reviews

Are you a man, a monkey, or a mouse? Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, the brilliant lunatic who conceived Being John Malkovich, now gives us an equally bizarre, startling, and hilarious exploration of what it means to be human. At the one extreme of the human experience is anally mannered researcher Nathan Bronfman (Tim Robbins: Antitrust); at … more…

Golden Age movie mogul Thomas Ince, 42, died in his home on November 19, 1924, from heart failure. Or was he shot to death during a weekend yachting party hosted by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst? This snippet of Roaring 20s snarkiness favors the latter explanation for one of early Hollywood’s great mysteries, and speculates … more…

It’s a rare thing that I’m not cynical enough. While my shriveled optimism lobe was thinking its optimistic little thoughts, the rest of my head was telling me that ‘without the sugar’ would translate into ‘mean-spirited.’ And still I was completely unprepared for the level of degradation I would be exposed to. Sewer rats could watch this movie and be so skeeved out that they’d need a shower.

Love Tim Allen, much to my own chagrin. Love Janeane Garofalo. Love Jason Lee. Love Rene Russo. Adore Patrick Warburton. Afraid of Tom Sizemore. Love Barry Sonnenfeld, when he’s on. (When he’s off, it’s Wild Wild West time, which is too horrifying to contemplate.) So this slight tale loosely spun out of barely interconnected character … more…

DIRECTOR CARL FRANKLIN: I really liked Traffic. I wish the whole movie could look like this, all gritty and hard and real. But Ashley’s stylist put the kibosh on that right away, you better believe.

Ever been awakened on a Sunday morning by the doorbell, and you stumble to answer it and you’re hung over and exhausted and you look like hell, and it’s bright shiny Mormons, and you just wanna smack ’em? Now imagine if they moved into your house and wouldn’t leave you alone, ever. That’s what The Other Side of Heaven is about, only it’s from the Mormons’ point of view, and they think you’re perfectly happy to listen to them prattle on.

This one is going to drive the sick fetishists online crazy. When they type ‘crush movie’ into Google, they’re gonna come up with this Andie MacDowell romantic dramedy, which isn’t so much about the crush she has on a cute young stud but the way her best ‘friends’ try to crush their relationship.

Is Rachel Griffiths a plain woman whose talent fools us into thinking she’s beautiful, or a beautiful woman so talented she’s not afraid of looking plain? Either way, Griffiths (The Rookie) secures her place as a goddess with this slice of bittersweet British tweeness from filmmaker Sara Sugarman. Annie Mary Pugh is the diametric opposite … more…