Mystic River dir. Eastwood Opens Fri Oct 17 Various Theaters The question, friends, is not whether Clint Eastwood is a great director. That debate should have been settled long ago, by anyone who paid attention to Unforgiven, A Perfect World, and The Bridges of Madison County. The question that persists is: How can a great […]
Sean Nelson
Posted inMovies & TV
Phoning It In
Philip Seymour Hoffman, Where Are You?
Owning Mahowny dir. Kwietniowski Opens Fri June 13 Various Theaters At last, a film dares to ask the question, “What is the sound of one actor slumming?” Few men of the screen are as compulsively watchable as Philip Seymour Hoffman, who has made a career out of lending gravitas, pathos, and humor to the bleak […]
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Sexual Embarrassment
The Shape of Manipulation
The Shape of Things dir. LaBute Opens Fri May 9 Various Theaters Filmmaker Neil LaBute made his name with films like In the Company of Men and Your Friends & Neighbors, in which immoral and amoral behavior motorize provocative parables about modern morality. His new film, The Shape of Things, continues in this vein (after […]
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Meaningless Dance
Tango Lost in Search for Direction
Assassination Tango dir. Duvall Opens Fri April 11 Various Theaters The last film written and directed by Robert Duvall was The Apostle, a heroic effort in which one of the greatest American actors of all time wrote a simple moral drama about a complicated, deeply conflicted man. It was a plum of a part, which […]
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Songs of Change
Amandla! And the Power of Music
Amandla! dir. Hirsch Opens Fri March 28 Cinemagic In an age of entertainment and consumption, it’s easy to forget that the simple human act of singing against injustice can be more than merely “authentic”; it can be authentically revolutionary. After seeing Amandla!, a staggeringly inspirational documentary about the unique role of music in the 40-plus-year […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Getting Old
Oliveira’s Meditative Look at the Irreversible Prospect of Aging
I’m Going Home dir. Manoel de Oliveira Opens Fri Feb 7 Cinema 21 I’m Going Home, officially titled Je rentre a la maison, is a film about being old, made by a man who knows a thing or two about the subject. Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira is in his mid-90s, and still active as […]
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Ghetto Music
Polanski Stares into the Holocaust
The Pianist dir. Polanski Opens Fri Jan 3 Various Theaters It’s always been something of a game for film buffs to try and gauge the amount of autobiography in the films of Roman Polanski. This is due in part to the nature of what we expect from our great artists, and also in part to […]
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Retroactive Camp
James Bond 20: An Afterthought
Die Another Day dir. Tamahori Now Playing Everywhere After about two hours of workmanlike action/suspense, and a battery of sexual innuendo about as subtle and charming as a herpes sore, the 20th James Bond film finally surrenders to its own muddled identity. What comprises this surrender? A shot straight out of the Batman TV series–after […]
Posted inMusic
Cock Mobster
MC Paul Barman Keeps It Real Funny
MC Paul Barman Fri Nov 15 Meow Meow Hiphop is one the few forms of popular music that can be openly funny and still seem legit and few things are funnier on a basic level than white people rapping. You might even say that the presence of humor in hiphop is what allowed white people […]
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Cheap Shots
Michael Moore Takes Aim at Guns
Bowling for Columbine dir. Moore Opens Fri Oct 25 Various Theaters For the first 20 minutes or so, Michael Moore’s new film seems poised to follow in the footsteps of his past work–some hilarious moments during which liberals can congratulate themselves for recognizing glaring hypocrisies and little else. In Bowling for Columbine, he spends some […]
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Cheap Shots
Michael Moore Takes Aim at Guns
For the first 20 minutes or so, Michael Moore’s new film seems poised to follow in the footsteps of his past work–some hilarious moments during which liberals can congratulate themselves for recognizing glaring hypocrisies and little else. In Bowling for Columbine, he spends some time with members of the Michigan militia (who are so eager […]
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Ruling Class Hero
Igby’s Preppy Depression and Privileged Despair
The most memorable literary criticism I ever heard leveled at Catcher in the Rye came from a kid I used to work with at a minimum-wage job. He admired the structure and style of the novel, and conceded that Salinger was great at combining humor and pathos. There was one thing, however, that prevented him […]