reviews

Don’t let the limited release and the Oscar cachet of its star fool you. The Affair of the Necklace has costume-drama snob appeal in spades, ’tis true, but this is pure bodice-ripper romance, done up right. If it were a book — and it was, actually: the film is based on the memoirs of its real-life heroine — it would surely sport a hilariously salacious cover, one you’d try to hide if you were reading it on the subway. But it’d be an un-put-downable book. A guilty pleasure? Oh, yeah. But all the more pleasurable for it.

“ABCD” stands for “American-Born Confused Desi.” “Desi” is an Asian Indian word for Indian, and this surprisingly downbeat family drama — from director Krutin Patel (he cowrote the screenplay with James McManus) — follows the travails of Nina (Sheetal Sheth) and Raj (Faran Tahir), who immigrated to the U.S. as children and now, as adults, … more…

Directed by actor Todd Field, in a remarkably assured feature film debut, In the Bedroom starts out a finely drawn family drama and builds with a menace so subtle that you almost don’t notice it until violence strikes as it does in real life: suddenly, shockingly, and completely unexpectedly, even though, in retrospect, the signs that it was imminent are all there.

Ed Burns takes us back to the angst-ridden New York dating scene once more in his most engaging and most accomplished film yet. Shot partly documentary style, it follows a game of romantic musical chairs amongst Manhattanites who, notably, represent not only well-off professionals but the ex-bridge-and-tunnel working class, too: TV producers mix with schoolteachers, … more…

Whether you support or oppose the current U.S. military actions in Afghanistan, you’re unlikely to be unmoved by this disturbing documentary about a people forced back into the Middle Ages by their unwanted rulers, who have taken religious fanaticism to its disgusting extreme. As a group of Italian aid workers struggles to set up a … more…

Hong Kong action meets MTV in this feature debut from Thai writer/directors Danny and Oxide Pang, yet another brotherly team of hotshot young filmmakers. A love of Quentin Tarantino and martial arts flicks exudes from their tale of living and dying by the sword, or the gun, as it were. Hitmen Kong (Pawalit Mongkolpisit) and … more…

Spy Game is a Tony Scott film, so you know there’ll be lots of cell phones whipped out and hot faxing action, glowing green blips on a CRT and false-color satellite photos, guys in dark suits sitting around conference tables and insidious government conspiracies afoot.

Take two of the most vapid, most unbearably unwatchable young actors working today — Matthew Lillard (Wing Commander) and Shannon Elizabeth (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) — and lock them in haunted glass house. Add heavy-metal-album-cover imagery: a ghost with spikes through his undead head, the specter of large-breasted chick slashed all over her … more…

The simian line is a crease in the hand of rare individuals that palm readers interpret to mean the bearer too easily confuses the needs of the heart and the demands of the head. Katherine (Lynn Redgrave: All I Wanna Do), a middle-aged New Jersey real-estate broker, bears this line… or so fortune teller Arnita … more…

Novocaine is nothing if not an object lesson for men on keeping it in their pants. Frank Sangster, DDS (Steve Martin: Bowfinger), seemingly has it all: successful dental practice, the love of a beautiful woman — his hygienist, Jean (Laura Dern: Jurassic Park III). But a late-night appointment with a gal with Trouble written all … more…