Email Author Michael Nordine

2012 Stories by Michael Nordine

• Celebrating the Romanian New Wave at Lincoln Center

  published November 28, 2012

  What's now referred to as the Romanian New Wave announced itself loudest with Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which in... More >>

• What a Man

  published November 28, 2012

  If your main qualm with the steady stream of disposable romantic comedies is that they're products of Hollywood rather than Germany, then... More >>

• 28 Hotel Rooms

  published November 14, 2012

  In its stripped-down, episodic approach—the film consists entirely of two lovers' hotel-room liaisons, with each encounter announced via... More >>

• A Late Quartet

  published October 31, 2012

  Woody Allen has been known to suggest that, in directing a good movie, much of the battle lies in casting. Were that entirely true, the Philip... More >>

• Just 45 Minutes From Broadway

  published October 24, 2012

  'For all actors and actresses . . . and the families that have refused to disown them" isn't exactly a confidence-inspiring epigraph, but it is... More >>

• Simon and the Oaks

  published October 10, 2012

  Lisa Ohlin's Simon and the Oaks has all the superficial elements of compelling drama but none of the interiority; it looks like a good... More >>

• Smashed

  published October 10, 2012

  Movies about drugs and alcohol might be a dime (bag) a dozen, but James Ponsoldt's Smashed is so beautifully shot and well acted as to... More >>

• The Iran Job

  published October 10, 2012

  Although it presents itself as merely the story of a professional basketball player named Kevin Sheppard, who, never quite making it to the... More >>

• In My Mother's Arms

  published October 3, 2012

  Focusing on a makeshift orphanage for 32 young boys in Baghdad whose parents have died since America blessed their country with freedom and... More >>

• Decoding Deepak

  published October 3, 2012

  Made and narrated by a son in an attempt to reconcile his own perception of his father with that of the public at large, Gotham Chopra's... More >>

• The Prosecution of an American President

  published October 3, 2012

  Akin to an updated Fahrenheit 9/11 minus the occasional humor, Dave Hagen and David J. Burke's The Prosecution of an American... More >>

• Harvest of Empire

  published September 26, 2012

  There's a dignified outrage to Harvest of Empire—most of it warranted—but it too often acts as a driving force rather than... More >>

• They Call It Myanmar

  published September 19, 2012

  "This country is unique . . . there's no country like Burma," a woman says minutes into They Call It Myanmar. This is true insofar as... More >>

• Backwards

  published September 19, 2012

  The title of Ben Hickernell's Backwards refers to the motions of competitive rowing, but also to its heroine's seeming regression from... More >>

• Hollywood to Dollywood

  published September 5, 2012

  As much a road movie as it is a subtle screed on civil rights, John Lavin's Hollywood to Dollywood follows two openly gay brothers as they... More >>

• Breathing

  published September 5, 2012

  A film of unreconciled impulses, Breathing is by turns vaguely sentimental and cooly detached in a manner that's ultimately more... More >>

• The Green Wave

  published August 8, 2012

  Social media's role in the would-be Iranian revolution of 2009 is by this point much hyped, but no one has yet covered it quite like Ali Samadi... More >>

• Sushi: The Global Catch

  published August 1, 2012

  Situated somewhere between Jiro Dreams of Sushi and The Cove, Mark Hall's Sushi: The Global Catch highlights both... More >>

• Falling Overnight

  published July 25, 2012

  A lo-fi romantic drama that isn’t awash in self-pity or -aggrandizement, Conrad Jackson’s Falling Overnight is something of a... More >>

• The Well-Digger's Daughter

  published July 18, 2012

  In one of The Well-Digger's Daughter's most telling scenes, 18-year-old Patricia (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) spends several minutes... More >>

• Top Priority: The Terror Within

  published June 27, 2012

  Top Priority: The Terror Within raises figurative red flags almost immediately, not all of them intentional. Asif Akbar's documentary on... More >>