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Review: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

A pleasant diversion
Filled with Indian (and British) clichés, it is nonetheless a pleasant diversion that doesn't involve special effects or 3D glasses.

By: BRETT MICHEL | May 03, 2012

Review: Chimpanzee

Disney-distributed documentary
Following in the footsteps of African Cats , this Disney-distributed documentary combines breathtaking wildlife footage with silly, self-conscious voiceover narration aimed at preschoolers.

By: MILES HOWARD | April 24, 2012

Review: Turn Me On, Dammit

High school alienation
In the nowhere Norwegian mountain town of Skoddeheimen, Alma, 15, is bored with her surroundings, alienated from her mom, and so horny that she pays for a telephone sex service.

By: GERALD PEARY | April 24, 2012

Review: The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Dry romp on the high seas
Peter Lord, animator behind claymation staples Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run , directs this very British, very dry romp on the high seas during the time when Britannia did indeed rule the waves.

By: TOM MEEK | April 24, 2012

Review: The Raven

John Cusack as Poe
If only Poe could find the solution to the mystery in his own texts! Or if the filmmakers made any use of them.

By: PETER KEOUGH | April 26, 2012

Review: A Simple Life

Ann Hui's aptly titled film
The most sensitive and heartbreaking depiction of old age since Korean director Lee Chang-dong's Poetry, Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui's aptly titled account of the slow decline of a beloved housekeeper doesn't involve violent crime like Lee's film, but does recreate the evanescence of everyday life with equal evocativeness.

By: PETER KEOUGH | April 18, 2012

Review: Marley

Bob Marley remains elusive
After two-and-half hours of hagiography, talking heads, archival footage, still photos, and snatches of his songs, Bob Marley remains elusive in Kevin Macdonald's documentary.

By: PETER KEOUGH | April 18, 2012

Review: To the Arctic

The Arctic is still melting, people
Heart-wrenching footage of polar cubs wrestling and caribou mothers pushing their young to higher ground isn't necessary to educate the viewer on the thoroughly depressing domino effect of melting sea ice. But hot damn, does it help.

By: CASSANDRA LANDRY | April 18, 2012

Review: OK, Good

Ridiculous commercial auditions
Daniel Martinico's minimal, elliptical style and his use of repetitions and variations almost overcome the predictability of this case study in repression and alienation.

By: PETER KEOUGH | April 18, 2012

Review: God Bless America

Bobcat Goldthwait's best work yet
The latest dark comedy from Bobcat Goldthwait tackles both vapid celebrity culture (i.e., Paris Hilton, the Kardashians and American Idol) and the indignity of being an office drone.

By: TOM MEEK | April 18, 2012

Review: Sleepwalk With Me

Comedy and sleep disorders
What compels people to perform comedy?

By: PETER KEOUGH | April 18, 2012

Review: Kid-Thing

Absurd and gut-wrenching
If Spirit of the Beehive took place in Napoleon Dynamite country, it might turn out like David Zellner's absurd and wrenching coming-of-age tale.

By: PETER KEOUGH | April 18, 2012

Review: Wuthering Heights

Back to the moors
Unlike in her harsh romances set in Britain's urban wastelands, it's nature that rules in British director Andrea Arnold's audacious adaptation of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights .

By: PETER KEOUGH | April 19, 2012

Review: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

China's most famous artist
Chinese activist Ai Weiwei combines the chutzpah of Michael Moore, the antic iconoclasm of Duchamp, and the humility of Gandhi, and it's not enough.

By: PETER KEOUGH | April 18, 2012

Review: The Fairy

Surreal urban fantasy
Belgian filmmaking trio Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, and Bruno Romy (L'Iceberg) have crafted a bittersweet, surreal urban fantasy set in the dreary seaside town of Le Havre.

By: PEG ALOI | April 18, 2012

Review: Monsieur Lazhar

Subtle, wise, and beautifully rendered
A Montreal elementary school is traumatized by a suicide in the classroom of a popular instructor.

By: GERALD PEARY | April 18, 2012

Review: Anita

The aftermath of a 1994 anti-Semitic terrorist bombing in Buenos Aires
The young protagonist of Anita may grapple with Down syndrome, but Argentine director Marcos Carnevale wisely avoids advocacy melodrama territory.

By: MILES HOWARD | April 20, 2012

Review: Damsels in Distress

Whit Stillman's first film in 13 years
Damsels in Distress , writer-director Whit Stillman's first film in 13 years, is a comedic fable set at a fictional college in the East at some indeterminate time that seems like the present but might as well not be.

By: EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | April 20, 2012