On Dangerous Ground Extreme landscapes engulf eco-warriors in visceral Chinese adventure saga
By their nature, conservationist melodramas are tough to put over: Unless you torture science Roland Emmerich–style, the concrete concerns...
More>> Michael Atkinson
Published: April 04, 2006
Catherine the Great A pair of classics starring a '60s goddess of light
There was something about the sexually agape, porcelainized tabula rasa of Catherine Deneuve in her stardom's infancy that fed the dream lives of...
More>> Michael Atkinson
Published: April 04, 2006
Pre-Mortem Morbid romantic dramedy inspires cancer awareness
An unassuming, unadventurous, but likable dramedy about dying and grief, Sarah Watt's debut feature, Look Both Ways, has been something of an...
More>> Michael Atkinson
Published: April 04, 2006
Not Another Teen Movie Thank hell for little girls: Jailbait revenge fantasy is guilty pleasure, then pure torture
The Darwinian theory that schlocksploitation must tighten its twist of the nuts with each new release will be tested strenuously for...
More>> Rob Nelson
Published: April 04, 2006
'La Mujer de Mi Hermano'
With a plot so old it could have been scraped off of cave walls, this Latin American psychodrama pits desperate housewife Zoe (Bárbara...
More>> Melissa Levine
Published: April 04, 2006
'Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story'
More suited to the short form, Rob Corddry's brand of faux-unwitting sarcasm is pushed to the limit by Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, a...
More>> Ben Kenigsberg
Published: April 04, 2006
'Nathalie'
Is Nathalie's love triangle bizarre—or just ridiculous? Not long after hubby Bernard (Gérard Depardieu) fails to materialize for his...
More>> Ed Park
Published: April 04, 2006
'The Sisters'
Aiming for an edgy blend of the classic and the contemporary à la Julie Taymor, The Sisters—playwright-screenwriter Richard...
More>> Mark Holcomb
Published: April 04, 2006
'Days of Heaven'
It was Terrence Malick's last film before his notorious 20-year hiatus, it was Sam Shepard's introduction to moviegoers, and it seems almost...
More>> Michael Atkinson
Published: April 04, 2006
'Herbie Hancock: Possibilities'
Herbie Hancock is looking damn good for a man in his mid sixties, and he's far from set in his ways—the veteran jazzman proved as much on...
More>> Luke Y. Thompson
Published: April 04, 2006
'Kinky Boots'
Why are movies "inspired by a true story" always the most contrived? The new Kinky Boots feels old, or at least vintage. The Full Monty is the...
More>> Matt Singer
Published: April 04, 2006
For Love of Money Rich and strange: Holofcener's wealth porn sitcom not particularly lovely or amazing
Friends With Money, the third nominally independent feature written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, is less an ensemble comedy than a...
More>> J. Hoberman
Published: March 28, 2006
Another Russia A hooker, a meat dealer, and a skinhead walk into a bar . . .
A prime recent discovery on the international festival circuit, 30-year-old Ilya Khrzhanovsky's first feature 4 is an immediate attention...
More>> J. Hoberman
Published: March 28, 2006
Down for the Count Better luck tomorrow: Bubbly cast and clever banter can't overcome blatant Tarantinoisms
You may still retain your ardor and respect, as I have, for the pressure-point hammerblow Quentin Tarantino executed on American movies, but...
More>> Michael Atkinson
Published: March 28, 2006
The Longest Day Feel-good drama drowns in broguey sentimentality
. . . You can see 4-eva! That is, if you're with the program represented by the new virgin cocktail On a Clear Day and are suffering from a...
More>> Michael Atkinson
Published: March 28, 2006
Film
Self-conscious aesthete, existential structuralist, one of the world's most eloquent conjoiners of metaphysical mystery and sociopolitical...
More>> Michael Atkinson
Published: March 28, 2006
Romancing the Stone London-set sequel to erotic trash classic is all talk and very little action
At one point in Basic Instinct 2, Sharon Stone's castrating nympho-bitch is diagnosed as a "masked psychotic"—a sneaky acknowledgment,...
More>> Dennis Lim
Published: March 28, 2006
Cry, the Beloved Country Gitai's latest reductive Middle Eastern allegory
Straight out of the gate, Free Zone is ready for its close-up—in this case, a nine-minute fixed shot of Natalie Portman in profile, crying,...
More>> Jessica Winter
Published: March 28, 2006
'Dirty Harry'
Dirty Harry may not be Don Siegel's masterpiece—although it is a first-rate policier featuring a career-defining performance by Clint...
More>> J. Hoberman
Published: March 28, 2006
'The Great Warming'
Hi, I'm Keanu Reeves." "And I'm Alanis Morissette." With those eight words, this global-warming documentary stakes its claim to credibility....
More>> Jim Ridley
Published: March 28, 2006
'Ice Age: The Meltdown'
A merry saga of death, extinction, and migratory depletion, this sequel may be the grimmest entertainment for kids since Uncle Walt killed Old...
More>> Jim Ridley
Published: March 28, 2006
'Simon'
What begins as a Dutch comedy about a gay man's friendship with a wildly un-P.C. straight man morphs into a bold and exhausting examination of...
More>> Melissa Levine
Published: March 28, 2006
Tart-Talking Law Women Dispense Justice in Family-Court Doc
A Gabby Horndog's Inventive Real-Life Mea Culpa
Mission Accomplished: A Credible SF-Set Graffiti Saga