Gracie (review)
There’s not a lot wrong with this feel-good sports drama except that it’s much like the 873 other feel-good sport dramas we’ve seen this year. I like it anyway, for its go-girl spunk and tenderly solemn spirit.
2007 theatrical releases
Private Fears in Public Places (review)
Oh, I know I’m supposed to be ecstatic because it’s from French New Wave director Alain Resnais, but all I can think is that it should be called *Six Characters in Search of a Reason Why I Should Care.*
Bug (review)
*Bug* isn’t entirely as ooky-spooky as it thinks it is — the more it embraces its ethos of nervous paranoia and conspiracy-spiked secrecy, the less satisfying it becomes, as if putting a concrete name to the madness somehow makes it less mad.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (review)
Oh, thank the gods. Thank crazy Walt Disney’s head in a cryogenic freezer. Thank the army of producers and FX geeks and writers and cast and studio execs and focus-group gurus and everyone else who made this prepackaged, ready-for-synergy-marketing, lowest-common-denominator junk cinema the most cheesalicious, escape-a-riffic it could be.
Waitress (review)
It’s funny how we can go from a comedy about molestation — Garry Marshall’s repulsive *Georgia Rule* — that’s not just desperately unfunny but actively disgusting to a comedy about professionally unethical behavior, spousal abuse, adultery, and stalking that is warmly bittersweet, genuinely funny, and sincerely heartfelt. But there we are.
Shrek the Third (review)
It’s not even summer yet, but already it’s the summer of the three-quel, and already we’re oh-no for two. I’m tellin’ ya, if *Pirates the Third* is this ho-hum, I’m gonna curl up in bed and hibernate till September.
Provoked: A True Story (review)
It’s an all-too-familiar story, unfortunately: A woman strikes back at her husband after years of abuse, then has to fight the criminal justice system to be recognized as a traumatized victim, not a dangerous offender herself. The instance of social injustice detailed here is a true one, based on real events in England in the … more…
28 Weeks Later (review)
Scenes from the Global War on Whatever And so as the world seemingly renews its dedication to taking itself straight to hell, even our horror movies suddenly seem less like mere entertainments and more like real-life fever dreams, reflecting back to us our own ugliness, our own shock at how everything has reeled out of … more…
Georgia Rule (review)
Cruel Rules Well, I thought director Garry Marshall, Enemy of Women, couldn’t sink any lower, but here we are. From the man who brought us the beloved fairy tale about the world’s most spritely hooker (Pretty Woman), the beloved fairy tale about an adorable overgrown lass who treats men like disposable Kleenex (Runaway Bride), and … more…
Spider-Man 3 (review)
‘Spider-Man 2’ was *alive* with humor and humanity and spirit and soul. All of that is missing here.
