Appaloosa
A decent enough western in the old-school tradition, Appaloosa reunites Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen for the first time since David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence. This time, Harris and Mortensen play hired Wild West lawmen instead of mobster adversaries. Their relaxed, easygoing camaraderie is the best thing in Appaloosa, giving it the timeless quality…
Blindness
Portuguese author José Saramago was reluctant to grant film rights to his 1995 novel about an epidemic of “white blindness” that strikes citizens of an unnamed country. Saramago worried about how the novel’s violence, rape and degradation would be treated by the wrong filmmaker. The well-regarded Brazilian director Fernando Meiralles (City of God, The Constant…
Flash of Genius
Not sure what would compel someone to want to make a movie about the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper. Sure, he came up with the idea and then big automakers stole it from him. And yes, he took them on against all the odds and had to defend himself in court because no…
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
Simon Pegg stars as Sidney Young, a curmudgeonly gossip writer who moves from England to New York with the hopes of establishing himself as a major player at an up-and-coming magazine. But his crude behavior and disdain for a power-playing publicist (Gillian Anderson) gets him into hot water with the publisher (Jeff Bridges) who tells…
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
This film takes place over the course of one wild night. Set in New York’s Lower East Side, it references the many clubs that exist in that part of town, as the teens hop from the Bowery Ballroom to the Mercury Lounge in search of a secret show by their favorite band, Where’s Fluffy. Along…
Religulous
If satire is what closes on Saturday night, does that mean that Larry Charles and Bill Maher’s scattershot satirical documentary Religulous will throw in the towel after its first Saturday matinee? While too hit-and-miss to be considered a success, I sincerely hope that Religulous(the title means just what you think it does) sticks around a…
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Disney has told this story – pampered pooch takes up with some dogs from the other side of the tracks and learns about true friendship – before. But Lady and the Tramp doesn’t have a scene in which human stars Piper Perabo and Jamie Lee Curtis bark at each other on their cell phones. And…
