My Sister Maria (review)

Legendary screen goddess Maria Schell died in 2005, but not before her brother, actor and Academy Award-nominated documentarian Maximilian Schell, created this loving, lovely tribute to her life and her work. But this is no effort of mere journalism: this is a demanding, ultimately triumphant film, one that embraces all its subject’s difficulties as well … more…

Samoan Wedding (review)

It was a huge hit in New Zealand, which only goes to show: people the world over like the same old junk. And it turns out that the immigrant Samoan culture Down Under looks remarkably like immigrant cultures all over the Western world: Irish, African, or even big fat Greek, you’ve seen this all before. … more…

Stan Lee’s Lightspeed (review)

“It’s a comic book world, sir.” A spear-carrier offers this by way of explanation — to his boss, no less, a secret government agent played by, no kidding, former Six Million Dollar Man Lee Majors — for the fact that the local newspaper is full of news of a superfast crimefighter. It’s the “sir” that … more…

A Soap (review)

It’s all really rather shockingly unshocking, for so seemingly provocative a setup. Charlotte (Trine Dyrholm) leaves her indifferent boyfriend, moves into her own apartment, and strikes up an unusual friendship with her new neighbor, Veronica, a pre-op transsexual (David Dencik). Both are depressed, confused people, and hardly pleasant to be around, and their tentative relationship, … more…

Best Student Council: 1: A New Home (review)

The best evidence for the proposition that the Japanese are the most alien humans on the planet is, I suspect, anime. Or am I the only Westerner who just doesn’t get it? Here we have what is ostensibly a comedy about a private girls’ school and its “best student council” that wants to evoke, I … more…

The Festival (review)

The targets are obvious and easy — neurotic filmmakers, trust-fund kids, self-involved actors — but the touch is light enough to keep this made-for-cable mockumentary series from devolving into its own kind of self-parody. Indie director Rufus Marquez (Nicholas Wright) brings his film, The Unreasonable Truth of Butterflies, to the 13th annual Mountain United Film … more…

My Hero: Season One (review)

I guess it was inevitable: just as superhero stuff starts to be taken seriously (Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, Bryan Singer’s X-Men), something was bound to come along to dumb it all down. And so we have this witless, desperate attempt at superhero humor from the BBC in the form of a sitcom about a crime-fighter in … more…

Factory Girl (review)

If you’re like most people, you’ve been asking yourself for several years now, ‘Just who the hell is Sienna Miller, why is she famous, and why must I endure the latest gossip about her?’

Bridge to Terabithia (review)

Oh, devastating, *devastating* and lovely and bittersweet and entirely wonderful, this enchantingly old-fashioned movie about the power of friendship and imagination and art and learning and expanding one’s horizons.

Breach (review)

This is one smart thriller: it lets you draw your own conclusions, assumes you’re connected enough to current events to understand the context in which it occurs — no, actually, it *requires* that you’re connected in order to get the full brunt of the anxiety and dread bubbling under its surface.