Email Author Aaron Hillis

2009 Stories by Aaron Hillis

• The Marginally Compelling Sincerely Yours

  published December 8, 2009

  Closing the fall edition of MOMA's once-a-month ContemporAsian series—an ongoing survey of little-seen festival fare—is a... More >>

• R. Balki's Paa: Possibly the Strangest Bollywood Blockbuster Yet

  published December 1, 2009

  If Francis Ford Coppola's gentle dramedy Jack and last year's oddball melodrama The Curious Case of Benjamin Button were two... More >>

• Hillenbrand Bro Draxploitation Spoof Transylmania

  published December 1, 2009

  Humping the vampire trend, straight-to-DVD director bros David and Scott Hillenbrand get some multiplex action by shoehorning their usual... More >>

• Robert Palmer's Daughter Delves into his Past in The Hand of Fatima

  published November 10, 2009

  The late Robert Palmer (no, not the "Addicted to Love" guy) wore many hats before dying of liver failure in 1997: He was a famous rock critic... More >>

• Finding Humanity with the Peaceniks in The Good Soldier

  published November 10, 2009

  Disconcertingly timeless is the idea that a "good" soldier is one who kills, lest he be killed. The emotional and psychological fallout from... More >>

• Woody Harrelson Performs for Well-Scripted Messenger

  published November 10, 2009

  I'm Not There screenwriter Oren Moverman makes his directorial debut with The Messenger, a moving and nuanced drama about the... More >>

• Turning Green, the World's Loneliest Teen Sex Comedy

  published November 10, 2009

  Working through a mild case of xenophobia, cynical American-Irish teenager James (Donal Gallery) desperately wants to escape the tiny... More >>

• Could The Messenger Be a Career High for Harrelson?

  published November 3, 2009

  Who'd have thought Woody Harrelson would be primed to snag an Oscar nomination just one month after mowing down hordes of flesh-munchers in... More >>

• The Inevitable Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day

  published October 27, 2009

  The Boondock Saints filmmaker Troy Duffy certainly makes for an easy target—at least his former friends thought so when they made... More >>

• Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

  published October 20, 2009

  The vampire trend continues, but the only authentic bloodsuckers in Cirque du Freak are its producers and studio execs. Drawn from the... More >>

• Astro Boy Attempts Bottling Nostalgia, Not Annoying Parents

  published October 20, 2009

  Is it impossible to bottle childhood nostalgia in a movie? On the heels of Where the Wild Things Are comes Astro Boy, a... More >>

• Cirque du Freak Tries to Get in on the Trend. Fails.

  published October 20, 2009

  Like the ominous fingernail moon early on in Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, the bloodsucker trend is again in a waxing... More >>

• Food Beware Suffers from Light Nutritional Value

  published October 13, 2009

  If "organic" is one of those keywords co-opted by food companies to sell us shit we don't need (remember "low-carb" Oreos?), then Jean-Paul... More >>

• Trucker Sports an Impressive Ensemble

  published October 6, 2009

  After undervalued supporting turns in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, North Country, and Gone Baby Gone, dainty girl-next-door type... More >>

• Peter and Vandy, Another Arty Flick for the Masses

  published October 6, 2009

  Middlebrow Sundance product is the scourge of American independent cinema today—those innocuously "arty," totally commercial, and... More >>

• Maren Ade on Her Couples' Characters Study, Everyone Else

  published September 29, 2009

  Following her 2003 debut The Forest for the Trees, 32-year-old German writer-director Maren Ade's trenchant, funny, and sensitive... More >>

• Do Knot Disturb: A Histrionic, Sexless Bedroom Farce

  published September 29, 2009

  Not attempting to buck any trends of the modern Bollywood blockbuster, director David Dhawan's 18th feature collaboration with beloved comic... More >>

• Just Another Day in Michael Almereyda's Paradise

  published September 22, 2009

  Being trapped by a stranger's home movies might ordinarily feel akin to the Ludovico treatment from A Clockwork Orange, but director... More >>

• Blind Date Suffers from Restrictions of an Ode

  published September 22, 2009

  In honor of Dutch provocateur Theo van Gogh—who was murdered in 2004 by an Islamic extremist, angered by one of his films—Van... More >>

• Obviousness Staggering in The Burning Plain

  published September 15, 2009

  Oregon restaurant manager Charlize Theron, prone to submissive promiscuity and self-inflicted violence, sits naked in bed next to her lover. A... More >>

• Enter Gorgeous, Outlandish Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone

  published September 15, 2009

  Neon Genesis Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno co-directs the first in a planned tetralogy that reboots (and spiffs up with gorgeously... More >>

• No Impact Man Tests Limits of Man's Carbon Footprint, Wife's Patience

  published September 8, 2009

  The bold environmental project Colin Beavan began in the fall of 2006—to expunge his carbon footprint by giving up material consumption,... More >>

• Gogol Bordello Non-Stop

  published September 8, 2009

  A whirling dervish of rafter-swinging rebellion, gypsy-punk rockers Gogol Bordello (led by handlebar-mustached beanpole Eugene... More >>

• Fall Guide: Juliette Binoche Talks Paris and Dancing

  published September 8, 2009

  Juliette Binoche must have signed a deal with the devil, since there's no other logical explanation for why this Oscar-winning French actress... More >>

• Sandstorm the Public Access Equivalent of Falun Gong Protests

  published September 1, 2009

  If you're unfamiliar with the practitioners of Falun Gong—peaceful spiritualists who have been persecuted by the Chinese government since... More >>