Michael says: “After her triumphant first feature, RED ROAD, which won lead actress Kate Dickie a Chlotrudis Best Actress Award, writer/director Andrea Arnold returns with another powerful drama about a young woman’s desire this time in blue-collar Britain. Mia doesn’t
Jason says: “TAMARA DREWE is an odd film, able to defy expectations even if all the audience knows going into it is its name. After all, one would expect this movie to be a showcase for Gemma Arterton as the
Jeff says: “If you’re going to make a terrific cinematic work of cultural anthropology, you have to slow it way, way down, give the viewer lots of long, long, often static shots that convey the feel and the rhythms of
Thom says: “Another lackluster Canadian entry this one about a touring rock ‘n roll band will do anything to get ahead, yes, even become vampires. You can tell a film like this is crappy when a quality talent (McDowell) walks
Jason says: “The thing to realize about STUCK! is that, despite the exclamation point in the title and the meticulous recreation of a genre and style that has fallen out of favor, it is not a parody. Or at least,
Chris says: “An adequate documentary about an extraordinary subject, this decade-in-the-making labor of love profiles Stephin Merritt, cult musician and head of The Magnetic Fields (and many other side projects). As a songwriter, Merritt seems out-of-time, his lyrics and melodies
Jason says: “My monthly pull at the comic shop is pretty international: North American, British, French, Korean, Japanese. No Chinese, though; not much of that has made it to America in translation. Which means I can’t say for sure whether
Bruce says: “This documentary examines the aftermath of the infamous riots which occurred on June 28, 1969 when police raided the Stonewall Tavern on Christopher Street, near Sheridan Square in New York’s Greenwich Village. The film uses a quote from
Bruce says: “In 1922, rebuffed and ridiculed by art critics – the Philadelphia Inquirer in particular – and many of the wealthy Philadelphians who supported the arts, Dr. Albert Barnes hired John G. Johnson, one of the best lawyers and
Jason says: “SPLICE is an independent film that has been cleverly disguised as a big-studio summer movie, so a fair portion of the audience may feel uneasy as they watch it. More uneasy, that is; writer-director Vincenzo Natali isn’t just
Thom says: “I was all set to watch this out of obligation. Not that I haven’t been a strong advocate my entire life of universal acceptance and love but this was a story I’m intimately familiar with because of demonstrating
Bruce says: “Fatih Akin’s first international hit HEAD-ON was an augury of great things to come. Certainly the Chlotrudis Best Picture, THE EDGE OF HEAVEN, bore out any such theories of predication regarding his work. Along comes SOUL KITCHEN which,
Thom says: “Hmmm… Admittedly, I have no respect at all for fake macho director Ritchie, and while this film is fitfully entertaining, finally let’s attack it for esthetic reasons. This was adapted from a comic book of all mediums but
Bruce says: “Director Mat Whitecross figures that a straightforward biopic could not possibly do Ian Dury justice. His artistic decisions pay off. SEX & DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL is a nontraditional take on a very nontraditional subject. In addition
Toni says: “Tomm Moore and his co-production team in Ireland, France, and Belgium, have created a beautiful and haunting masterpiece based of the famous Irish Book of Kells. It is sort of a mix of darker Miyazaki crossed with a touch
Jason says: “This one had a short run on the plex’s smallest screen, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a pretty decent movie, with a good cast, but it’s also a weird one, with gambling addict John encountering
TC says: “If you were around in the late 70s, you know the kind of sexist conditions that girls who wanted to rock out ran into. That’s the ultimate story behind THE RUNAWAYS, the story of the groundbreaking all-girl punk
Jason says: “There are many varieties of ‘edgy,’ but most can fit within two broad categories: Those that make a mainstream viewer say ‘ewwwww!’ and those that make that same mainstream viewer say ‘what the hell?’ There is, as one
Jason says: “THE REVENANT is nearly two hours, long for a splatter-comedy, and if I could come up with a good suggestion for trimming it, I would probably offer it. The trouble is, the scenes which could probably survive a
Chris says: “I’ve always struggled with war films (both fictional and docs)—it’s possibly my least favorite genre. But I loved THE HURT LOCKER and if this isn’t exactly its real-life equivalent, that’s fine because it aims for something else. Not
