record attempt without any of the standard gravity, turning this grueling pursuit into a peculiar celebration of absurd behavior. [Jesse Cataldo]
Invictus
A film cannot rise above mediocrity on the strength of theme alone. It needs execution. And it's here that Eastwood drops the ball. [James Shelledy]
Loot
While it doesn't sound like the best praise to say that a documentary resembles something invented, in this case it's a total compliment. Darius Marder's debut film has all the lean emotional economy of first-rate narrative drama. [Jesse Cataldo]
Until the Light Takes Us
This isn't a documentary about art or about artists, to the extent that it doesn't allow itself to be either. [Andrei Alupului]
Gigante
Gigante is a fine first effort, and although it isn't a laugh-out-loud funny black comedy, the film exhibits Kaurismäkian sympathy for the hardships of the working class. [Teri Carson]
Rediscover: A Christmas Tale (2008)
Despite his deep feelings for his characters, Desplechin refuses to sink into the mire of sentimentality even as death, infidelity, insanity and deep-seeded hatred threaten to destroy the delicate fiber of the film. [David Harris]
Before Tomorrow
Before Tomorrow doesn't follow cinematic conventions, it follows Inuit storytelling traditions, and the emphasis is on the power of storytelling in the culture. [Andrei Alupului]
Film Ist . a girl & a gun
A visual narrative in five sweeping acts, a girl & a gun blends found and famous images into a drama chronicling the inescapable overlap of sex and violence in cinema. [Lauren Westerfield]
Me & Orson Welles
Me & Orson Welles uses the young-adult-friendly novel by Robert Kaplow as an excuse to deliver a fictionalized account of Welles' pivotal modern-dress staging of Julius Caesar. [Danny Djeljosevic]
The Sun
Alexander Sokurov's The Sun, features a look at the last hours of Japan's Emperor Hirohito before he surrendering to the United States and is an astounding work of intimate detail that should not be missed. [David Harris]
Mammoth
Director Lukas Moodysson lives up to his surname, as nobody in this movie is very happy. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Bond: Thunderball (1965)
Too often Thunderball feels uneven, sluggish and overly dependent on explosions, flash and a reliable formula. It lacks the elegance, wit and effortlessness of the best films. [Lukas Sherman]
The Maid
The Maid's darkly comic moments skewer bourgeoisie manners and hypocrisy, however, Silva films in a gritty social realistic manner that undermines that tone. [James Shelledy]
The Missing Person
The Missing Person is a film that is both a genre exercise and a new thing, even if in the end it is not fully either. [Andrei Alupului]
The Road
Be warned: Mad Max this film is not. [David Harris]
Rediscover: Sword of Doom (1965)
It would be easy to dismiss Sword of Doom as just another violent Samurai movie, and it is definitely not without its flaws. Just the same, the film's strengths beg for a second look. [James Shelledy]
Red Cliff
Some have said that Red Cliff is a return to form for Woo but that depends on which version of the film they are talking about. [James Shelledy]
The Messenger
The Messenger looks at the emotional carnage left behind by war, not only in the families who have to deal with lost love ones, but soldiers who have been trained to disregard the natural instinct of emotion as a weakness. [David Harris]
Women in Trouble
Gutierrez reaches for the camp of Pedro Almodovar but doesn't have the sensibility to see it through. Hence the clichés are never subverted and remain nothing more than clichés. [James Shelledy]
Uncertainty
The dueling storylines feel more like victims of an intro-to-creative-writing exercise than a real structure. [Jesse Cataldo]
Rediscover: The Misfits (1961)
Watching these ill-fated actors, Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift, each unique, navigate their way through a film of broken, lost, lonely characters in a vanishing culture, is both fascinating and morbid. [Lukas Sherman]
Pirate Radio
This film is about as rock 'n' roll as George W. Bush's inauguration dance with Ricky Martin. In fact, not only do the cliché characters, ridiculous plot points and extended run time sink this ship, Pirate Radio also neuters any song that appears on its soundtrack. [David Harris]
Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt With Nazis
Despite an overturned conviction in 1958, Kasztner is a divisive and inflammatory name. Some people accuse him of being the worst war criminal in Jewish history, while others laud him as a daring soul who sacrificed himself for an ungrateful nation. [Rafael Gaitan]
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Fans of the director's past work will see Mr. Fox as a continuation on the themes that haunt his other films such as Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, except this film is animated and features talking animals. [David Harris]
That Evening Sun
Though Holbrook's ultimate role will probably be his stage performance as the title character in Mark Twain Tonight!, it was the strength of his Into the Wild performance that paved the way to That Evening Sun, his first ever leading film role. [David Harris]
Collapse
Chris Smith has proven with American Movie and now Collapse that if there's a documentarian working today who can take over Errol Morris's reins, it's him. [Morgan Davis]
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Rather than be an offensive waste of time, The Men Who Stare at Goats is such a slight confection of a film that the efforts of an A-list cast are undercut by its meandering existence and pointless final act. [David Harris]
The Box
The Box is scatter shot, occasionally histrionic and overambitious; however, that same ambition lends a vibrancy and tension that few other directors could manage. [Nathan Kamal]
[Untitled]
[Untitled] succeeds admirably at encapsulating the insufferable tone of the art world but doesn't give an audience much to care about otherwise in its inability to follow through on the course it sets out to in its beginning. [Morgan Davis]
The Fourth Kind
The Fourth Kind isn't a particularly good movie, even so, it's got more merit than a lot of movies it's worse than - it's an interesting mainstream oddity that is, despite its flaws, a unique and worthwhile viewing experience. [Andrei Alupului]
Storm
Storm is as featureless as they come - an empty-headed, lifeless thriller - the kind of movie that assumes the sight of tears or yelling will in and of itself generate pathos in its audience. [Andrei Alupului]
One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur
Jack Kerouac. Depending on your humor, he's either the voice of youth journeying across the country with only a rucksack and barely a dream or a prototype for all the pompous, self-obsessed drunken hipsters who can only write about themselves because they know nothing else. [Danny Djeljosevic]
DVD: You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977-84
You Weren't There is one of the more illuminating recent docs, partly because it deals with a scene that hasn't become as overexposed as NYC or London. Chicago punk is much less known, if only because the city never produced a breakout band like the Ramones, the Clash or X. [Lukas Sherman]
Night and Day
Night and Day, like many of Hong Sang Soo's films, is a chamber piece, about the daily dealings of an involuntary expatriate in a new city. [Andrei Alupului]
The House of the Devil
Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby wrote and closed the book on overeager cult members grappling to stick a dabble of demon seed up some poor unsuspected woman's hoo-ha. Do we really need to see it again with The House of the Devil? [David Harris]
Music on DVD: Otis Redding: The Best: See & Hear
Skip this collection if you know Redding too well by now because this is well worn territory that's put together more than a little clumsily. Per usual, Otis has to do all the work because his music gets no help from its compilers. [Neal Fersko]
Antichrist
This harrowing tale of a married couple whose son accidentally plunges to his death from an open window while they are making love, is Lars von Trier's grimmest and most transgressive work to date. [Teri Carson]
Araya
Benacerraf's film covers a day in the life of three families making a harsh living in Araya, a peninsula in northeastern Venezuela that has been forgotten by time. For 450 years, since its discovery by the Spanish, life on Araya had continued unchanged. [James Shelledy]
Ong Bak 2
With Ong Bak 2, Thai action cinema has entered its prog phase. Someone make them stop before they make something really boring. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Good Hair
While Good Hair does have its fair share of silly moments, Chris Rock manages to add some levity to the film, turning it into a sociological study of African-American women, a topic given that's been given so little attention that it's a mystery to even African American men. [James Shelledy]
Rembrandt's J'Accuse
Much of what Greenaway claims seems like fantasy, but its exhaustive research and grandfatherly tone make for inherently interesting proceedings. [Jesse Cataldo]
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
Some free advice, people who made Cirque du Freak: the Vampire's Assistant: More freaks, less vampires. Is there anything more painful than watching a movie that desperately wishes to be a completely different film? [Danny Djeljosevic]
New York, I Love You
Despite its flaws, its triumphs are far more exciting, and New York, I Love You is like an "I Heart NY" shirt- comforting, iconic and accessible. [Rafael Gaitan]
Visual Acoustics
Visual Acoustics is a documentary about a man whose impact was much bigger than his fame. Julius Shulman is widely regarded as the most influential architectural photographer of the 20th century. [Andrei Alupului]
An Education
Based on a memoir by British journalist Lynn Barber, Nick Hornby's droll, incisive screenplay skillfully nails Jenny's inner life and Lone Scherfig's emotionally pulsing, culturally observant direction makes the movie burst with life. [Teri Carson]
St. Trinian's
A viewing of St. Trinian's comes with a valuable screenwriting lesson: never follow screenwriting rules. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Where the Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are is a moving, thoughtful look back at a time in our lives when we didn't understand the way the world works. [David Harris]
DVD: High School Record
There's promise in High School Record but not enough to make it more than a novelty, an opportunity to see The Smell's best and brightest removed from their natural element. [Morgan Davis]
Afterschool
Afterschool is a disturbing film to watch. Revolving around themes of alienation and isolation, with a deep vein of misanthropy, it's difficult to like or care about any particular character. [Nathan Kamal]
Chelsea on the Rocks
The often inscrutable but still fresh and surprising documentary manages to take its all-too-memorialized and romanticized subject not so seriously and yet treat it and the people around it with respect. [Teri Carson]
The Damned United
If nothing else, The Damned United proves that Sheen is fully capable of carrying his own film. [David Harris]
Bronson
With Bronson, director Nicolas Winding Refn has delivered an anti-biopic--a movie about the life of a man who does not change and learns nothing that characters should. And it's fresh, exhilarating, brutal, and hilarious. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Rediscover: La Mort en ce Jardin
Le Mort en ce Jardin begins in the mode of a thousand other westerns, with the appearance of a mysterious stranger just as a small town enters period of unrest. But its heart isn't in this formula. [Jesse Cataldo]
A Serious Man
By the time A Serious Man ends in a stunner of a conclusion, the Coen Brothers have once again pulled off a magic trick, forcing us to search for meaning in a series of scenes that possibly exist as abstractions only to obfuscate a lack of depth. [David Harris]
Yes Men Fix the World
Yes Men Fix the World feels like little more than a vanity piece, and a shoddily developed one at that. Sure, these guys are trying to mete out justice to the fat cats who can fuck over millions for a profit, but why not have someone else make a film about the stunts? [David Harris]
The Horse Boy
The Horse Boy is much more effective when not focusing on the Isaacsons' travails. When examining the issue of autism itself and the place of autistic individuals in our society, the film is both thought-provoking and enlightening. [David Harris]
Rediscover: Scott Walker: 30th Century Man
Stephen Kijak's 2006 documentary, Scott Walker: 30th Century Man, tries to unveil some of the nuts and bolts behind the mystery machine, while also introducing a cult figure to a new audience. [Nathan Kamal]
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
At least for now, John Krasinski's screenplay and direction pretty much confirm the general consensus that its source material, a collection of stories by the late David Foster Wallace, is "un-filmable." [Teri Carson]
The Invention of Lying
The Invention of Lying is mostly a disappointing film structured around a concept that proves itself to be barely capable of sustaining half a film let alone a full feature, the type of idea that wouldn't exactly be out of place in a latter day Adam Sandler picture. [Morgan Davis]
Revisit: Toy Story (1995)
The re-release of Toy Story comes at an interesting time for the movies. Much like the toys in Andy's room, it seems that the studios are afraid that they too will become obsolete. [David Harris]
Zombieland
Though the film does move towards an implausible climax, there are just too many laughs and gross-out effects to really care. Come on, are you going to see a film called Zombieland and take it seriously? [David Harris]
Paradise
It's hard to shake the arrogance of Almereyda's concept altogether, that somehow the travels of a man affluent enough to go wherever he wants for several years just aimlessly filming should be interesting. [Morgan Davis]
35 Shots of Rum
A family drama about a makeshift family, Claire Denis' 35 Shots of Rum operates at the bare fringes of human experience, places where responsibility fades away and obsolescence takes hold. [Jesse Cataldo]
Rediscover: El Topo (1970)
For all its veneer of avant-garde credibility, El Topo is a remarkably conservative, even reactionary, film that glorifies masculine violence as much as any dumb action movie, doesn't trust beautiful women and exalts its god-like hero. The considerable violence may be graphic, but it's neither shocking nor radical, with just as much in common with Dirty Harry as Artaud. [Lukas Sherman]
Disgrace
As South Africa moves ahead in its cultural transformation, Disgrace questions the place of the white man in this new nation, and whether there is even a place anymore for this sudden minority. [David Harris]
The Burning Plain
Arriaga's script moves backwards and forwards in time, crossing generations and frontiers at will; events unwind and blend together in a way that stretches credulity long past its breaking point and ends up heavy on symbolism and melodrama but empty on ideas. [Teri Carson]
Capitalism: A Love Story
Michael Moore's latest goes after the rich elite, the 1% that has more money than most of our other citizens combined. And it tries to get that other 99% of our population pissed off enough so they, to quote another movie, take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. [David Harris]
Bright Star
Repressed emotion can be the strongest. And for this reason, the lack of physical intimacy only heightens the longing, as the couple try to satisfy their longing through other means. The strong use of subtext easily overcomes the simple, episodic plot. This is a film of stolen glances, loaded gestures, fleeting touches, and words, lots of incredible words. [James Shelledy]
No Impact Man
No Impact Man could easily veer into the territory of the overbearing, but the naturalistic filmmaking and engaging personalities of the people involved keep it light and nimble while remaining contemplative and informative. [Teri Carson]
The Cinema of Loneliness: Maelström
The cinema of Canada has been a cinema of loneliness, populated by characters who are often stunted or socially awkward, haunted by events or mistakes or misdeeds, lost even when they find others like themselves. [Morgan Davis]
Give Me Your Hand
Give Me Your Hand doesn't ever amount to much more than a waste of time. [Andrei Alupului]
Paris
Some of the plot strands are less engaging than others, while potentially interesting characters are frustratingly under-developed. The film is too long, drags in places and Klapisch opts to downplay his most dramatic scenes, lessening their emotional impact. [Teri Carson]
And the Band Played On...
Shine a Light (2008)
If Mick Jagger nodding solemnly to Bill Clinton at a sound check weirds you out, seeing Keith Richards kiss Hillary Clinton's mother on the cheek is going to blow your mind. [Nathan Kamal]
The Informant!
The film's one saving grace is Damon who plays a tightly coiled character ready to unload. Much like his Tom Ripley, Damon's Whitacre is tinderbox about to incinerate. But unlike Anthony Minghella who allowed us to see Ripley's inner workings, Soderbergh keeps us outside of Whitacre's pathology until the very end, clueing us in with ridiculous inner thoughts. [David Harris]
Jennifer's Body
Jennifer's Body suffers from an identity crisis. It's not horror because it's not scary. And it doesn't have enough laughs to be a comedy. Add a failed attempt at the teen angst genre to the mix, and you get one train wreck of a movie. [James Shelledy]
Crude
Crude is a sobering story of greedy destruction and the persistence of humans and humanitarian groups to keep fighting the tentacles of multinational corporations. [David Harris]
American Casino
American Casino is a solid magazine feature, written on video, well structured and thought out, about a subject that's of particular importance to us today. It's just funny that a documentary about this degree of conspicuous consumption could itself turn out to be so ambivalently disposable. [Andrei Alupului]
Unmade Beds
Lovers are like bubbles, one character in Alex Dos Santos' Unmade Beds muses. We share space, we combine, we merge into one. However, her lover is diametrically opposed to this theory. He views lovers like planets orbiting one another, nothing more than "one plus one." [David Harris]
Rediscover: WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)
Dusan Makavejev's 1971 film WR: Mysteries of the Organism is a free-form, free-ranging, unclassifiable avant-garde classic from Yugoslavia of all places. Actually, if you want to simplify it, it's all about sex and politics: the politics of sex, the sex of politics, etc. [Lukas Sherman]
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
There's not enough of this perspective, and as a whole Non-Stop suffers from a severe lack of context. We hear from the band's fans and its members, see clips of them drinking beer, on the road, in the studio, but there are few views from outside this bubble. [Jesse Cataldo]
The September Issue
The September Issue captures the creation of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine, which at the time, was the largest in its history. [James Shelledy]
Big Fan
Big Fan is almost certainly guaranteed to be a breakthrough for Patton Oswalt. By turns hideously unlikable and easily sympathetic, his turn as Paul is nothing short of revelatory. He plays the character as spiteful and indecisive, so secure in his tiny world that it's terribly tempting to ignore his profound alienation. [Nathan Kamal]
White on Rice
The script for White on Rice is not good. However, the cast is likable and the jokes, while not always funny, are well-natured enough. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Whiteout
Whiteout is a sad example of how not to adapt a graphic novel, standing alongside the miserable Wanted as the least competent understanding of an excellent, adventurous source. [Morgan Davis]
Still Walking
Rather than follow a family over the course of an entire extended reunion, documenting their every contentious encounter, Hirokazu Kore-eda narrows his focus down to the scope of a single day with the Yokoyama clan. [Andrei Alupului]
9
The 11 minute short 9 is based upon is a cool and somewhat creepy little film noticeably influenced by Jan Svankmajer and the Brothers Quay. In its shorter form, the minimal plot served to heighten its mystery and foreboding. However, in feature length form, the material is stretched thin, even at relatively brief running length of just 79 minutes. [James Shelledy]
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha may succeed at remaining true to its subject, but that doesn't save it from being an idealistic flop of a film. [Morgan Davis]
Extract
The movie is entertaining, but its jokes are obvious and its characters barely there. Laughing at the scenes feels like an exercise in reflex, it requires no thought or deliberation. [Morgan Davis]
End of the Aughts: Videos of the Decade
Within this article sit our picks for the best videos of the decade. Has music video become obsolete with the devolution of MTV into a fraternity fuckfest? We here at Spectrum Culture think not. YouTube has become a fecund ground for people who still love their music videos. Please enjoy these picks
Liverpool
In Liverpool, the longing to remember and to be remembered is so intense grief wins over desire. Movement becomes the only available fulfillment and memory itself becomes the effort at remembering. [Teri Carson]
Art & Copy
Art & Copy is a stylish, frank look at an industry that still remains so mysterious to so many people, especially in the post-"Mad Men" culture. [Morgan Davis]
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Though there are many tense moments, especially once the leadership of the Baader Meinhof gang is scooped up by the police, much of the film force feeds us key events and people in breathless fast forward just to move us along to the gory bits. [David Harris]
The Headless Woman
After only three features, Lucrecia Martel has firmly established herself as one of the most prodigiously talented, critically adulated and most distinctive visionaries of contemporary cinema. Her hypnotic, mysterious and deeply immersive films are wonderfully anti-classical, ignore the rules of cinema, confound audience expectations, fulfill personalized visions and continually attempt to alter the visual language of cinema. [Teri Carson]
I'm Gonna Explode
When I'm I'm Gonna Explode strives to recreate the nihilism of Pierrot le fou, it just doesn't work. [James Shelledy]
Taking Woodstock
If there's any mercy in the world, though, this film will do so poorly we'll finally be saved from any further Woodstock nostalgia. [Morgan Davis]
Five Minutes of Heaven
With what is essentially a two character chamber drama, it is up to Neeson and Nesbitt to carry the film with their performances. And they do, Neeson in particular. [James Shelledy]
World's Greatest Dad
At the core of World's Greatest Dad is a black misanthropic heart that believes some people are just so horrible that their death is a blessing. [David Harris]
Beeswax
Beeswax is a uniquely cerebral film that lovingly critiques the mysteries of speech. The actresses are fresh and appealing, and Beeswax captures the semi-articulate flow of conversation among a certain social type. [Teri Carson]
Taxidermia
Much like his focus on the actions of his characters, Palfi finds a dark amusement in seeing what exactly he can force his audience to endure, and he's excellent at mitigating the tension of discomfort with the comfort of humor that comes as a by-product of such a scenario. [Rafael Gaitan]
Inglourious Basterds
Inglourious Basterds' ace in the hole is its primary antagonist, Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), who more or less ties each thread together to its eventual gory climax. As Landa (who won Best Actor at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for the role), Waltz plays against all our preconceived notions of cinematic Nazis; he is almost terrifyingly affable and warm, unceasingly genial while reducing grown men to tears. [Nathan Kamal]
Yasukuni
Ying handles both sides with admirable levity for this kind of issue-based documentary. The closest he gets to taking sides is pairing scenes of protesters, trying to refute the existence of the Nanking massacre, with Japanese newspaper clippings of a "beheading contest" between two famed generals. [Jesse Cataldo]
Loren Cass
Fuller's in-your-face artistic precision and interpretation of the contemporary world around him makes Loren Cass a special, almost radical film. He creates an aura of artistic freedom that is infectious and permeates throughout, and, curiously, it's alive in a way that few films are. [Teri Carson]
It Might Get Loud
On January 23, 2008, rock gods Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White brought their guitars to a Warner Brothers soundstage and for two days they discussed their music, their influences, their styles and what helped them develop along the way. And, oh yes, they jammed. [Teri Carson]
Ghosted
An undercurrent of the supernatural plays throughout Ghosted, but it toys with the idea, never quite committing to the directions it takes. [Nathan Kamal]
Spotlight: Outfest
The 27th Annual Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, 07/09/09-07/19/09 [Teri Carson]
Thirst
Thirst is half a remarkable, well-crafted redesign of the tired vampire story and half a thoroughly unremarkable but stylish continuation of that tired vampire story. [Morgan Davis]
Ponyo
Hand-drawn animated features are a rarity these days, which is regretful. Computer-generated animation puts too much stress on making elements appear "real" and have substantial, consistent physical presence when the roots of animation were all about literally stretching those physical boundaries. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Spotlight: Robert Flaherty
It's hard to imagine any malicious motive behind Flaherty's direction, but considering him an innocent naïf with no idea of what he was doing here is equally unfair. Despite a spotty record with the truth, his intention was never to sensationalize but to entertain, an innocent fascination with outmoded ways of life that left him as a cipher. [Jesse Cataldo]
District 9
District 9, an allegorical tale camouflaging the evils of South African apartheid under the shell of a sci-fi action film, contains a 15 minute sequence that could be one of the most original and compelling in recent years. Unfortunately, that amazing 15 minute sequence comprises the film's opening scenes, an incredible first salvo the rest of the film is unable to follow. [David Harris]
Paper Heart
Paper Heart is a sweet little film made by weird people who know they're weird as opposed to a weird film made by normal people who think they're clever. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Cold Souls
If Cold Souls sounds a bit Charlie Kaufman-esque, well, it's really not. It lacks the imagination, and the willingness, to really explore the meaning of its premise. [Andrei Alupului]
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Reminiscences represents the home movie recontexualized; scenes of ordinary, everyday action that ultimately suggest what has been lost, not only for the director but those victims who never got to have a homecoming. [Jesse Cataldo]
I Sell the Dead
I Sell the Dead, arrives in theaters with less life than the stiffs and the living corpses Arthur and Willie wrangle in its mercifully brief 85 minutes. [David Harris]
Revisit: Playtime (1967)
Playtime was Tati's third film featuring Hulot, following the acclaimed Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953) and the Oscar-winning Mon Oncle (1958). However, he's not really the main character here and this film would prove to be Tati's most ambitious and difficult. Filmed over almost two years with a cast of close to 1,000, much of the "city" was built on the outskirts of Paris, which was dubbed "Tativille." [Lukas Sherman]
Not Quite Hollywood
For those looking for depth and historical context, Not Quite Hollywood is not the movie for you. If you want to see nudity, low-budget stunts, gore and Tarantino professing his love for every low-brow movie ever to come out of Australia, then buy yourself a ticket. [David Harris]
You, the Living
You, the Living is a tragic comedy or a comic tragedy, depending on your sensitivities, and not a depressing, black reality tour of human nature. Roy Andersson fully understands that living is so complicated to most of us that the only thing that saves us is our sense of humor. [Teri Carson]
Import/Export
Ulrich Seidl's Import/Export opens with a shot of a motorcycle stalled in a snowy parking lot, its throttle pumped again and again, the engine never quite starting. It's a fitting summation of the film, which plays out in antiseptically colored Soviet-era structures and is full of similarly circular visual cues: a whirling dance, looped audio of babies crying, security guards training by running in a ring. [Jesse Cataldo]
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
Imagine Oprah being forgotten 60 years from now. Well, that's exactly what happened to Getrude Berg. Her name rarely gets mentioned as a pioneer, yet as Yoo-Hoo shows, she can lay claim to having invented the sitcom with her popular show. [Teri Carson]
Flame & Citron
Loosely based on Jean-Pierre Melville's remastered Army of Shadows, Flame & Citron portrays the true stories of two heroes (from eye witness accounts) who were among the fighters in the Holger Danske resistance group during World War II. [Jane Hruska]
Died Young, Stayed Pretty
Yaghoobian disappointingly lacks faith in her subjects and her audience, seemingly attempting to frame the film in a way that would please the lowest common denominator with its Real World style of camera work and its reduction of its characters to stereotypes. [Morgan Davis]
(Don't) Rediscover: 9 Songs
This film is about sex. Not simulated, but actual, graphic sex. If you're looking for porn, you might get some gratification, but porn is not the goal of this movie. Letting director Michael Winterbottom get his artistic rocks off? You bet. [Josh Vietti]
Lorna's Silence
One often gets the feeling that the Dardennes consider themselves explorers, probing their films with the same combination of observation, speculation and inquiry they inspire in their viewers. [Teri Carson]
The Cove
The Cove is most effective when O'Barry or the dolphins are on-screen. The subject is enthralling enough that we don't need to be sold on a Bourne style adventure to fill up the empty space. [David Harris]
Funny People
Funny People continues Apatow's string of successes and even drastically improves on his existing formula. The gross out elements of his first two works are more or less completely excised; the emotional subplot doesn't feel forced, perhaps because the story at the center of the film has much in common with Apatow's own roots. [Morgan Davis]
Shrink
Believe it or not, there was a time when we were pretty confident that teachers had all the answers, cops were never crooked and doctors were never wrong about our physical and emotional well being. If your mindset still precedes the '50s, wake up to Shrink where the Biblical proverb, "Physician, heal thyself," takes on a new meaning, and Jesus is no more than a drug dealer. [Jane Hruska]
In the Loop
Though it would have been much more incendiary if released during the Bush years, In the Loop makes the claim that no one but narcissists, morons and children run our governing bodies. [David Harris]
(Don't) Revisit: Waterworld (1995)
Nothing says summer like bad, bloated summer movies. Waterworld is one of the most notorious flops of the '90s and was one of the decade's reliable punch lines. [Lukas Sherman]
Somers Town
Somers Town is a work of integrity; a touching, delightful piece of dream-cinema that bristles with spirit and good humor. It's a story about friendship and the joy of being young and alive in the most unlikely of circumstances. From the first frame of this lyrical and enchanting portrait of growing up in a British city, just like its unfortunate heroes, the film wants to be your friend and in turn you want the film to do well. It feels right and you want to go on feeling right along with it. [Teri Carson]
The Answer Man
Though it is admirable that Daniels appears in indie films, he needs to limit his choices to intelligent fare such as The Lookout and avoid the temptation of jumping into the starring role in films like John Hindman's abominable The Answer Man, a romantic comedy that is more or less a poor facsimile of the plot of As Good as it Gets. [David Harris]
Year One: Movies
Imagine if the films that came out during the year of your birth actually had some bearing on your development. As if a film somehow can be inextricably linked to your own lifeline. It's a funny thing to imagine- a film sharing the same age as you.
Deadgirl
In Deadgirl, Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel have crafted what may just be the most hideous, unimaginative, shameful film of the decade, horror or otherwise. [Morgan Davis]
Soul Power
Levy-Hinte should have tapped into his editing talent and deleted some of the telephone fretting, some of the stage building, as well as other uninteresting footage and added more in-depth conversationsand a lot more musical performances. [Jane Hruska]
The English Surgeon
Henry Marsh, the British neurosurgeon and subject of Geoffrey Smith's The English Surgeon, has been making an annual trip to the Ukraine for past 15 years to aid a Ukrainian colleague in modernizing Kiev's medical practices. [David Harris]
(Don't) Revisit: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
I'm a big fan of the series and familiar with all the intricacies, and I have absolutely no idea what is going on in Fire Walk With Me. I pity the fool who gets suckered into watching it without having seen the TV version. Actually, I feel for anyone who gets suckered into watching it. [Bryan Kerwin]
Lake Tahoe
Juan (Diego Cataño) crashes his car into a telephone pole outside of town, we don't know how or why, but he isn't fazed by it; he goes into town to try and get it fixed. The town is an embodiment of loneliness and all of its denizens seem equally longing. [Andrei Alupului]
Off Jackson Avenue
Using the tired notion of random lives intersecting, director John-Luke Montias ends up turning his back on a topic that could have been poignant and visceral. [Jane Hruska]
Revisit: Wild at Heart (1990)
Like other Lynch films, the story amplifies the darkest, kinkiest, seediest sides of humankind giving the director a terrific opportunity to create psychopaths and absurdly grotesque carnival-like characters that dash in and out of the escape route of the highly passionate lovers. [Jane Hruska]
(500) Days of Summer
(500) Days of Summer is a perfect date movie, or even just for a fun night out with a friend, and definitely is light and breezy enough to be enjoyed on a summer day if you want an alternative from robots punching robots or wizards wizarding. [Rafael Gaitan]
Humpday
Though Humpday will probably have a hard time living down its conceit- two straight guy friends who decide to make a porno together for art's sake- there is really much more to this film than the gay panic comedy most people will remember it for. [David Harris]
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
In the newest cinematic interpretation of J. K. Rowling's beloved series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince offers us the sleekest, smartest and, yes, sexiest installment of them all. [Sarah Anderson]
Nollywood Babylon
If this documentary doesn't entirely make it clear what Nollywood cinema is all about, it at least tells us this: it is the most influential form of cultural self-representation that Nigeria has. [Andrei Alupului]
The Beaches of Agnès
The Beaches of Agnès is the fetching and haunting story of a filmmaker seen through the eyes of a filmmaker. [Teri Carson]
And the Band Played On...
Stop Making Sense
Stop Making Sense is one of the most highly regarded concert films ever made, and with good reason. Part of that is the concert's sheer focus, filmed over three days in 1983, but so seamlessly edited that it feels like a single flowing whole. [Nathan Kamal]
Brüno
While Borat at least had the impetus of meeting Pamela Anderson to propel him across the world, Brüno's travels come off as an episodic patchwork of scenes rather than a focused narrative. [David Harris]
Surveillance
Humanity is disgusting, folks, and Jennifer Lynch is here to rub our faces in it. [David Harris]
Quiet Chaos
As a Nanni Moretti film, the comedy is incredibly understated, as Moretti must play his character with dignified sadness, and thus more often than not plays the straight man than the jokester. Rather than take a conventional route, Quiet Chaos ends up an episodic character study with vague neorealist trappings. [Danny Djeljosevic]
BANNED: The Firemen's Ball
At first glance, The Firemen's Ball is a simple physical comedy on the level of a Jim Carrey farce. But taken on a deeper level, it can be seen as a swipe at the mindless beast of Communism, where the group's welfare is put before the individual, at least according to the rhetoric spewed by the members of the brigade. [David Harris]
The Stoning of Soraya M.
Someone should tell director Nowrasteh that a movie that smacks the audience over the head with a message is the equivalent of giving someone a present with a very large price tag. [Teri Carson]
The Hurt Locker
One of the most striking things about The Hurt Locker, almost certainly destined to be the best action movie of this summer, is its simplicity. Kathryn Bigelow's dual commitments to precision and realism allow her to make full use of the tension inherent in her scenarios, which mostly center on soldiers waiting around during intense situations. [Andrei Alupului]
Music on DVD: Jeff Buckley: Grace Around The World
Grace Around The World is a collection of remarkable footage about one of the great losses of the '90s, a musical decade already steeped in tragedy. However, it reveals a character more layered than idolization or mythology would lead one to believe. [Nathan Kamal]
The Windmill Movie
The Windmill Movie pulls no punches in laying its subject bare. That all of this footage exists and that the revealing insights it offers were the creation of its subject is both precisely and beside the point. [Andrei Alupului]
Cheri
Cheri is a story quickly told by trading depth for visual beauty. There is nothing unique or wholly interesting about this period piece though it did make another rainy afternoon more bearable. [Jane Hruska]
Afghan Star
Like those films it follows a competition, in this case Afghan Star, a popular television show that is Afghanistan's equivalent of American Idol. We're so inured to bad news out of that war-ravaged country, that there is some novelty to a film that presents ordinary Afghanis trying to win a singing contest. [Lukas Sherman]
The Reagan Era
Through the power of the internet, you can avoid being pantywaisted by the films that the left forces on our collective conscience. We present to you, five of the most awesomely bad-ass movies from the most awesomely bad-ass decade: the Reagan era. [Lisa Bahr]
Sex Positive
Throughout history, there have always been front-runners in both the social and scientific realms of the human "community." Oftentimes, these progressive individuals are met initially with distrust and even animosity by the majority of society. [Allyn Sterling]
Whatever Works
Larry David blends his Curb Your Enthusiasm crankiness with Woody Allen's wordy intellectualism into an awkward hybrid, failing to strike the right balance of exasperating and endearingly neurotic. [Teri Carson]
Dead Snow
Do you ever hear about the premise of a film and just wish and pray that it's going to be something special? Just imagine the moment someone conceived the story of a group of young skiers dispatched by the remnants of a phantom Nazi cadre in the pristine Norwegian wilderness. Unfortunately, the execution is no way near as brilliant as the idea. [David Harris]
BLAST!
So much of BLAST! reeks of an attempt to make an entertaining science film with appeal to those who cringe at the sound of the word "education," but it ultimately fails at reaching for the depths it only casually grasps at. [Danny Djeljosevic]
24 City
The film blends documentary and fiction in a disorienting way. It doesn't incorporate documentary technique into an outwardly fictional film; it gradually weaves in an increasing number of fictional elements into what is outwardly a documentary. [Andrei Alupului]
The Art of Being Straight
Rosen tries to sensitively explore the the "coming out" process and the struggle to embrace ones true sexual identity. Unfortunately the film falls somewhat short of its potential. [Allyn Sterling]
Bond: Goldfinger (1964)
So what's so great about Goldfinger? Simply put, it's got everything: one of the best songs, a memorable villain, classic lines, the tricked out Aston Martin, one of the best evil sidekicks, a clever scheme, a laser beam, some great sets by Ken Adams, a potent title, Sean Connery at his most assured, and, of course, a dead, naked girl covered in gold paint and Pussy Galore. [Lukas Sherman]
Under Our Skin
After over an hour and a half of this repetitive, sloppy film, Lyme disease feels more nagging than it does scary. [Melissa Muenz]
Downloading Nancy
Downloading Nancy is not ill-conceived, just poorly executed. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Year One
Why is Sodom so clean looking? Why the fuck is this entire film so ill-conceived? Why is this review almost entirely composed of rhetorical questions? [Danny Djeljosevic]
Kassim the Dream
Kassim Ouma is a star, an ebullient firecracker that exudes cocky confidence and sly wit. He is one of those people that is endlessly watchable in his enthusiasm for life and Davidson allows his camera to linger as Ouma, speaking in an endearing miasma of slang and broken English, tries to achieve not only his dream of rising in the boxing ranks, but escaping the demons of his past. [David Harris]
Sügisball
Simply put, Sügisball is a confounding work: beautifully shot on perfectly decaying post-Soviet locations, the film nonetheless cannot manage to rise above its pointless structure and irritating subjects. [Morgan Davis]
Tetro
The alternate tension between the heavy-handedness of the narrative and Coppola's abilities as a filmmaker being stilted by it is what unfortunately weighs Tetro down. [Andrei Alupului]
Pressure Cooker
If so many films about so-called troubled teenagers come off as little more than exploitation, it's often because the filmmakers turn them into reductive symbols or archetypes; they're not really interested in them, just their dysfunction and its entertainment value. That is not the case with Pressure Cooker; a story of real people doing their best to rise above their less-than-desirable situation told in a manner that real people will find accessible and truthful-the mark of an engaging documentary. [Teri Carson]
TV on DVD: Spaced
Spaced could have never been produced for an American audience. We wouldn't have had the stomach for it. [Nicholas Ryan]
Food, Inc.
Spoiler alert: Don't buy popcorn. You'll be spitting it out as soon as they move into the subject of corn. [Teri Carson]
Moon
Most science fiction films are caveats, warnings that if we don't change our ways we will be condemned to a horrific damnation of rotting morals and decaying ideals. We can ease our bodily and industrial concerns, but that does not change the basic nature of humans or society. [David Harris]
Revisit: Joy Division (2007)
The film is both a good introduction for those unfamiliar with the band, including essential tidbits like their formation after a Sex Pistols gig and the source of the band's name. [Lukas Sherman]
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
The Tony Scott filmmaking formula is also rotting behind the walls: bigger is better, the marquee stars have to meet, and there have to be car crashes. The saving grace is the talents of John Travolta, Denzel Washington, and the retention of the tone of the original film. [Rafael Gaitan]
Pontypool
The eventual question of Pontypool becomes whether we as a society are destroying ourselves through a similar isolation or through overly ambitious globalization, whether spreading our culture or maintaining it within our own borders is the best thing for the world, or if either are at all correct. [Morgan Davis]
Departures
The world is full of endless atrocity, both our own and that inflicted via the sinister pact between the Illuminati and Satan, yet we still crack jokes and do incredibly stupid things that can ruin even the most serious moment. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Away We Go
At least this movie isn't as bad the one we reviewed right below it. [Andrei Alupului]
What Goes Up
What Goes Up is overstuffed with plot threads that never come together and tonally incompatible approaches that result in bizarre juxtapositions too awkwardly constructed to be disturbing. I may be wrong but I think this is the only movie in history to exploit a space tragedy as a cheap suspense-building device. [Teri Carson]
Revisit: The Exterminating Angel (1963)
Buñuel's intent is clearly to erode the veneer of civility that keeps the bourgeoisie from imploding and show how the very status, etiquette and ritual upon which their complacent privilege rests isolates them from the remainder of society and reduces them to inertia. [Teri Carson]
Munyurangabo
Rwanda's violent history haunts every frame of this film. The underlying tension is inescapable, and it colors our perception of this ambiguous image. [Andrei Alupului]
Unmistaken Child
Unmistaken Child is a fascinating film, but feels very much like an incomplete one. Despite the incredible history and scope of the tradition it portrays, it's only a brief look into something ageless and ancient. [Nathan Kamal]
The Hangover
Just because it's meant to be mindless entertainment doesn't mean we should let it get away with being stupid. Have a little self-respect! [Andrei Alupului]
Revisit: Viridiana (1961)
In the end, Viridiana is forced to face some ugly truths about the world and to re-evaluate her approach to interacting with it. It is arguable, and Buñuel certainly makes the argument, that having been forced to deal with these truths, rather than evading them through sequestering herself in a nunnery, in having to work rather than pray, she winds up a better person than she was at the beginning. It doesn't feel good, but it's pretty beautiful. [Andrei Alupului]
Kabei: Our Mother
Yoji Yamada has no intentions of going out quietly, though his films may seem to speak otherwise. [David Harris]
The Big Shot-Caller
It's all too much like real life- as Director Rhein advances, "their triumph is small to the outside world, but huge inside their hearts." Rule one of movie making: your punchline needs to be huge to the outside world, for they are your audience and without them, there's no one to respond to your product! [Joan Wolkoff]
BANNED: Cocksucker Blues
Beyond the legend, the film is most significant as a document, a rare example of unfettered access to a big name act, which, as its illegal status proves, is nearly impossible to find. [Jesse Cataldo]
Easy Virtue
Everyone has a story about the exasperation of personal relationships, but no one tells them better than playwright Noel Coward. And somehow, family trauma becomes more palatable when depicted through the genre of comedy and Coward wit. [Jane Hruska]
Drag Me to Hell
More a comedy-horror in the vein of Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness rather than a film created to inspire fear in the hearts of intrepid viewers, Drag Me to Hell allows Raimi the opportunity to return to his old tricks of Three Stooges-type body humor and a chance to play with beasties that spew goo and like to scream in distorted voices. [David Harris]
Revisit: The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Despite its flaws, The Man Who Fell to Earth stands as one of the most oddball and visually experimental films of the 1970s and there's certainly not much else like it. [Lukas Sherman]
Up
Up nonetheless continues Pixar's newfound adherence to seriousness and honesty rather than sentimentality or bogus "everyone's a winner" messages. The film attempts to show that if you really want something, you have to pursue it no matter how many obstacles are in your way. [Morgan Davis]
The Skeptic
To its credit, The Skeptic does throw in a few really unnerving wrenches and does its duty, overall, as a scary movie, threading together a series of very frightening moments with classic visual effects and deft pacing. [Joan Wolkoff]
O'Horten
Outside of aesthetics, O'Horten depicts the unfamiliarity of life change, aging and the uplifting potential that comes with it in a way that never manipulates, unlike something like The Bucket List, which forces an audience to laugh through its tears. [Danny Djeljosevic]
The Window
The Window toes the line between being a really great film and kind of an expected one as a consequence. In its more scaled down form, the film becomes a textural exploration of a man's life as it approaches its end. In its longer form, the film becomes an occasionally interesting, occasionally pointed and unsubtle examination of the way we experience memory. [Andrei Alupului]
DVD: Painters Painting
Painters Painting is worth seeing if you are an art student or if you have a keen interest in art from this era. [Jane Hruska]
A Wink and a Smile
The problem with A Wink and a Smile is not necessarily Timmons's subject matter but her framing of it. Unfortunately, she presents these fantastically varied personalities in a manner with all the art and charm of an episode of HBO's Real Sex. [Morgan Davis]
Little Ashes
It's sad when the wrong people get their hands on good material. The filmmakers reject juicy bits of history and opt for melodramatic romance novel scenarios, most notably the moonlit skinny dipping sequence where Dalí and Lorca share their first kiss. [Teri Carson]
Music on DVD: Cloud Cult
No One Said It Would Be Easy falls somewhere between a primer and a manifesto - Minneapolis band Cloud Cult does a neat job of both introducing themselves and explaining their ethos at the same time, all through a wildly colorful lens. [Nathan Kamal]
Terminator Salvation
There are plenty of explosions, fights, explosions, big guns, explosions, chases and explosions to keep any summer audience excited and happy to be out of the heat, just like all of the prior entries in the series. [Morgan Davis]
Big Man Japan
Maybe the creators are banking on a midnight film or high as hell audience, but Big Man Japan is the worst of all worlds, it alternates from boring to mind-numbingly awful. [David Harris]
Audience of One
Audience of One is a look at religious belief as control and a study of belief versus ability. It's what happens when a charismatic leader commands a blindly devoted crew on a burning ship. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Ice People
In Ice People, award winning documentary filmmaker Anne Aghion accompanies two research geologists Prof. Allan Ashworth and Dr. Adam Lewis and two graduate students as they explore Antarctica's interior Dry Valleys, far from the penguins and ice flows of other documentaries. [Allyn Sterling]
Rudo y Cursi
For a movie that goes to great lengths not to be a sports movie, it ends the way all sports movies about people on opposite teams must: the final climactic game that could change everything. It's a formula that works well in movies that embrace it, but because Rudo y Cursi is headed in a different direction so much of the time, here it seems willy-nilly. [Teri Carson]
Eldorado
It does an audience good to see troublemakers evolve into clearer-eyed, more reflective citizens, even if a tragic relapse can be found somewhere in the equation, but that sort of linear character transformation is being outmoded one indie film at a time, and Eldorado is no exception. [Joan Wolkoff]
The Garden
The film's greatest flaw is that the entire conflict is only portrayed through the lens of good versus evil, while the actual story is far more complex. [Nicholas Ryan]
DVD: JAM
Roller derby is getting bigger and bigger. The hipsters love it and now so do you! [Nathan Kamal]
Summer Hours
Summer Hours is a simple story that does no more than remind us of the origin of beautiful museum pieces and that each object stores a library of memories and experiences that may be precious to some and indifferent to others. [Jane Hruska]
The Limits of Control
The Limits of Control is nonsense of the most pretentious and meaningless order; merely a stylistic immersion into pop culture references under a phony pretense of existentialism. [Teri Carson]
Il Divo
For all its flaws and impenetrability, Il Divo is still an interesting work and hints at greater things to come from Sorrentino. [Morgan Davis]
Throw Down Your Heart
Evoking slavery in a film about an instrument popularly associated with white southern culture suggests a powerful political message, and "Throw Down Your Heart" as the title of a film about returning the banjo to its roots is an equally potent image. [Bob McCarthy]
Three Monkeys
Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan spins a yarn so tangled and lurid that it will transport melodrama aficionados to high-stakes heaven. [Joan Wolkoff]
Adoration
What director Atom Egoyan achieves in Adoration, is a gift to the viewer: an intricately plotted and stylized mind trip. [Teri Carson]
Empty Nest
Empty Nest scrambles time and place to meet its own needs, focusing specifically on one man's journey towards embracing what may or may not be a rare condition in which one starts to remember things that did not happen, replacing their real memories with those of times in which they fulfilled their inner desires. [Morgan Davis]
Star Trek
Taken from the point of view of a non-Trekkie, this new film is both a lot of fun and infectiously entertaining. [David Harris]
Sleep Dealer
Sleep Dealer's narrative effectiveness lies in director Rivera's refusal to pussyfoot around the ultimate Marxist critique. [Joan Wolkoff]
Revanche
"Revanche" has two meanings in German: revenge or a second chance. Both are apt in this beautiful, haunting and touching film. [David Harris]
Genre Exploration: Horror Films Pt. 1
Two of our critics wax poetic on the virtues of horror films and provide a guide for those who are scared, yet went to venture forth into the world of terror. [Morgan Davis and Danny Djeljosevic]
Treeless Mountain
Treeless Mountain is not just a film about the bottomless resiliency of childhood but also a statement of life as a continuing accumulation of losses, which never stop hurting but grant an even deeper sense of feeling. [Jesse Cataldo]
Tyson
Tyson never pretends to be objective by offering other people's views on the subject, and, as it turns out, it doesn't need to be. Tyson himself provides all sides of his riveting and unexpectedly moving story, challenging, justifying, condemning and contradicting himself. [Teri Carson]
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a hollow shell of a film, built around ugly graphics, obvious cinematography and slow motion shot after slow motion shot after slow motion shot. [Morgan Davis]
Oblivion
The people who populate Oblivion show a sense of survival, whether it be learning how to "act" as servers to please rich customers or how to perform stunning gymnastics along the busy streets to panhandle drivers for change. [David Harris]
Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Regrettably, Sienna Miller wilts in the face of her co-stars' expertise. All the soundtrack gems and smokey eye makeup in the world cannot deliver her from a complacent performance. [Joan Wolkoff]
Bond: From Russia With Love (1962)
Though not as iconic as Goldfinger, From Russia with Love is one of the most enjoyable, relaxed and understated of the Connery films. [Lukas Sherman]
Perestroika
Largely to its detriment, Perestroika is a film mostly rooted in its own past. [Jesse Cataldo]
Lifelines
As a film, Lifelines bares telltale fingerprints of the Magnolia school of screenwriting, which revolutionized (and some say wilted) Hollywood's approach to plot design: total interconnectivity between subplots or bust. Margolies thankfully looks to have taken a few cues from Alexander Payne and Todd Solondz's bright, irreverent bodies of work and shows genuine promise as a filmmaker. [Joan Wolkoff]
The Soloist
Wisely, the film spends only minimal time on writer Steve Lopez's personal life -- just enough that we're inclined to care about him but not so much that Foxx comes off as your average Magic Black Man who helps out the Benevolent White Man as much as the Benevolent White Man helps out him. [Danny Djeljosevic]
DVD: The Caller
The Caller does itself a disservice by marketing as a corporate thriller. It's been done- and frankly, it's not that exciting when we're being bombarded by true stories of corporate corruption and greed every day. [Lisa Bahr]
Lemon Tree
A powerful story that brings the Middle East trauma to a personal level, a story about four people who are forced to weigh choice, defiance, courage, walls of demarcation and where it is necessary to draw the line. [Jane Hruska]
Earth
With jaw-dropping photography, the flat-out gorgeous Earth has been adapted from the high-definition nature series Planet Earth and expertly edited into a compelling documentary with a strong ecological message. [Teri Carson]
In a Dream
At the centerpiece of the film are the mosaics of Isaiah Zagar. Plastered to sides of buildings, inside the walls of his home and backyard, these patchwork pieces of art capture the development of the Zagar family and the city of Philadelphia in pieces of broken mirror, shattered ceramics, bottles and other detritus. [David Harris]
Lymelife
If Lymelife's view of two malfunctioning families presents a glimpse of most tract home interiors, then we might have the suburb's version of the city's Rear Window. [Jane Hruska]
Revisit: Scanners (1981)
Scanners is not without merit and intrigue, but it is a mainstream, conventional version of a Cronenberg film largely lacking the elements that make his films so lurid, horrifying and fascinating. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Bart Got a Room
The plot of Bart Got a Room is so simple that it's impossible to care. Prom night is coming up and Danny really wants a date. He wants to take a hot cheerleader and not his best friend. Yep, that's it. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Tulpan
Tulpan is a unique experience, dropping us into a thoroughly envisioned world balanced between the impossible scope of the harsh, barren setting and the remarkable intimacy that the camera and narrative allow us to have with the film's fascinating characters, human and animal alike. [Teri Carson]
State of Play
This muddled thriller consists mostly of failed suspense and tiresome moves which play out long before the last unconvincing twist. [Teri Carson]
Rediscover: Peter Pan (2003)
Arguably, this re-creation of Peter Pan is the best to date as it not only tells the story that we all know and love, but invites us into the minds of these unforgettable characters. [Courtney Broussard]
Paris 36
This movie is custom made for a petit bourgeois mindset that would easily settle for its bogus comforts. To say that Paris 36 stinks because it tries to do too much and does nothing well would be generous since it makes the movie sound ambitious. It's most definitely not. [Teri Carson]
Forbidden Lie$
The most brilliant part of the film is that Broinowski allows the audience the experience what it is like to be duped by a pathological liar. As the film wears on, Khouri is so full of deception it is difficult to tell where the lies end and the truth begins. [David Harris]
Gigantic
Gigantic never feels like it's trying to hard to be quirky or weird in that forced way that seems like an attempt to hide glaring script problems a la Little Miss Sunshine. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Alien Trespass
The film expects the audience to leave their modern disbelief and cynicism at the door and just think of a time when movies were truly an experience, an excuse to get to know parts of the world they would have a difficult time communicating with in the era before the internet. [Morgan Davis]
Sugar
Sugar kills two birds with one stone: it's a baseball film that also chronicles the immigrant experience. [David Harris]
Rediscover: Man Bites Dog
Man Bites Dog forces the viewer to think carefully about the inherent voyeurism within cinema and where it comes from. As much as we attempt to distance ourselves from killers and criminals and others on the outskirts of humanity, these are the characters that most often populate pop culture at large and film in particular. [Morgan Davis]
Observe and Report
Like Sin City before it, Observe and Report is pretty to look at and hypnotizing in its wanton violence but the instance you think about what you're watching, if you have any humanity you begin to feel dirty and guilty yourself, as if by watching you're abetting. [Morgan Davis]
The Escapist
The Escapist, a hard-scrabble prison escape thriller featuring a bedrock performance from Brian Cox, is ultimately undermined by a half-baked conclusion. [David Harris]
The Song of Sparrows
The film's themes are familiar - the dissipating effect of city life and the restorative qualities of nature and family - but they're presented with such care that their banality becomes secondary to the smaller details explored. [Jesse Cataldo]
The Education of Charlie Banks
Had you missed the director credit at the beginning of The Education of Charlie Banks, you'd have no indication that the man behind the camera was a rock star. In fact, you'd have no indication that he was anyone in particular. As a director, Fred Durst has little in the way of a conceivable personality, choosing instead to hang back and let the script speak for itself. It's the best artistic decision he will ever make. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Guest of Cindy Sherman
Sherman has been heralded as the quintessential postmodern artist--a subversive feminist that has boldly confronted issues concerning female identity and the role and representation of women in society, the media and the nature of the creation of art. [Teri Carson]
The Perfect Sleep
Despite its Chandler-influenced title and an undue fascination with angular shadows, The Perfect Sleep is less a neo-noir than a crude mishmash of conceits skimmed off other movies, complete with Shakespearian intrigue, kung-fu battles and a night-vision shooting gallery. [Jesse Cataldo]
Bond: Dr. No (1962)
Our James Bond retrospective continues with this look at the one that started them all: No. Dr. No. [Lukas Sherman]
The Country Teacher
The Country Teacher paints a vivid and memorable picture of the yearning to find peace and meaning in a new setting after leaving an old life behind. [Allyn Sterling]
Goodbye Solo
At best, Goodbye Solo is a knowingly shot work of cinematographic art, and a message about charity, as well as what it means to consent to be loved. At worst, it's a fatuous glimpse into the lives of characters without flesh or facet. [Joan Wolkoff]
Shall We Kiss?
Perhaps if Mouret had made his characters more believable, more grounded in reality it would add gravitas to a film that is easily digested and does not linger like that special kiss should. [David Harris]
We Pedal Uphill
While each of these plights is relevant to how the world relates to America- and how America relates to itself- there has to be a more subtle and original way to handle them than Tec's histrionic breakdown of the States since 9/11. [Joan Wolkoff]
Rediscover: The Enchanted Cottage
The Enchanted Cottage takes us to a magical world where the curio of fantasy, dreams and the strength of desire can transform even the bleakest of hearts. [Jane Hruska]
Adventureland
What is most surprising about Adventureland is the film's sweetness, especially following the gross-out fest Superbad turned out to be. Sure, there are jokes about vomit and being punched in the balls, but the grotesqueries of Jonah Hill are nowhere to be found. [David Harris]
Skills Like This
With Skills Like This, director Monty Miranda has only further proven that as much as indie filmmakers like to believe theirs is a realm of strictly art, being outside of the mainstream does not in and of itself make you invulnerable to making worthless dreck. [Morgan Davis]
Sin Nombre
Sin Nombre's political statements are born from the narrative and the immigrants here are allowed to be real people, as opposed to movie people that try to shove Very Important Ideas down our throats. [Teri Carson]
Revisit: Batman
Though overshadowed by Christopher Nolan's massively popular reboot of the franchise, we must not forgot how popular Tim Burton's Batman was and how it still holds up today. [Lukas Sherman]
Severed Ways
The impossible odds that these two warriors face end up as a sideline to a loosely plotted romp in the woods, with one running off to trade dewy stares with an Irish monk and the other systematically destroying everything he comes across. [Jesse Cataldo]
Valentino: The Last Emperor
Are people going to react poorly to a film showcasing such excess in the onslaught of an economical crisis? Naturally. But the passion Valentino injects into each of his creative endeavors should be enough to hold even a skeptic's interest. [Joan Wolkoff]
End of the Aughts:
10 Should-Be Classics
As the decade comes to a close, Spectrum Culture will present a series of features examining the best in music, film and food. In this first one, we pick 10 films that should be considered classics someday, but probably won't be. [David Harris]
Monsters vs. Aliens
While it's clearly no Wall-E, and obviously doesn't hope to be, Monsters vs. Aliens is one of the better comedies to have come out this year. [Morgan Davis]
Tokyo Sonata
Tokyo Sonata recaptures the sense of dislocation and loneliness that were key to their unsettling effectiveness. The Japanese society it portrays is not one of harmonious unity, but of individuals who feel isolated even in the company of others and who appear to have lost the ability to communicate effectively on a personal level. [Teri Carson]
The Great Buck Howard
Malkovich, as always, is quite watchable even though his source material is thin. [David Harris]
Bond: Casino Royale (1967)
For all of Casino Royale's excesses and flaws, which are considerable, it is a perversely fascinating token of its era; a psychedelic car wreck of styles, moods, and actors. [Lukas Sherman]
Carmen and Geoffrey
From the very first frame, the viewer gets caught up in their effervescent personalities and their indefatigable spirit. [Teri Carson]
Phoebe in Wonderland
Phoebe in Wonderland is an intelligent film about growing up different than others and the pitfalls of neglect. [Jane Hruska]
I Love You, Man
I Love You, Man is more than just an Apatow-offshoot, it's a comedy ahead of the pack and willing to take the risk of overestimating its audience rather than dumbing itself down. [Morgan Davis]
Sunshine Cleaning
Sunshine's grisly premise would have been better suited for black comedy, but instead it's toned down with tried-and-true lessons in perseverance and unconditional love. [Teri Carson]
Hunger
Though the film concerns the 1981 hunger strike led by Bobby Sands, it is really a condemnation of British attitudes toward the Irish that peels back the skin and reveals not only the horrific treatment of prisoners but a duplicity exhibited by the British in the suppression of Irish identity to further their own nationalism. [David Harris]
DVD: Obscene
As the title indicates, Obscene takes particular interest in the controversial works released by Grove and their subsequent court battles and tribulations, which included then Senator Gerald Ford's denunciation of the Evergreen Review. [Lukas Sherman]
The Cake Eaters
Simple and sweet, The Cake Eaters avoids cliches but never really becomes very interesting or engaging. [Teri Carson]
Explicit Ills
There is nothing worse than heavy-handedness when it comes to a political film and Explicit Ills, produced by Jim Jarmusch, is ham-fisted in its own subtle way. [David Harris]
Last House on the Left
It appears that the far-reaching culture of torture-porn is here to stay. [Joan Wolkoff]
Examined Life
With Examined Life, director Astra Taylor attempts not to cover the whole of Philosophy but scratch a bit of the surface for viewers. [Danny Djeljosevic]
12
There's an underlying suggestion in 12 that Russia might indeed benefit from a Western style justice system, as much as it would from confronting its entrenched prejudices with a wider and more open debate, but the director doesn't take it very far. [Teri Carson]
An American Affair
An American Affair is a cluttered combination of three genres - the coming of age story, the historical bystander piece and the political thriller. [Jesse Cataldo]
Eleven Minutes
Directors Michael Selditch & Robert Tate simply document the efforts of Jay McCarroll without really giving the viewer a sense that the fashion show might never happen, but what Eleven Minutes lacks in tension it makes up for with education. [Danny Djeljosevic]
On Adapting Watchmen
An erudite discourse on whether a Watchmen film is even possible and what to do with it now that it exists. [Bob McCarthy]
Watchmen
If you want the comic book, read the comic book. [Nathan Kamal]
Tokyo!
An ode to the city that brought us air-powered leaping robots, a curious musical instrument called the Kaisatsuko and certain rope-bondage practices by a trio of talented directors. What's not to love? Only a few things. [Joan Wolkoff]
Everlasting Moments
Based on the true story of Maria Larsson (a distant relative of director Jan Troell's wife), Everlasting Moments is told through the narration of Maria's eldest daughter, Maja, who was interviewed until her death at age 92. [Jane Hruska]
Must Read After My Death
Ultimately, the film works as a searing indictment of the nuclear family and the psychology of oppression but fails as a compelling visual work. Nevertheless, it's an effectively gendered posthumous snapshot of a resilient nonconformist who documented a period in her life with openness and honesty when her life failed to help her. [Teri Carson]
Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR
An unconventional look at history, Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR is an imposing and fascinating film that is sweeping in its scope, yet involves "regular people" in its thrust. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Oscar Round-up 2009
Seriously, what would the Oscars be without Nazis, dead musicians and the handicapped? Slumdog Millionaire may have had the advantage because, despite some of its dark elements, it was a love story with a happy ending. A happy ending with a Bollywood dance number no less. [Lukas Sherman]
Katyn
Though it is admirable that Wajda, now in his 80s, refused to resort to melodrama to tell this sad tale, more investment in the characters would have made the film more successful. [David Harris]
Two Lovers
Reminiscent of a 1950s soaper, Two Lovers is a touching portrait of a broken character featuring a great turn by Joaquin Phoenix. [Jane Hruska]
Great Speeches From a Dying World
Rather than give a false sense of optimism or entitlement which might have pushed the film into the territory of exploitation, Phillips's subjects do not expect or ask for sympathy. Instead, their speeches highlight the weaknesses they are perfectly aware they possess, but which all people possess to varying degrees. [Morgan Davis]
Chocolate
Thailand's latest action offering, Chocolate is the sweet antidote for those who are feeling the fall out from the lack of quality Asian fight films in the recent years. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Memorial Day
Not nearly as provocative as the director hopes, Memorial Day is nothing more than a missed opportunity to examine what leads us to be cruel. [Jane Hruska]
Revisit: Bottle Rocket
Anderson has oft been accused of being too twee and charming in his films, with his characters who live inside their heads and never manage to see beyond the scope of their ambition. But in 1996, when independent film was less Hal Ashby and more Quentin Tarantino, Bottle Rocket was revolutionary in its minimalist focus on characters who wouldn't have even made it to the stage of extras in Reservoir Dogs. [Morgan Davis]
Medicine for Melancholy
Like an overachieving student, Medicine reaches for too much, never deciding whether it wants to be a low-budget, literate rom-com, a race-baiting look at gentrification or the type of dialogue heavy indie best left to the likes of Richard Linklater. [Morgan Davis]
Blessed is the Match: The Life And Death Of Hannah Senesh
Director Roberta Grossman produces a movie about a fascinating subject in an unfortunate, rote manner. Better suited as a television documentary, Blessed is the Match leaves much to be desired about a life filled with altruistic heroism. [Jane Hruska]
Confessions of a Shopaholic
The movie's message is clear. It's all right to get in a catfight over a pair of Prada boots as long as you have the stimulus check to pay for them. [Teri Carson]
DVD: Holly
A difficult film about a difficult subject, Holly is given another life on DVD where the power and importance of its topic should not be missed. [Jory Spadea]
The International
This boring film only gets exciting as we get closer to the truth. Do yourself a favor and rent some paranoia flicks from the '70s instead. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Revisit: Buffalo 66
Vincent Gallo's story about a naïve, emotionally-troubled loser with unfortunate luck is still as effective today as it was 10 years ago. Take the time to revisit Buffalo 66. [Jory Spadea]
Friday the 13th
Jason is a character ready for a rebirth. Too bad this delivery wasn't better planned. [David Harris]
Gomorrah
Too many loose threads and stories do in Gomorrah which takes on the fascinating and frightening subject of Italy's organized crime. [Jane Hruska]
Serbis
Sex only serves as a distraction in Serbis as director Brillante Mendoza follows a falling-apart family and their porno theatre in this Filipino downer. [David Harris]
He's Just Not That Into You
This ensemble film of big stars features a convoluted plot line rife with stereotypical characters and their unrealistic relationships. [Melissa Muenz]
Crips and Bloods: Made in America
Though limited in scope, Crips and Bloods: Made in America is an important film for teenagers to view in order to understand the sad history of our African-American citizens. [David Harris]
Coraline
Though the true star here is the 3D technology, Coraline possesses enough heart and excitement to make it very worthwhile entertainment. [David Harris]
California Dreamin' (Endless)
Late director Cristian Nemescu has crafted an impressive first film about Eastern European corruption and the arrogance and stupidity of American foreign policy. [Lisa Bahr]
Ballerina
The topic is fascinating, but director Bertrand Norman squanders an opportunity to really show us any real depth by making a topical film. [Jane Hruska]
Donkey Punch
Haven't we seen this movie before? Oh right, it's just another horror film. [Melissa Muenz]
In Depth: The Documentaries of Werner Herzog
Though best known for his fictional films such as Aguirre: the Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, director Werner Herzog also has created an impressive oeuvre of documentaries. [Danny Djeljosevic]
The Pervert's Guide to Cinema
Slovaj Zizek defends cinema as a healthy necessity for audiences to vicariously live out their dreams, desires and fantasies. [Lukas Sherman]
Of Time and the City
Terence Davies has created the ultimate film for anyone looking to appear arty and pretentious in one easy step. [Morgan Davis]
Mock Up on Mu
The video collage style alone would make Mock Up on Mu a postmodern piece, but then Baldwin ups the ante by making the narrative itself a pastiche of fact and (science) fiction with its dramatization of the real-life relationship between the Crowleyist rocket scientist, and L. Ron Hubbard. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Screw You, Oscar
The Academy Awards lets us down once again with five safe choices for Best Picture. Spectrum Culture proudly presents....alternatives!
The Class
The Class is a manifesto on our current global educational situation. Don't miss this brilliant film. [David Harris]
Just Another Love Story
Maybe if Just Another Love Story was more about this protagonist's identity crisis then the film's own crisis it would be easier to swallow. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Silent Light
It is hard to like this soporific film where the passage of time seems like an eternity. [Jane Hruska]
Rediscover: Undertow (2004)
Though ultimately a failed film, Undertow has some interesting moments and should be a must see for fans of David Gordon Green. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Cherry Blossoms
Part meditation on life, part homage to Ozu, Cherry Blossoms works best when not trying to ape the past masters. [David Harris]
Ciao
Don't miss this gay-themed drama that is touching, refreshing and mature. [Allyn Sterling]
Defiance
An open letter to filmmakers to stop making Holocaust films. [David Harris]
The Secret of the Grain
The Secret of the Grain's biggest shortcoming was that it was so close to being a fine film. [Nick Cane]
Waltz With Bashir
Our writer waltzes with Bashir and gets more than she bargained for. [Jane Hruska]
Gran Torino
In what may be Clint Eastwood's final film appearance, the legendary actor takes on a role that is both the summation of a career and a possible portent of his remaining years. [David Harris]
Chandi Chowk to China
Part Bollywood epic, part kung-fu action flick, Chandi Chowk to China makes no attempt to hide its lameness, but that is where things get interesting. [Lisa Bahr]
The Unborn
In this vanilla PG-13 rated screamer, the sexual politics in the subtext are much more interesting that events on the screen. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Timecrimes
Take a ride on this twisty, Spanish thriller that forces us to think about our role as observers much more than most of the films out there today. [David Harris]
Che
Can a 268 minute film about the latter part of Che Guevara's life get us inside the mind and heart of this legendary revolutionary? [Shannon Gramas]
Revolutionary Road
Another attempt by Hollywood to distill a novel into a two hour picture. It is unclear who suffers more, the characters or the audience. [David Harris]
DVD: Kidulthood
By the end of Kidulthood, it's hard to shake the feeling that you've just watched a raunchy and hyper-urban Sesame Street where none of the characters learn that day's lesson. [Shane Hoversten]
Frost/Nixon
Frank Langella turns in an amazing performance in a very good film that could very well be the best about Richard Nixon yet. [Mathew Klickstein]
The Reader
When sticking to emotional resonance, The Reader scores. But gussying up a weak script and stock characterizations as something of great import does both the film and its audience a serious disservice. [David Harris]
The Spirit
The Spirit is a scribbled laundry list of scenes that lead to nowhere. The genre-bending here isn't fun; it's so much "everything all at once," that it leaves one not even in a state of exhaustion, but boredom. [Mathew Klickstein]
Doubt
Two great performances are almost enough to save this somewhat obvious script from being another rote story about Catholicism and repression. [David Harris]
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Hollywood once again tarnishes a classic story with this retread that has more Gump than gumption to do the right thing. [Mathew Klickstein]
Cult DVD: Christmas on Mars
Christmas on Mars is not only another milestone in the Flaming Lips' landmark career, but is also able to stand as something all its own. [Brian Loeper]
In the City of Sylvia
A film of visual beauty about an artist obsessed with...visual beauty. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Adam Resurrected
Paul Schrader tackles the Holocaust in this perverse film that is ultimately about the strength of the human spirit. [Danny Djeljosevic]
The Wrestler
Mickey Rourke completes his comeback in the powerhouse character study that fails to disappoint. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Wendy and Lucy
Kelly Reichardt makes another deep, moving film using the beauty of Oregon as a lush backdrop to her stories of lost people searching for a connection. [Jane Hruska]
The Day the Earth Stood Still
To complain about a lack of humanity in a story about how human life is worth saving is not a good sign, is it? [Danny Djeljosevic]
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Though it drags in its second half, The Betrayal is a fascinating study about the after effects of the Vietnam War on Southeast Asia, decades later. [David Harris]
The Dukes
Limp and silly, The Dukes could have been something really great if more time to thoroughly develop the character was utilized. [Jane Hruska]
Special
Michael Rapaport turns in a strong lead performance in a film that is special for nothing much else. [David Harris]
Antarctica
An examination of a period of time in the life of a handful of Israeli homosexuals, Antarctica is touching and, at times, funny. [Allyn Sterling]
House of the Sleeping Beauties
The underside of human nature is explored in this chilling masterpiece as director Glowna juggles contact and creepiness with aplomb. [Nathan Kamal]
Punisher: War Zone
The Punisher, a dark character that really possesses no special powers, has been around for 35 years and has endured a handful of dreadful film adaptations. Is the third time the charm? [Danny Djeljosevic]
TV on DVD: Long Way Down
Ewan MacGregor and Charley Boorman take an unforgettable adventure from Scotland to South Africa. Too bad they are just so bloody rich. [David Harris]
JCVD
Jean-Claude Van Damme pulls off the impossible in this film where he plays himself. He makes us care. [David Harris]
TV on DVD: The Donna Reed Show
Our intrepid writer puts himself through another endurance test, marathoning 37 episodes of The Donna Reed Show, and realizes it is still good after all these years. [Mathew Klickstein]
Gardens of the Night
Though noble in intention, Damian Harris's film cannot help but be flawed as it enters a dark world that is all too very real. [David Harris]
Milk
Gus Van Zant turns in a powerful homage to a man and a movement that is still relevant so many decades later. [Mathew Klickstein]
Australia
Just because a movie is long and epic doesn't make it Gone With the Wind. How can a director as frenetic as Baz Luhrmann make a film so plodding and dull? [Danny Djeljosevic]
In-Depth: Ridley Scott
Though a skilled filmmaker, Ridley Scott has his share of detractors. Here is a look at six of his films and what makes him such a frustratingly uneven director. [Nathan Kamal]
Slumdog Millionaire
Hope is alive in Danny Boyle's latest about an orphaned Muslim boy in Mumbai who wins a million dollars. But not without a cost. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
In this near-perfect documentary, the long road to peace in Liberia is chronicled through the eyes of the country's women. It is a powerful, moving story. [Brian Loeper]
The Matador
Whether you feel the bullfight is an art or cruel, there is no denying the power of this documentary. [Jane Hruska]
Splinter
This horror film features well-drawn, refreshing characters, but more thought should have been given to an unoriginal monster that is shown too early. [David Harris]
Quantum of Solace
The newest entry in the venerable Bond series puts a human face on a character that has been traditionally one dimensional. [Nathan Kamal]
Rediscover: Following (1998)
Before he got big with bats and lost memory, Christopher Nolan put out this short noir gem. [Danny Djeljosevic]
Saving Marriage
Apropos to the controversy in California surrounding Prop 8, Saving Marriage presents a sobering look at an important issue. [Allyn Sterling]
Role Models
Role Models looks up to Judd Apatow comedies such as Superbad, but it can't kick that darned little brother complex. [Nathan Kamal]
Rediscover: Alice in Wonderland (1966)
Jonathan Miller's classic take on the Lewis Carroll classic shows us what happened had Alice stayed awake during her infamous tour through dreamland. [Mathew Klickstein]
Nights and Weekends
There is simply nothing to like in this film about a long-distance relationship. [Shane Hoversten]
Trouble the Water
Though Trouble the Water fails when it goes beyond the personal story, the emotional weight within gives a human face to the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina. [Andrew Frisicano]
Ashes of Time Redux
In this visually stunning martial arts film, time and memory act as tonic for love lost. [David Harris]
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Mike Leigh's latest film, any trace of the gravitas he brought to earlier projects has been replaced by an irritating sense of optimism. [Mathew Klickstein]
The Pleasure of Being Robbed
The Pleasure of Being Robbed is a thoughtful exploration of some weighty issues, but its muddled premise and thin characterizations ultimately do it in. [Shane Hoversten]
Let the Right One In
In this Swedish import, director Tomas Alfredson mixes a coming-of-age tale with vampires for an original take on the loss of innocence. [David Harris]
I've Loved You So Long
Kristen Scott Thomas gives a harrowing performance in this drama about resurrection and redemption. [Lynn Pitts]
Pride and Glory
This by-the-numbers Ed Norton cop drama explores loyalty and the perils that surround it. [Jane Hruska]
Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
Boogie Man offers a fascinating and incisive look at a man who sold his soul for victory. We can thank him for George W. Bush. [David Harris]
Frontrunners
Frontrunners is a charming documentary that proves that there is little difference between a high school election and what happens on the national stage. [Sarah Anderson]
Filth and Wisdom
Though the music is rocking, Madonna's directorial debut fails to meet high expectations. [Jane Hruska]
Rachel Getting Married
In Jonathan Demme's masterful Rachel Getting Married, the inner workings of a family in turmoil are explored, set against one of the most joyful cinematic events ever filmed. [David Harris]
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