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Review: One Day

A love that spans 20 years
Following her stunning coming-of-age tale, An Education, Danish director Lone Scherfig returns to London for this adaptation of the bestselling novel about a love that spans 20 years.

By: PEG ALOI | August 16, 2011

Review: 30 Minutes or Less

Offensive but unfunny comedy
Nick ( Jesse Eisenberg), a pizza delivery guy, rips off some adolescents — boys from the same demographic the movie is pitched to — promising them something fun and illicit and then just taking their money. You kids about to pay 10 bucks to see this, take that as a warning.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 10, 2011

Review: Atrocious

A dizzying, bumpy ride
When a central character spends enough time looking through the distorting lens of a camera, eventually something very nasty is going to show up.

By: ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | August 09, 2011

Review: Point Blank

Diminishing returns
Samuel (Gilles Lellouche), a student nurse, gets sucked into a quagmire of murder and corruption when a thug kidnaps his pregnant wife, Nadia (Elena Anaya), to blackmail him into springing Hugo (Roschdy Zem), a wounded prisoner held by the police at the hospital where he works.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 09, 2011

Review: The Help

Steel Magnolias version of the civil rights movement
As it turns out, according to Tate Taylor's adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's bestseller, the Jim Crow era was not due to centuries of institutionalized racism, but to Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her hang-up about "colored" servants going to the bathroom.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 09, 2011

Review: The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)

Nicolas Roeg's enigmatic sci-fi film
Star Wars came out the year after Nicolas Roeg's enigmatic sci-fi film (re-released now in an uncut version), and after that no studio was likely to make anything similar again, nor would many audiences have the patience to watch it.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 10, 2011

Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Better before the CGI took over
As I watched Caesar (Andy Serkis), the übermonkey, and his primate minions break free of their human chains en route to conquering the world, I thought: 1) there are a lot of apes in San Francisco, 2) there aren't a lot of cops, and 3) this movie was better before the CGI took over.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 04, 2011

Review: Cowboys & Aliens

Favreau's pastiche of Western and sci-fi movies
As Dolarhyde, the cattle baron lording over the frontier town in Jon Favreau's pastiche of Western and sci-fi movies, Harrison Ford has the best lines. Like: "That's ridiculous!" — said when someone explains why Independence Day -like aliens are blasting the neighborhood.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 03, 2011

Review: Life, Above All

A quietly moving coming-of-age tale
A grave, quietly moving coming-of-age tale of a young girl raised in a village where many (her infant sister, in this case) are robbed of the opportunity to come of age at all, Oliver Schmitz's film is told effectively through the sad, wise eyes of the 12-year-old protagonist, Chanda (Khomotso Manyaka).

By: ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | August 02, 2011

Review: Life in a day

Amateur filmmakers submit snippets of their lives
Sometimes it seems like universal access to video and the Internet has resulted in just a lot of amateur porn and wearying narcissism.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 02, 2011

Review: The Change Up

The old body-switch premise
You know the summer movies are bottoming out when they resort to the old body-switch premise.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 02, 2011

Review: The Devil's Double

Like Scarface , but with a difference
Watching this litany of murder and debauchery in the gilded splendor of Saddam's Baghdad, in which Dominic Cooper plays both Saddam's psycho son Uday and the Iraqi good guy Latif, who was forced to serve as his double, I thought: this is like Scarface, but with a difference.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 02, 2011

Review: The Guard

John Michael McDonagh's cop story
With equal parts In the Heat of the Night , Coup de Torchon , and good old Irish blarney, John Michael McDonagh's Connacht-set cop story would be too clever by half if not for Brendan Gleeson's canny performance.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 02, 2011

Review: Sarah's Key

A compelling interplay of tensions
Sarah's Key is a superior "woman in the present becomes obsessed with woman in the past" narrative.

By: BETSY SHERMAN | August 02, 2011

Review: The Future

Miranda July's shaggy kitten story
First of all let me confess that I'm a sucker for a cute, sad little kitten, especially one with a bum leg; like little Paw Paw, a miserable shelter stray with renal problems and a tiny cast, whom I found the most appealing character for much of Miranda July's odd, affecting movie.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 04, 2011

Review: Another Earth

Twisted psychology
Apparently it's getting harder to meet compatible partners these days in independent movies.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 26, 2011

Review: If a Tree Falls

A ggressive hippies
Director Marshall Curry's If a Tree Falls tells the full tale of the ELF's genesis in Oregon, and of the group's badass campaign of "economic sabotage" that left more than 1200 symbols of bourgeois excess (a Vail ski resort, an SUV dealership) burned to the ground.

By: CHRIS FARAONE | July 26, 2011

Review: Love, etc.

Jill Andresevic documents a collection of real relationships
Jill Andresevic's simply photographed documentary springs from an equally simple premise: shoot a varied bunch of New Yorkers, young to aging, who are thinking hard about love or are involved in relationships, and see what happens to them over a few months.

By: GERALD PEARY | July 26, 2011

the first avenger, short take captain america

Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

Rueful innocence and sneaky humor
Joe Johnston's adaptation of the Marvel comic book exalts the virtues of optimism, decency, and perseverance in a rousing adventure of old-fashioned adolescent exuberance.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 26, 2011

Review: Crazy, Stupid Love

Rehashing the same smarmy stereotypes
Despite a few hopeful moments, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's glib romantic comedy settles into the same smarmy stereotypes: women are mothers or whores, or some variation thereof, and that's all men are interested in.

By: PETER KEOUGH | August 04, 2011

Review: A Little Help

Jenna Fischer plays a long-suffering mom
Playing one of the few "normal" people on The Office , Jenna Fischer evinces a quiet sweetness with a tart edge that sustains her amongst the misfits; she's long-suffering, but her rueful irony spares her from victimization.

By: PETER KEOUGH | July 26, 2011

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