Reviews

February 21, 2008

The Counterfeiters

True story of money-making and survival during the Holocaust a sharp-paced thriller

By Michelle Orange

Be Kind Rewind

Gondry's sweet, raucous film-fest too shabby for its own good

By Michelle Orange

The Duchess of Langeais

A private affair grows stifling in Rivette's creaky story of obsessive love

By Vadim Rizov

February 14, 2008

Jumper

The motion's the thing in Liman's frantic version of sci-fi hopscotch

By Eric Kohn

Definitely, Maybe

Brooks loves the '90s in his nicely structured, sweet-toothed romantic comedy

By Michelle Orange

February 13, 2008

Ezra

Child soldier story's indicting purpose gets lost in a host of muddled sensibilities

By Eric Kohn

February 7, 2008

The Band's Visit

Newcomer Kolirin presents an unstriking Israeli-Egyptian story with a strikingly tender eye

By Michelle Orange

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show

Vaughn's funny valentine to heartland values is a laugh- every-other-minute affair

By Vadim Rizov

In Bruges

McDonagh's gangster goofballs bring verve to a film that doesn't quite deserve it

By Vadim Rizov

January 31, 2008

Caramel

Labaki's look at life in Beirut is a heartfelt gift to a city that couldn't deserve it more

By Michelle Orange

January 30, 2008

The Silence Before Bach

Portabella explores the craft of making music with the same lightness of the music itself

By Eric Kohn

January 29, 2008

Praying With Lior

Lior's supreme underdog moment feels a little too long in coming

By Michelle Orange

January 24, 2008

4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Vaunted Romanian drama a finely crafted -- yet somehow incomplete -- bureaucratic epic

By Vadim Rizov

Orthodox Stance

Spunky doc swings away with potent if uneven blend of Hebrews and haymakers

By Michelle Orange

January 22, 2008

Doc

Reasonably amusing portrait of literary flameout and acid burnout Humes strains for relevance

By Vadim Rizov

January 17, 2008

Cloverfield

The secret of J.J. Abrams's clunky commercial vehicle is that there isn't one

By Eric Kohn

Cassandra's Dream

Farrell's performance the highlight of Allen's uneven blend of high drama and afternoon telly

By Michelle Orange

Teeth

Lichtenstein's toothless sexual satire isn't nearly as subversive as it thinks

By Vadim Rizov

Taxi to the Dark Side

Gibney's sharp, shaming torture exposé tracks another Great American Meltdown

By Michelle Orange

January 9, 2008

The Business of Being Born

Boobs, birth and babies abound, but Epstein's witty, well-considered doc is all Business

By Michelle Orange

Woman on the Beach

Korean director gets accessible with his latest portrait of sex, power and chain-smoking

By Vadim Rizov

December 21, 2007

Sweeney Todd

Hollywood's most consistent force serves up another slice of gothic heaven

By Eric Kohn

December 20, 2007

Charlie Wilson's War

Nichols and Co.'s foreign policy caper puts up a decent fight, but Hoffman wins the War

By Michelle Orange

Walk Hard

Biopic parody owes a debt to the Zuckers with comedy that's big, silly and very surreal

By Matt Singer

There Will Be Blood

P.T. Anderson's monumental departure from form draws blood

By Vadim Rizov

December 13, 2007

The Kite Runner

Adaptation nails blandness of Hosseini's prose, but not the book's redeeming cultural engagement

By Michelle Orange

Youth Without Youth

Coppola returns with a dense, intricately cinematic meditation on the limits of creative ambition

By Keith Uhlich

December 12, 2007

Nanking

Chronicle of an atrocity lacks insight into -- but not the relentless horror of -- its subject

By Vadim Rizov

December 6, 2007

Atonement

Wright's adaptation hits its tearjerking marks but misses the book's central idea

By Vadim Rizov

The Walker

Schrader's sex and politics ethical thriller gets caught -- and stuck -- in the wayback machine

By Vadim Rizov

December 4, 2007

Juno

Despite some tonal overkill, this teen pregnancy comedy's sweetness feels earned

By Michelle Orange

The Violin

Vargas drops a worthy calling card with a low-key study of Mexico's political underground

By Eric Kohn

November 28, 2007

The Savages

Jenkins gives her story of siblings, bad dads and loss a quasi-fairy tale twist

By Michelle Orange

Oswald's Ghost

Dispassionate and thorough, Ghost is a dull but convincing conspiracy-buster

By Vadim Rizov

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Handsomely composed and minimally maudlin, Bauby biopic is competent but unmemorable

By Vadim Rizov

November 21, 2007

I'm Not There

Haynes revisits persona and image-play in his compelling, sometimes overreaching portrait of a legend

By Vadim Rizov

Starting Out in the Evening

Ambrose and Langella make an engrossing pair in stirring, strange adaptation

By Michelle Orange

Yiddish Theater: A Love Story

The race to save a New York -- and Jewish -- institution raises questions about the cost of cultural evolution

By Vadim Rizov

November 15, 2007

Redacted

De Palma fights misinformation with caricature in his irresponsible Iraq manifesto

By Vadim Rizov

Love in the Time of Cholera

Newell turns a classic love story into a tour de force of trite

By Michelle Orange

Margot at the Wedding

Baumbach's latest family freak show is more redolent of bad television than Bergman

By Keith Uhlich

November 14, 2007

Southland Tales

Kelly's all-American, mondo apocalypto allegory has to be seen to be believed

By Eric Kohn

November 8, 2007

Steal a Pencil For Me

A happy ending to a story of the holocaust, infidelity and some seriously crazy love

By Michelle Orange

Lions For Lambs

Despite pounding on blunt political keynotes, Redford comes up with a referendum on star power

By Vadim Rizov

No Country For Old Men

Don't call it a comeback -- the blood spilled in Coens' triumph is not that simple

By Eric Kohn

Fred Claus

Likeable slice of Christmas schmaltz is the ultimate test for the Vaughan persona

By R. Emmet Sweeney

November 1, 2007

Bee Movie

Seinfeld's great-looking, wildly unbalanced vanity project a Bee Movie about nothing.

By Eric Kohn

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

Temple taps Clash frontman's prodigious ego and attendant charisma in galvanic biography

By Vadim Rizov

Martian Child

The Cusack conundrum is in full effect in this blandly observed family film

By Eric Kohn

American Gangster

Airless, stilted and bored with itself, Scott's Gangster is handsomely empty hack work

By R. Emmet Sweeney

October 25, 2007

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Lumet's steady, memorable crime drama embodies existential despair

By Eric Kohn

Mr. Untouchable

Imaginatively bankrupt portrait drains the color from one of NYC's flashiest gangsters

By Vadim Rizov

October 24, 2007

Jimmy Carter Man From Plains

Demme succumbs to the pie-eyed Carter myth in his disappointing documentary

By Keith Uhlich

Lagerfeld Confidential

Largely ephemeral, day-in-the-life doc studded with a few meaty moments

By Michelle Orange

October 18, 2007

Gone Baby Gone

Affleck's debut a twisted love letter to Boston's roughest but a just plain twisted narrative

By Michelle Orange

Reservation Road

Like bad teenage poetry, Terry George's clumsy melodrama insists solely on its own tragedy

By Vadim Rizov

Rendition

Discourse on U.S. torture policies less cogent -- and entertaining -- than it thinks

By Michelle Orange

Wristcutters: A Love Story

Endearing and intelligent vision of the afterlife may soften even the hardest of hipster asses

By Vadim Rizov

October 12, 2007

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Protestants rule and Catholics predictably drool, but Elizabeth redux is as ideologically confused as it is completely meaningless

By Michelle Orange

October 11, 2007

We Own the Night

Brisk but boring crime drama unmitigated by a few good performances

By Vadim Rizov

Lars and the Real Girl

Sex dolls and sentiment make uncommon bedfellows in this strangely tender small-town tale

By R. Emmet Sweeney

October 8, 2007

Control

Gorgeous black-and-white visuals are the real star of unhappy rocker's biopic

By Eric Kohn

October 4, 2007

Michael Clayton

Gilroy's moral thriller mimics skins of '70s mentors without attaining their soul

By Keith Uhlich

My Kid Could Paint That

Director Bar-Lev cops out on heady questions he raises about truth and art

By Vadim Rizov

The Heartbreak Kid

Heartbreak remake's upped gross-out quotient marks the Farrelly ethos back in effect

By R. Emmet Sweeney

October 3, 2007

Lake of Fire

Kaye's epic abortion documentary proves as divisive as it is meticulously two-sided

By Michelle Orange

September 28, 2007

The Kingdom

Berg's kill 'em all action flick attempts to elevate itself with clumsy, rock 'n roll politics

By Michelle Orange

September 27, 2007

Lust, Caution

The titillation is terrifying in Lee's cunningly effective new period piece

By Eric Kohn

Feast of Love

Unabashedly sentimental, Benton's latest ensemble piece is also a clear-eyed look at love and longevity

By R. Emmet Sweeney

The Darjeeling Limited

Anderson chucks the suffocating quirks from the train for his most emotionally complex film yet

By Vadim Rizov

September 20, 2007

The Jane Austen Book Club

No-brainer chick-pleaser manages a couple of swings above its intellectual weight

By Michelle Orange

Into the Wild

Penn brings an older brother's understanding to the tragedy of a young iconoclast

By Matt Singer

The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Dominik's poetic, detached James never convincingly joins form with content

By R. Emmet Sweeney

September 13, 2007

The Brave One

Jordan and Foster indulge in vigilante justice and nostalgia-busting for pre-Giuliani New York

By Vadim Rizov

In the Valley of Elah

Haggis brings the heavy in his attempt to weigh in on the cost of the war

By Michelle Orange

Great World of Sound

Small-town scamming opus paves the path of corporate dishonesty

By Vadim Rizov

Eastern Promises

Minor Cronenberg, despite his return to "body horror" and a naked bathhouse fight for the ages

By Vadim Rizov

September 7, 2007

3:10 to Yuma

The actions the thing in Mangold's revisitation (not revision) of the Western

By Vadim Rizov

Romance and Cigarettes

Turturro's long-delayed musical a staunchly heterosexual take on John Waters

By R. Emmet Sweeney

September 6, 2007

The Unknown Soldier

Meditation on the actions of Germany's WWII army an entrancing look at the power of civil identity

By Eric Kohn

Fierce People

The rich are different in Dunne's class-conscious melodrama -- and not in a good way

By Michelle Orange

August 31, 2007

The Nines

August's metaphor-happy allegory for the writer's plight blows everything but your mind

By Vadim Rizov

August 30, 2007

Exiled

The unstoppable Johnnie To's third 2007 release is also the most entertaining film of the year

By R. Emmet Sweeney

August 29, 2007

The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun

Slim and sparsely drawn as its subject, Monastery delivers a meditation on grace

By Michelle Orange

August 23, 2007

Dedication

Theroux's debut a mid-90s redemption romance in the All the Sad Young Dudes mold

By Michelle Orange

The Nanny Diaries

Complacent tone and strangely tame direction make for boring Diaries entry

By Eric Kohn

The Hottest State

First love and first heartbreak compete for psychic space in Hawke's bloody valentine

By Michelle Orange

Resurrecting the Champ

Sexed-up adaptation a treatise on journalistic integrity that strays too far from its source

By Vadim Rizov

August 17, 2007

The Invasion

It's up with pod people once again, but Downfall director's vision gets blurred

By R. Emmet Sweeney

The 11th Hour

If documentary is the new disaster film, Leo's baby is B-movie material

By Michelle Orange

August 16, 2007

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Irresistible characters and a classic trajectory ensure another surefire, nerd-doc hit

By R. Emmet Sweeney

August 15, 2007

Delirious

DiCillo's latest a tired primer on the perils of a fame-obsessed culture

By Vadim Rizov

August 9, 2007

Rocket Science

Blitz's feature follow-up to Spellbound an almost complete delight

By Vadim Rizov

2 Days in Paris

Playful performances buoy Delpy's take on relationships and Paris' dreamy reputation

By Michelle Orange

August 8, 2007

Stardust

The stars aren't blind, but deafening and dumb in lackluster Gaiman adaptation

By Vadim Rizov

August 7, 2007

Descent

Rape-revenge fantasy's title also applies to the fate of its narrative

By Eric Kohn