MOVIE REVIEW
Religulous (2008)
Lionsgate
Bill Maher doesn’t like organized religion – hates it, in fact. Anyone familiar with his TV shtick already knows that, and anyone that hasn’t gotten the message will find it delivered early and often in “Religulous.” The film is his crack at the guerilla style combination of documentary and performance art that might as well be referred to as the Larry Charles special, after the director of this picture and “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.”
Continue reading “The Passion of Bill Maher” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Choke (2008)
Jessica Miglio/Fox Searchlight Pictures
“Choke” marks the second big-screen adaptation of a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, a sardonic chronicler of our hidden neuroses and otherworldly fetishes. The first, David Fincher’s “Fight Club,” rode raw fight scenes, a stark vision of an anti-consumerist uprising and Brad Pitt’s muscles to cult-classic status. This one replaces Mr. Pitt with Sam Rockwell; the focus on pleasurable physical violence shifts to sexual perversion; and writer-director Clark Gregg’s film has an altogether less dreary tone than Mr. Fincher’s dark, deadly serious project.
Continue reading “First Rule of Strip Club” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Elite Squad (2007)
David John Prichard/The Weinstein Company
The Brazilian crime drama “Elite Squad” – winner of the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival – has generated plenty of controversy thanks to its supposed fascist leanings. While it does in some fashion celebrate the brutal, repressive tactics of BOPE – Rio de Janeiro’s elite police squad – José Padilha’s work just as openly questions the personal and psychological destruction brought on by membership in the unit. The problem with the movie is not its ideology, but the fact that it never breaks free from the most clichéd mold in Brazilian cinema: a story focused on cops, guns, drug runners and Rio’s favelas.
Continue reading “Patrolling City of God” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Duchess (2008)
Peter Mountain/Paramount Vantage
“The Duchess” – a handsome and eloquent costume drama – suffers from a case of genre fatigue. Well-directed and competently acted, filled with sweeping 18th-century estate vistas, large crowd scenes and passionate parlor games, it fits nicely in a niche previously carved out by almost every other entry in the genre. The story – which concerns an arranged marriage and illicit love unfulfilled against the backdrop of a changing Britain – feels completely pedestrian.
Continue reading “V.I.P. ‘Cause You Know She Gotta Shine” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Lakeview Terrace (2008)
Chuck Zlotnick/Screen Gems
Neil LaBute completes his career 180 degrees turn into total hackdom with “Lakeview Terrace,” an exceedingly silly thriller that only proves the filmmaker’s misguided remake of “The Wicker Man” was not a fluke. The filmmaker’s transition from intelligent, controversial social satire to low-rent genre craftsmanship is very hard to comprehend. It’s almost as difficult to understand as Screen Gems greenlighting the overwrought, suspense-free screenplay by David Loughery and Howard Korder.
Continue reading “Home Is Where the Horror Is” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Towelhead (2008)
Dale Robinette/Warner Independent Pictures
There’s no point criticizing “Towelhead” solely for its
content – namely, the much buzzed about pedophilic subplot involving characters
played by Aaron Eckhart and Summer Bishil. As Roger Ebert so often notes, it’s
not what a movie is about
that makes it good or bad, but how it is
about it. In other words: It’s possible to make a good movie about pedophilia. See “The Woodman” and “Happiness” for proof.
Continue reading “Arab-American Beauty Trapped in Suburban Hell” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Women (2008)
Claudette Barius/Picturehouse
Some might call “The Women,” a remake of the 1939 George Cukor classic based on the Clare Booth Luce play, the ultimate “chick flick.” Let’s be clear: It might feature only women and it might be geared toward women, but both sexes will surely unite in contempt for it. The feature film directorial debut of “Murphy Brown” creator Diane English, the movie contains shrill characters, an almost total absence of a narrative and lots of boring conversing as filler.
Continue reading “Sexless in the City” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Save Me (2008)
First Run Features
Shot poorly and infused with too much melodrama, “Save Me” largely resembles one of those reductive message movies better served on Lifetime than the big screen. Badly acted, summarily unconvincing and filled with genuinely creepy characters, watching the picture often becomes an ungainly chore. Still, within the absurd milieu, director Robert Cary and the film’s three screenwriters pursue a thread of thematic honesty that keeps the picture functional, although it never avoids seeming very amateurish.
Continue reading “Straighten Up and Fly Right” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Traitor (2008)
Rafy/Overture Films
Two very different movies compete for the soul of “Traitor,”
the new film from writer-director Jeffrey Nachmanoff based on a story idea of
Steve Martin’s. The first and least
interesting of the two follows the general, turgid outline of a thriller. It comes complete with slow intercutting
between a terrorist and his pursuers, repetitious pans over the skylines of
Washington D.C. and too many international locales and “action” scenes that
largely consist of star Don Cheadle walking into and out of various buildings.
Continue reading “Terror Suspect, F.B.I. Caught Up in Infernal Affairs” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Longshots (2008)
Tony Rivetti Jr./Dimension Films
Unless something special happens, most sports movies adhere
to a depressingly standardized template. You know the drill: Against all odds, underdog character/squad achieves
success in whatever chosen competition, with an inspirational coach and a
soundtrack full of reliable pop tunes to boot. Successful entries in the genre transcend the format by finding some
sort of different, interesting angle with which to approach it, or by presenting
characters so well rounded and likable that it’s hard to root against them.
Continue reading “Sports Clichés Keep Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’” »
