Hell and Back Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down pays grim, gritty homage to real-life warriors
Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down, based on reporter Mark Bowden's factual account of a 1993 U.S. Army operation gone dreadfully awry in Somalia,...
More>>By Luke Y. Thompson
Published: January 17, 2002
A Real Howler Brotherhood of the Wolf tears through cinema's most boring season
Attended by a rather sexy air of intrigue, the hit French film Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pacte Des Loups) arrives upon our shores, and,...
More>>By Gregory Weinkauf
Published: January 17, 2002
Projections 2002 Cinema's magic lantern lights up another year, sort of
It's a good thing you've found your way here, because not only will you be informed of much to anticipate in the cinematic year ahead, you'll be...
More>>By Gregory Weinkauf
Published: January 10, 2002
Spy, But Why? Charlotte Gray went to war, and all she came back with was this lousy movie
Cate Blanchett can do no wrong, but even she can't save Charlotte Gray, a World War II drama that never rises above the level of a 1950s-era...
More>>By Jean Oppenheimer
Published: January 10, 2002
Retro Grading Trying to remember the best in a forgettable year of film
In time, 2001 might well be remembered as the year of the overhyped and undercooked, the year storybook wizards cast spells to eradicate critical...
More>>By Robert Wilonsky
Published: January 03, 2002
Visions of Grandeur Inside the Beautiful Mind of John Nash lies madness and magic
Appropriately, A Beautiful Mind does not offer a literal translation of the life of John Forbes Nash Jr., the mathematician whose work on game...
More>>By Robert Wilonsky
Published: December 27, 2001
Setting Son In the Bedroom, a couple's anguish turns to rage, and then to rational madness
It took Andre Dubus all of 18 pages to communicate the grief that fills every frame of Todd Field's two-hours-plus In the Bedroom, a wrenching...
More>>By Robert Wilonsky
Published: December 27, 2001
A Hard Hobbit to Break Brilliant spectacle and even better performances make The Lord of the Rings a fantastic dream
Since the horrors of dominator culture -- destruction, devastation, dumb-assness -- do not appear to be receding of their own accord, there's...
More>>By Gregory Weinkauf
Published: December 20, 2001
Royal Screw-Ups The Royal Tenenbaums is like its characters: flawed genius
Had The Royal Tenenbaums been made by a first-time filmmaker unburdened by acclaim or expectation, it could be heralded -- and then, just as...
More>>By Robert Wilonsky
Published: December 20, 2001
Eyes Half Open Cameron Crowe takes Jerry Maguire on a dizzy trip through dreamland
Beneath the hazy, mystifying layers of Vanilla Sky lies a remarkable Tom Cruise performance -- one that, to a large extent, takes place beneath a...
More>>By Robert Wilonsky
Published: December 13, 2001
American Why Not Another Teen Movie is just another teen movie, and the worst one ever
It took five men to concoct the hackneyed plot and conceive the brainless jokes that constitute Not Another Teen Movie, meaning there are five...
More>>By Robert Wilonsky
Published: December 13, 2001
Walking Away a Loser Soderbergh and Clooney knock over Vegas without much to show for it
The lights go down, and the puzzlement begins. Ensemble cast of superstars? Check. Loose remake of amusing curiosity? Check. Built-in, prefab...
More>>By Gregory Weinkauf
Published: December 06, 2001
Yearning Japanese A talking hand, a vampire hybrid and the exquisitely dark fantasy of Bloodlust
Of all the Japanese-made animated films to get a theatrical release in the United States in recent years, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust is by far...
More>>By Luke Y. Thompson
Published: December 06, 2001
Flaming Wreck Owen Wilson goes down Behind Enemy Lines but lands in familiar terrain
Though Behind Enemy Lines, set in Bosnia, was originally due for release next year, already it feels antiquated; that conflict is already a...
More>>By Robert Wilonsky
Published: November 29, 2001
New Yawn City Was life in pre-attack Manhattan really as boring as it is in Sidewalks of New York?
This is the true story of seven people (Tommy! Annie! Ashley! Maria! Griffin! Carpo! And Benjamin!) picked to live in a city and have their lives...
More>>By Luke Y. Thompson
Published: November 29, 2001
Return to Focus A little-known novel from 1945 finds surprising new relevance on the big screen
It is difficult to imagine a more timely film than Focus; certainly, its message about intolerance resonates in a post-September 11 world in ways...
More>>By Jean Oppenheimer
Published: November 22, 2001
Jerry Meander Grateful Dawg isn't quite alive enough to be Dead
David Grisman and Jerry Garcia met as young folk-roots fans-cum-musicians attending a Bill Monroe concert in 1964. Garcia, as you may have heard,...
More>>By Andy Klein
Published: November 22, 2001
Spell Binding The magic eclipses the marketing of the big-screen Harry Potter
Lovely magic, this. An enchanting family classic. If you believe in magic, you'll love Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. And if you don't,...
More>>By Gregory Weinkauf
Published: November 15, 2001
Dental Damned In Novocaine, Steve Martin sticks his fingers in all the wrong places
It takes a nimble mind to mix light and dark, to wed humor with treachery, and in Novocaine newcomer David Atkins is not always up to the task....
More>>By Bill Gallo
Published: November 15, 2001
Simulating the Senses The director of Slacker returns to put reality in suspended animation with Waking Life
If you're a college freshman, don't read this. Just grab your newfound peers and go see Richard Linklater's new movie, Waking Life, then head off...
More>>By Gregory Weinkauf
Published: November 08, 2001
Fade to Black Jack Black is all that keeps the Farrellys' Shallow Hal from wearing thin
It doesn't take much probing beneath the thin surface to see Shallow Hal as an apologia of sorts from Bobby and Peter Farrelly. The brothers are...
More>>By Luke Y. Thompson
Published: November 08, 2001
Austen City Limits Amélie takes Jane Austen's best-loved heroine to the edge
The heroine of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's bold and bracing new comedy, Amélie, is Amélie Poulain, a doe-eyed crusader with the face of a...
More>>By Bill Gallo
Published: November 08, 2001
Through a Lens Darkly The Coen Brothers use black humor to put a new twist on film noir
Joel and Ethan Coen's periodic genuflections to classic Hollywood are inevitably accompanied by a knowing wink from one brother and a wry smile...
More>>By Bill Gallo
Published: November 01, 2001
Boo Who? Monsters, Inc. opens the door to a world so good it's scary
As the year winds down, breathlessly and apprehensively, the most anxiously awaited releases left on the schedule offer nothing less than whimsy...
More>>By Robert Wilonsky
Published: November 01, 2001
Death Wish By the second reel, you'll be hoping for a swift end to Life As a House
Like the lovable baseball catcher in Bang the Drum Slowly, like John Wayne's poignant gunfighter in The Shootist, like hundreds of doomed movie...
More>>By Bill Gallo
Published: November 01, 2001