Writer and director Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, Last Days of Disco) fumbles in his renewed quest to be our WASP Woody Allen. On a generic college campus, prim coeds at a suicide-prevention center exchange snippy witticisms and contend with fraternity boors. Attitude prevails, and the almost private gags (about men, depression, …
World-champion ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine returns to the city his family was forced to leave in 1948 on a mission: to get Israeli Jewish kids and Israeli Palestinian kids to dance together. "When a human being dances with another human being, something happens," he attests at the outset. "You get …
The final installment of director Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is long and loud and chock-full of his great love for plotting and abstraction. Sometimes, it works, but often, it doesn't, and the honest interaction of characters is ground under the wheels of storytelling necessity. The film might feel like an …
Tim Burton’s tiresome tribute to the TV goth soaper, with Johnny Depp fully committed as the heavily made-up vampire Barnabas. Their devotion is real, but the film is a rummage of poor gags and plot fragments that add up to little. It has campy design touches, corny creep-outs, vivid women …
In Utah settings, Lawrence Kasdan directs other veterans — Diane Keaton, Kevin Kline, Dianne Wiest, Richard Jenkins, and Sam Shepard — plus a canine that seems their main interest, along with the problems of aging. Less an ’80s time capsule than a forgotten file, it mostly wanders around looking for …
The Dead is marketed as Africa’s first horror film. British filmmakers Howard and Jonathan Ford’s well-intentioned effort desperately wants to comment on race relations, but apart from the emotionally charged locale and The Defiant Ones casting, there’s not much social criticism (or originality) on display. At least the Fords follow …
A brother and sister (Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde) are forced to adopt a strict “shoot now, ask questions later” policy after a casino robbery they masterminded goes terribly wrong. That same day, a boxer (Charlie Hunnam) freshly sprung from the clink accidentally kills his former associate. I suppose there …
An enterprising young newspaper reporter (Steve Talley) reluctantly joins forces with his daily’s ripened, gun-toting bad egg (Eric Roberts) to crack a 19-year-old racially motivated murder in Amos, Alabama. The Alabama Tourism Department has standing to bring suit against screenwriter Mark Ethridge for his mildewed depiction of the Deep South. …
A child may be dying of cancer. We get to suffer along with his pretty French parents, the child’s agony mercifully under shown. Director Valérie Donzelli wants poignant sincerity, and her actors occasionally oblige. But her riffs through the old New Wave playbook (notably Jules et Jim) mixed with music-driven …
Another masterwork of British nostalgia, again haunted but more urgent than before, from director Terence Davies. Adapting the play by Terence Rattigan, he gives Rachel Weisz one of her finest roles as Hester. Buried in marriage to a stuffy judge (Simon Russell Beale) ruled by his prig-snob mother, she finds …
Audrey Tautou brings her curious, wide-eyed beauty to a gentle portrait of grief after loss. We’re given plenty of time to loll in the perfect bliss of her romance with a handsome hunk before he dies, the better to grasp the numb paralysis that follows. The restoration that follows that …
In a happier world, Detention would be the last meta-movie, the one that took the practice of referencing previous movies (both in general and particular) to such a ridiculous and self-defeating extreme that the exercise lost all its appeal. In the meantime, there are so many layers to the self-consciousness …
From Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, the team that brought you Jesus Camp, comes another cable-ready documentary content to skim the surface. Detroit is the fastest shrinking city in the United States; the population has reached its lowest point in 100 years. We follow several locals - a video blogger, …
The Devil Inside is a midget racer in the exorcism derby. Requisite amounts of profanity spewing hoodoos, demons dancing on the ceiling, bodies with more twists than a Bavarian pretzel factory, and a Dolby-juiced house pet leaping from out of nowhere to remind viewers that it’s a scary movie we’re …
BioDoc on the famed Harper's Bazaar fashion editor. Best line from the trailer: "She made it okay for women to be outlandish and extraordinary." Just not, you know, fat. Close runner-up: "She dared to make everything beautiful." Just not, you know, fat people. Fashion!