The Trip

directed by Michael Winterbottom

starring Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon

Life for an aging comedian can be a rough go especially if one is routinely seeking out those measures that prove youth can be sustained if only for an instant when the woman demonstrates her complete satisfaction of the… Read full post »

 

 

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

directed by Andrew Douglas

written by Steve Haisman

This movie started after a Christmas present was received of Jim White’s album “The Mysterious Tale of how I Shouted Wrong-Eyed Jesus!”  The Wrong-Eyed Jesus is an awfu… Read full post »

 

 

Neco z Alenky

written and directed by Jan Svankmajer

based on the novel by Lewis Carroll

starring Kristýna Kohoutová

In this surrealistic, exquisitely crafted interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” Alice (Kris… Read full post »

 

 

Das weisse Band - Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (The White Ribbon)

written and directed by Michael Haneke

starring Christian Friedel, Leonie Benesch, Ulrich Tukur, Ursina Lardi, Fion Mutert, Michael Kranz, Burghart Klaußner, Steffi Kühnert, Maria-Victoria Dragus, Leo… Read full post »

 

 

Antichrist

written and directed by Lars von Trier

starring Willem Defoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg

Cinema has the potential to shock, annoy, retard, unnerve, and occasionally remove the veil that separates life as it is lived from whatever gesticulations  are taking place on th… Read full post »

 

 

Kaboom

written and directed by Gregg Araki

starring Thomas Dekker, Haley Bennett, James Duval, Juno Temple, Andy Fischer-Price, Nicole LaLiberte, Brennan Mejia, Roxane Mesquida, Chris Zylka

Gregg Araki knows how to pull deep emotional connections out of his aesthetic chaos. &n… Read full post »

 

 

Hangover Square

directed by John Brahm

written by Barré Lyndon, Patrick Hamilton

starring Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, George Sanders, Glen Langan, Faye Marlowe, Alan Napier

A fine claustrophobic mood is combined with an exquisite Bernard Hermann score to create a lastin… Read full post »

 

 

Blue Valentine

written and directed by  Derek Cianfrance

starring Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka, John Doman, Mike Vogel, Carey Westbrook, Ben Shenkman, Eileen Rosen

What is it that brings two people together causing them to forgo sanity and embark on a gna… Read full post »

 

 

Angela

written and directed by Rebecca Miller

starring Miranda Rhyne, Charlotte Eve Blythe, Anna Levine, John Ventimiglia, Ruth Maleczech, Vincent Gallo

Once in a while a performance by a child actor chills the bones upon impact, haunting the viewer throughout and terrifying us… Read full post »

 

 

A Slipping-Down Life

directed by Toni Kalem

written by Michael Charles Hill, Toni Kalem

based on the novel by Anne Tyler

starring Guy Pearce, Lily Taylor, John Hawkes, Irma P. Hall, Shawnee Smith, Veronica Cartwright, Marshall Bell

There aren’t too many chances for a smal… Read full post »

 

 

Rabbit Hole

directed by John Cameron Mitchell

written by David Lindsay-Abaire

based on the play by David Lindsay-Abaire

starring Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest, Miles Teller, Tammy Blanchard, Sandra Oh, Giancarlo Esposito, Jon Tenney

 There is nothing more deva… Read full post »

 

 

Birdemic: Shock and Terror

written and directed by James Nguyen

starring Alan Bagh, Whitney Moore, Rick Camp, Patsy van Ettinger, Colton Osborne, Jamez Z. Feng, Steven Gustavson, Milan Lee

It is difficult to critique Birdemic as one would nearly every other film.  There a… Read full post »

 

 

Even Dwarfs Started Small

written and directed by Werner Herzog

starring Helmut Döring, Paul Glauer, Gisela Hertwig, Hertel Minkner, Gertrud Piccini, Marianne Saar, Brigitte Saar, Gerd Gickel, Erna Gschwendtner,   Gerhard Maerz, Alfredo Piccini

It is always a pleasure… Read full post »

 

 

Hobo With A Shotgun

directed by Jason Eisener

written by John Davies, Jason Eisener, Rob Cotterill

starring Rutger Hauer, Brian Downey, Gregory Smith, Nick Bateman, Molly Dunsworth, Jeremy Ackerman, Pasha Ebrahimi, Robb Wells

Once in a great while a film creates a landscape so… Read full post »

The Hangover II

directed by Todd Phillips

written by Craig Mazin, Scot Armstrong, Todd Phillips

starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, Paul Giamatti, Mike Tyson, Jeffrey Tambor, Mason Lee, Jamie Chung, 

Hangover redux can pretty much be summed up by a ca… Read full post »

 

Howl

written and directed by Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman

starring James Franco, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, David Strathairn, Jon Hamm, Todd Rotondi, Jon Prescott, Aaron Tveit, Andrew Rogers, Bob Balaban, Treat Williams

Documenting one of the most famous and significant trials… Read full post »

 

 

Night of the Hunter

directed by Charles Laughton 

written by James Agee

based on the novel by Davis Grubb

starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish, James Gleason, Evelyn Varden, Peter Graves, Don Beddoe, Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce

Oh how the vulnerable, d… Read full post »

 

 

Hanna

directed by Joe Wright

written by Seth Lochhead, David Farr

starring Saoirse Rowan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng, Vicky Krieps, John MacMillan

Rarely in cinema does a camera offer itself as a conveyer of visual poetry that sing… Read full post »

 

 

The Great Dictator

written and directed by Charles Chaplin

starring Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard, Maurice Moscovitch, Jack Oakie, Reginald Gardiner, Henry Daniell, Billy Gilbert, Grace Hayle, Carter DeHaven, 

If history has taught us anything it is that the daily work… Read full post »

 

 

Your Highness

directed by David Gordon Green

written by Danny McBride, Ben Best

starring Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Rasmus Hardiker, Toby Jones, Justin Theroux, Zooey Deschanel, Charles Dance, Damian Lewis

How many penis jokes can you cram down the throat of… Read full post »

 

 

Marwencol

directed by Jeff Malmberg

starring Mark Hogankamp

 What precisely is  identity, exactly?  Philosophy defines it as a continuity over different moments in time meaning a person is identical with themselves over the course of time.  In this film we m… Read full post »

… Read full post »

 

 

Cedar Rapids

directed by Miguel Arteta

written by Phil Johnston

starring Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Sigourney Weaver, Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Stephen Root, Kurtwood Smith, Rob Corddrry, Mike O’Malley

Very recently it appears that certain films have deliriously sto… Read full post »

 

 

The Doom Generation

written and directed by Gregg Araki

starring James Duval, Rose McGowan, Jonathon Schaech, Dustin Nguyen, Margaret Cho, Lauren Tewes, Christopher Knight, Nicky Katt, Johanna Went, Perry Farrell, Amanda Bearse, Parker Posey, 

Existence is Hell and the bla… Read full post »

 

Nowhere

written and directed by Gregg Araki

starring James Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton, Kathleen Robertson, Jordan Ladd, Christina Applegate, Sarah Lassez, Guillermo Diaz, Jeremy Jordan, John Ritter, Alan Boyce, Ryan Phillipe, Mena Suvari, Beverly D’Angelo, Charlotte Rae,… Read full post »