Email Author Vadim Rizov

2008 Stories by Vadim Rizov

• Cargo 200 an Unflinching, Quasi-Comedic Portrait of 1984 Russia

  published December 31, 2008

  Aleksei Balabanov's Cargo 200 is an unflinching portrait of the grim vileness of Soviet Russia in 1984; from an American perspective,... More >>

• Herbert, at MOMA, Discovers Godard 40 Years Too Late

  published December 10, 2008

  Suman Mukhopadhyay's Herbert is what happens when Godard's influence comes to India 40 years too late. Mukhopadhyay's feature... More >>

• Let Them Chirp Awhile Falls Apart, But Pretty Hilarious Scene To Scene

  published December 3, 2008

  When Bobby (Justin Rice) sits down to justify his self-description as a screenwriter, he thinks only in vague references ("Is expressionism OK... More >>

• 'New French Films' at BAM

  published November 12, 2008

  BAM's annual "New French Films" spread includes two selections (The Secret of the Grain and Angel) soon to be released by IFC;... More >>

• Dinner With the President: A Nation's Journey

  published November 12, 2008

  A few minutes into Dinner With the President, co-director Sabiha Sumar shows her friends gathering for a dinner party, which, she... More >>

• Vadim Glowna's Laborious House of the Sleeping Beauties

  published November 12, 2008

  Edmond (Vadim Glowna) is a tortured old man. His dreams? "Toads . . . black dogs, and drowned corpses." So, off Edmond goes to a mysterious... More >>

• Stranded: I've Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains

  published October 22, 2008

  Stranded is the rare movie less complex and interesting than its press kit. In revisiting the story of the Uruguayan soccer team that... More >>

• The Pleasantly Corny Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun is Also Absolutely Irrelevant

  published October 22, 2008

  Having already been a novel, radio play, movie (famously excerpted by Metallica for the "One" video), and one-man stage show, it's hard to know... More >>

• The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror

  published October 22, 2008

  The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror delivers on its title, with less subtlety. An opening musical number entitled "Watch Out for the... More >>

• Airplane! Director David Zucker Talks About the Left and His New Movie An American Carol

  published October 1, 2008

  As part of the Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker filmmaking team in the '80s, David Zucker pioneered the non sequitur spoof-comedy genre with... More >>

• The Lucky Ones is (Gulp) the Best Iraq War Movie to Date

  published September 23, 2008

  Saying The Lucky Ones is the best film about Iraq yet is the proverbial damning with faint praise. Conservative op-ed writers of the... More >>

• Flow

  published September 10, 2008

  One of those charming little documentaries that make you question whether the human race is really worth preserving, Irena Salina's Flow:... More >>

• Jamie Bell Gets His Freak on in Mister Foe

  published September 3, 2008

  Young Hallam Foe (Jamie Bell) is convinced that his stepmother (Claire Forlani) accelerated her upward trajectory from dad's secretary to dad's... More >>

• Year of the Fish

  published August 27, 2008

  Year of the Fish is the kind of really bad movie it takes a lot of misplaced conviction to make. A modern-day fairy tale unwisely told... More >>

• Mathieu Kassovitz's Babylon A.D.

  published August 27, 2008

  Hardly the utter fiasco promised by its lengthy delay and no-press dumping on Labor Day weekend, Mathieu Kassovitz's Babylon A.D. arrives... More >>

• The Longshots

  published August 19, 2008

  In the '90s, Ice Cube and Limp Bizkit co-headlined the Family Values Tour as, respectively, a rap legend and the nadir of music up to that... More >>

• O Lucky Us!: Malcolm McDowell on Lindsay Anderson

  published August 12, 2008

  In conjunction with its Lindsay Anderson retrospective, "Revolutionary Romantic," Lincoln Center offers up the New York premiere of Mike... More >>

• Power Point Conspiracy Theories in Stealing America: Vote by Vote

  published July 29, 2008

  Never mind that in trying to establish that voter fraud in American elections is a national problem, Stealing America: Vote by Vote... More >>

• The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

  published July 29, 2008

  I was 13 when Stephen Sommers's 1999 remake-in-name-only of The Mummy came out—just about the ideal age. Sommers is definitely some... More >>

• The Order of Myths

  published July 23, 2008

  "I think you'll learn a lot of history," says a grim-faced dressmaker (black) to Mardi Gras queen Helen Meaher (white) early in The Order of... More >>

• No Regret

  published July 23, 2008

  No Regret begins as a perceptive glimpse into a specific gay subculture, then descends halfway through into Korean melodrama hell; put... More >>

• Scott Galloway and Brent Pierson's Brief Documentary A Man Named Pearl

  published July 16, 2008

  Feature-length elaborations on quirky, inspiring human-interest stories are generally to be avoided, but I'll make an exception for A Man... More >>

• Lincoln Center Throws its Spotlight on Slovenia

  published July 16, 2008

  With its retrospective on Slovenian cinema, Lincoln Center sets out to prove that intelligent cinematic life exists in the post-Communist European... More >>

• Silvio Soldini's Days and Clouds

  published July 9, 2008

  Elsa (Margherita Buy) and Michele (Antonio Albanese) have a problem: They're a married couple in a middlebrow arthouse movie. When Elsa gets her... More >>

• Taking Off: Milos Forman's Runaway Hit

  published June 17, 2008

  When Milos Forman set out to make his first American movie, he moved into a house on Leroy Street for more than a year. The door was always open,... More >>