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PETER KEOUGH

Latest Articles

A Girl Cut in Two

High-quality perversity
The title of Claude Chabrol’s 2007 black comic morality tale — La fille coupée en deux — serves as a playful reminder of the role women usually play on the screen.

By: PETER KEOUGH | September 04, 2008

War correspondent

Paul Auster sheds light on Man in the Dark
So here he goes again, the writer known as Paul Auster, starting yet another novel, this time with the words “I am alone in the dark.”

By: PETER KEOUGH | September 02, 2008

Stealing America

Something to infuriate everyone
Watching Stealing America , you wonder whether even the election of 2008 isn’t a foregone conclusion.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 27, 2008

Once upon a time in Hungary

Béla Tarr’s epic arrives on DVD
Since its release in 1994, Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr’s 435-minute sui generis masterpiece Sátántangó has had the top critics grasping for superlatives.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 26, 2008

The play's the thing

Steve Coogan masters tragic irony in Hamlet 2
Like Tropic Thunder , Hamlet 2 makes its satirical intent known straight away with a flurry of phony, funny commercials.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 19, 2008

Woody takes a siesta in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Many are hailing Woody Allen’s new film, claiming it to be a “return to form.” I agree: he’s returned to the earliest form of his career, the monologue.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 14, 2008

Smoke screens

Does a surge of stoner movies mean America is going to pot?
What does it say about America that marijuana movies are a hot genre right now, perhaps hotter even than in the heyday of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong’s 1978 Up in Smoke ?

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 18, 2008

TransSiberian

A sleekly crafted Hitchcockian thriller
The payoff might be superficial, but the suspense and the intrigue compel.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 13, 2008

Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder is stupid-funny
Despite a few soft spots along the way, Thunder combines the dark absurdity of Stiller’s underrated Cable Guy with the unrestrained dumbness of his Zoolander .

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 13, 2008

Cock and bull?

Interview: Not if it’s British actor Steve Coogan
Americans will finally know who Steve Coogan is.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 11, 2008

Pot luck

No guilt trips in Pineapple Express
Pineapple Express is the movie Knocked Up might have been had it not copped out.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 11, 2008

Kiss off

In search of an indie hit
It plays like a glossary of alternative stereotypes.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 05, 2008

Boy A

Culpability cop-out in child-murder story
John Crowley excels at creating a world of barriers and empty spaces, but his appeal to all points of view would do credit to any politician.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 05, 2008

Mad Detective

A mad thriller
Think The Medium starring Columbo.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 05, 2008

Ne Le Dis À Personne|Tell No One

A convoluted thriller
French actor director Guillaume Canet demonstrates in this convoluted thriller why not many filmmakers other than Chabrol can get away with imitating Hitchcock.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 30, 2008

Naissance Des Pieuvres|Water Lilies

A compassionate study
It’s the kind of scenario that Catherine Breillat would have turned into a horror story.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 30, 2008

Tricky Dick

Philip K. Dick's second Library of America volume
The Philip K. Dick phenomenon might be petering out.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 28, 2008

Flying high

Is The Dark Knight the best movie ever?
Every summer, it seems like another superhero movie has broken some box-office record or other and made movie history.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 23, 2008

Une Vieille Maîtresse|The Last Mistress

A novel adapted as softcore S&M porn
Catherine Breillat’s film is an adaptation of Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly’s 19th-century novel and perhaps her first that doesn’t transform sex and cinema into punishment.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 23, 2008

Beauty in Trouble

A complex morality tale
As the canard goes, no good deed goes unpunished, and that threat hangs over the head of Evzen, a 60ish rich Czech expatriate with a soft heart.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 16, 2008