Film Reviews
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist: What five years of “development” can do to an artist
By Hiram Lee, November 19, 2008
Director Peter Sollett follows up his debut film Raising Victor Vargas with a more conventional work about youth and relationships.
Changeling: more cult of the individual
By Joanne Laurier, November 14, 2008
Clint Eastwood’s Changeling is based on a true story about a Los Angeles mother who is given a runaway boy in place of her kidnapped son.
Feeling around in the dark: Blindness and Quarantine
By Hiram Lee, November 13, 2008
Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles returns with Blindness, a dystopian work with a bleak view of human nature. Quarantine tells the story of a journalist and a team of first responders who are held...
Passchendaele: Politics by other means
By Lee Parsons, November 5, 2008
Paul Gross’s Passchendaele, distilled to its essence, is a glorification of military slaughter in the guise of honoring the fallen soldiers of the Canadian Corps in World War I.
Body of Lies and Flash of Genius: One closer to the truth than the other
By Joanne Laurier, November 3, 2008
Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies gives advice on how better to prosecute the so-called “war on terror,” while Flash of Genius provides a moving account of a real-life battle against corporate crimina...
The Baader Meinhof Complex
A superficial treatment of the history of the Red Army Faction
By Peter Schwarz, October 30, 2008
This new German film—directed by Uli Edel and based on the book by Stefan Aust—deals with the Red Army Faction.
Living on thin ice: Frozen River
By Hiram Lee, October 28, 2008
Frozen River, set on the US-Canadian border in northern New York state, is a sincere effort and a compassionate portrayal of a working class family’s struggle to stay afloat.
W: A crude approach is not good for grasping much of anything
By David Walsh, October 22, 2008
Directed by Oliver Stone, screenplay by Stanley Weiser W. is veteran American director Oliver Stone's film about the life and career of President George W. Bush. It was shot and edited rapidly for rel...
Sex, consolation for misery: Chuck Palahniuk’s Choke comes to the big screen
By Hiram Lee, October 21, 2008
Directed by Clark Gregg, Choke is about a man who has “constant meaningless sex with strangers all the time.” For all the self-conscious attempts at being subversive or controversial, Choke is, at...
Burn After Reading: Another “league of morons” from the Coen brothers
By Hiram Lee, October 15, 2008
The popular filmmaking duo of Joel and Ethan Coen have followed up their bleak, Academy-award-winning No Country for Old Men with a return to comedy, the genre for which they are best known.
Vancouver International Film Festival 2008—Part 1
Life in its incontrovertible reality
By David Walsh, October 13, 2008
This is the first in a series of articles on the recent Vancouver International Film Festival (September 25-October 10).
Toronto International Film Festival 2008—Part 2
Social drama
By Joanne Laurier, September 20, 2008
This is the second of a series of articles devoted to the recent Toronto film festival (September 4-13). Part 1 was published September 18. A deeply felt humanism characterized many of the films see...
