reviews

A Finnish sniper branded a coward and abandoned by his fellow soldiers. A Russian captain, the only survivor of a road accident en route to his own court-martial. A Lapp war widow trying to keep her farm afloat. In 1944, in rural Lapland, these three, political enemies and cultural strangers, come together just as World … more…

Even those with no background in appreciating the sensuous, inky brushstrokes of Asian painting will be enthralled by this majestic and reflective biography of Jang Seung-up, considered Korea’s greatest artist. Some aspects will be familiar to fans of the artist-exposed biopic — the drinking, the philandering, the general debauchery — but director Im Kwon-Taek and … more…

In her compelling debut feature, Delphine Gleize achieves a mastery of the visual, the metaphoric, and the dramatic that few other veteran filmmakers could pull off. This is an expansive story about the whole shebang: life and death and sex and babies and food and dogs, all the really important things. A toreador is wounded … more…

Mind-bending director Spike Jonze — of Being John Malkovich and Adaptation fame — returns to his skate roots with this feature-length montage of exciting street skateboarding, shot in music video-size chunks with codirectors Cory Weincheque and Ty Evans. None but the most devoted fans of the sport will be able to sit through the entire … more…

When David Powlett-Jones returned from the Great War, a teaching position at posh Bamfylde, a boys’ boarding school, seemed an unlikely choice for a shell-shocked veteran. But as fans of this adored miniseries know, he couldn’t have made a better choice. Finally on DVD and video for the first time since its original airing on … more…

Nearly half a century on, Richard Quine’s satirical romantic comedy still has all the bite it must have had in 1956, when it was adapted from the Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Howard Teichman. Judy Holliday, in what was her standard not-so-ditzy, not-so-dumb blonde role, crashes the annual stockholders’ meeting of International Project, … more…

You’ll never see an all-star cast like the one assembled here again, the primary reason being that they’re here to complain — justifiable so — about the lack of roles available to them, among other things. Actress Rosanna Arquette, inspired by Debra Winger’s very early retirement from show biz, set out to interview as many … more…

This tired and rather pointless flick can be called “inspired” only in that it is “inspired by a true story.” Lenny (Jon Abrahams), a young auto mechanic who picks up some extra dough as a mob driver, finds himself in the middle of the kidnapping of a Los Angeles crime lord. We’re meant to fear … more…

We knew Saturday Night Live had been long in decline, and now the evidence has been neatly packaged for us as compilations of clips highlighting the individual work of some of the current, excruciatingly unfunny cast. They’re like catalogs of shame, and here it’s Molly Shannon with egg on her face. We start out with … more…