Reviews

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  The Road

  The Road, Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize–winning, Oprah-endorsed, post-apocalyptic survivalist prose poem—in which a father and his 10-year-old son traverse a despoiled landscape of unspeakable horror—was a quick, lacerating...

  By J. Hoberman

  Tuesday, November 24

  The Road, Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize–winning, Oprah-endorsed, post-apocalyptic survivalist prose poem—in which a father and his... More >>
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  The Princess and the Frog

  Six decades after unleashing persistent NAACP bugaboo Song of the South (1946), and two after firmly suppressing it, that peculiar cultural institution known as the Walt Disney Company has made a symbolic reparation by creating its first African-American...

  By Scott Foundas

  Tuesday, November 24

  Six decades after unleashing persistent NAACP bugaboo Song of the South (1946), and two after firmly suppressing it, that peculiar cultural... More >>
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  The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

  Married in the 'burbs—can we really expect anything but comatose?

  Rebecca Miller's fourth feature may be the only film you'll ever see with both Cornelius West and Monica Bellucci in minor roles. But it is also immediately recognizable as the millionth iteration of a sheltered, middle-aged suburban housewife who...

  By Melissa Anderson

  Tuesday, November 24

  Rebecca Miller's fourth feature may be the only film you'll ever see with both Cornelius West and Monica Bellucci in minor roles. But it is also... More >>
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  Small Change at IFC, A Winter Portrait at Alliance Française

  No mugging for the camera for François Truffaut

  Literally translated as "Pocket Money," the title of François Truffaut's 1976 film gets at something meager and precious about childhood. Screening in a new print at IFC Center, it's the perfect palette-cleanser after the bloviated Where...

  By Nick Pinkerton

  Tuesday, November 24

  Literally translated as "Pocket Money," the title of François Truffaut's 1976 film gets at something meager and precious about childhood.... More >>
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  Me and Orson Welles

  The most significant American artist before Andy Warhol to take "the media" as his medium, Orson Welles lives on not only in posthumously restored director's cuts of his re-released movies, but as a character in other people's novels, plays, and movies—notably...

  By J. Hoberman

  Tuesday, November 24

  The most significant American artist before Andy Warhol to take "the media" as his medium, Orson Welles lives on not only in posthumously... More >>
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  Home

  The opening scenes of Home—a nighttime game of street hockey, a bathing session that turns into a five-way splash fight—establish the anarchic sense of play that defines the interactions of the film's central family, while the casual...

  By Andrew Schenker

  Tuesday, November 24

  The opening scenes of Home—a nighttime game of street hockey, a bathing session that turns into a five-way splash fight—establish the... More >>
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  'Celebrating Chekhov' and Ward No. 6

  With "Celebrating Chekhov," Lincoln Center compiles seven screen adaptations from the good doctor. Of the five Soviet-era productions, 1970's Uncle Vanya is apparently the most renowned. Andrei Konchalovsky—later émigré and...

  By Nick Pinkerton

  Tuesday, November 24

  With "Celebrating Chekhov," Lincoln Center compiles seven screen adaptations from the good doctor. Of the five Soviet-era productions, 1970's... More >>
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  Ninja Assassin

  Isn't that a tautology—both ninja and assassin? Redundancy aside, having braved zombies in 28 Days Later, Naomie Harris now faces a centuries-old clan of ninjas who have been hiring themselves out, Blackwater-style, as government...

  By Brian Miller

  Tuesday, November 24

  Isn't that a tautology—both ninja and assassin? Redundancy aside, having braved zombies in 28 Days Later, Naomie Harris now faces a... More >>
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  Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

  The joke's on someone in Werner Herzog's awkwardly titled Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Possibly Abel Ferrara who, exploding in fury when he learned that the German conquistador was planning to remake his 1992 career movie, opined...

  By J. Hoberman

  Tuesday, November 17

  The joke's on someone in Werner Herzog's awkwardly titled Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Possibly Abel Ferrara who, exploding in fury... More >>
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  The Sun

  The most perverse installment of Aleksandr Sokurov's dictator cycle, The Sun follows the Russian director's meditations on Hitler (Moloch, 1999) and Lenin (Taurus, 2000) with a curiously upbeat portrait of Japan's last divine...

  By J. Hoberman

  Tuesday, November 17

  The most perverse installment of Aleksandr Sokurov's dictator cycle, The Sun follows the Russian director's meditations on Hitler (Moloch, 1999)... More >>
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  MOMA Brings Tim Burton's Outsider Art In

  What will five months of feting by MOMA do to Tim Burton's perversely blockbusting outsider art? Probably nothing. Intensely devoted to a scissorhandful of pop-surrealist obsessions, Burton has, with few exceptions, been making the same semi-autobiographical...

  By Rob Nelson

  Tuesday, November 17

  What will five months of feting by MOMA do to Tim Burton's perversely blockbusting outsider art? Probably nothing. Intensely devoted to a... More >>
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  The Twilight Saga: New Moon

  Bella: I’m coming.
  Edward: I don’t want you to.
  —The Twilight Saga: New Moon

  Worry not for the purity of your tween girls, global mothers. Where Catherine Hardwicke’s lively, irreverent take on the first...

  By Ella Taylor

  Tuesday, November 17

  Bella: I’m coming. Edward: I don’t want you to.—The Twilight Saga: New Moon Worry not for the purity of your tween girls,... More >>
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  Red Cliff

  Abridged for American consumption

  John Woo spent a decade navigating the big-studio minefield—longer than most foreign auteurs last in Hollywood before throwing in the towel. Beginning in earnest with an above-average Jean-Claude Van Damme programmer (Hard Target), Woo...

  By Scott Foundas

  Tuesday, November 17

  John Woo spent a decade navigating the big-studio minefield—longer than most foreign auteurs last in Hollywood before throwing in the... More >>
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  Broken Embraces

  "Everything's already happened to me," admits Harry Caine, the blind, middle-aged filmmaker in Broken Embraces. "All that's left is to enjoy life." ¡Sí! His own sights set low these days in his latest movie, reformed bad...

  By Rob Nelson

  Tuesday, November 17

  "Everything's already happened to me," admits Harry Caine, the blind, middle-aged filmmaker in Broken Embraces. "All that's left is to enjoy... More >>
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  Liv Ullmann Retro at BAM

  With her large, if rare, grin and high forehead, Liv Ullmann was always the least dreamy of the axiomatic New Wave–era actresses—she was no one's Anna Karina or Monica Vitti—and the most discomfitingly fierce. If any movie star has...

  By Michael Atkinson

  Tuesday, November 17

  With her large, if rare, grin and high forehead, Liv Ullmann was always the least dreamy of the axiomatic New Wave–era actresses—she... More >>
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