Sleepless Night Review
RATING: (4 STARS) Better than Bond, better than Bourne, better than Bauer, the new French thriller Sleepless Night sets a new bar for white-knuckle action movies. Taking place over a 24-hour period and primarily in one giant nightclub, the film is intense in ways no other has been in years. Vincent (Tomer Sisley) and his […]
Tribeca 2014: ‘Manos Sucias’
I managed to catch up with the Spike Lee-produced Manos Sucias before the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival began. Once the credits started rolling, I thought that if I didn’t see a film as good as this, it’d still be a pretty successful festival. It’s equal parts an outstanding character piece and a wonderfully entertaining and […]
Tribeca 2014: ‘When the Garden Was Eden’
Over at Sound on Sight, I’ve written a review of the latest 30 for 30 documentary, When the Garden Was Eden, which premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. The film won’t premiere on ESPN for a little while, but it’s one you’ll want to look out for. Like last week’s Bad Boys, it’s a […]
Tribeca 2014: ‘Next Goal Wins’
My 2014 Tribeca Film Festival continues over at Sound on Sight with my review of the sports documentary Next Goal Wins, which profiles the American Samoan national soccer team, which went 30 years without a win in international play before this film’s cameras starting rolling. Check out my review of the film, which follows well-worn […]
Tribeca 2014: ‘All About Ann’
Over at Sound on Sight, my coverage of the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival began yesterday with a review of the charming political documentary All About Ann: Governor Richards of the Lone Star State. The film, which debuts a week from today on HBO, isn’t formally challenging, but Richards’ story is one absolutely worth telling. Check […]
Farah Goes Bang Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Though it hits some annoyingly familiar notes within the road trip and “losing your virginity” subgenres, Farah Goes Bang bucks disappointment thanks to its unique, almost unshakable sense of disappointment. The film, about three recent college graduates (including one frustrated virgin) on the campaign trail for John Kerry in 2004, keeps building, […]
Oxyana Review
Drug addiction, particularly to prescription pain medication like OxyContin, has become so commonplace in Oceana, West Virginia that its residents simply refer to it as “Oxyana.” This also serves as the title of a documentary in which director Sean Dunne turns his camera toward men and women, most of them addicts themselves, whose stories will […]
The English Teacher Review
RATING: (1 STAR) Maybe she owed the director money. Maybe the version of the script she’d read before accepting the part wasn’t close to the shooting script. Maybe she was blackmailed. Maybe the shoot was simply convenient for her. I’m searching for a reason why Julianne Moore accepted the lead role in The English Teacher, […]
What Richard Did Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) A film that’s equal parts quiet and disquieting, What Richard Did hinges on a single moment. Like Julia Loktev’s The Loneliest Planet last year, the circumstances and consequences surrounding this moment are complicated. Director Lenny Abrahamson presents the moment, its circumstances, and its consequences as an enormous gray area; His camera is […]
Top 10: Tribeca World Premieres
In just 12 years, the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City has carved quite an interesting and influential niche for itself in the independent film world. Though it’s wedged somewhat unceremoniously between Sundance/Berlinale and Cannes, the festival has become THE destination for New York premieres, as well as plenty of North American premieres and […]
Side by Side
One wouldn’t necessarily expect Keanu Reeves to be as much an expert on the art of filmmaking as folks like James Cameron, George Lucas, Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, David Lynch, Danny Boyle, Steven Soderbergh, and Martin Scorsese, but in the documentary Side by Side, he’s a very knowledgable window into the artistic and technical processes […]
Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story
The story behind Booker’s Place: A Mississippi Story begins in the intensely racially segregated South of 1965. An NBC News documentarian named Frank DeFelitta went to Greenwood, Mississippi to gently prod its residents on the subjects of race and racism. He ended up turning a black waiter, Booker Wright, into an “accidental activist,” when he […]
The Revisionaries
Anyone who’s watched The Daily Show or The Colbert Report knows there’s a humorous side to even the most poisonous political battles. In The Revisionaries, director Scott Thurman skewers the Texas State Board of Education in a similar vein and to great effect. Unless you’re a “young-earth creationist” like board member Don McLeroy (pictured above), […]
The Five-Year Engagement Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) A group of people sit in a room with a box of stale doughnuts. They’re told to eat if they wish, but fresher doughnuts are only 20 minutes away if they’d like to wait for something better. Will they really come? It’s up to each individual to decide, but needless to say, […]
The Giant Mechanical Man Review
RATING: (2 STARS) Calling Lee Kirk’s The Giant Mechanical Man slight would be a massive understatement. It’s infinitesimal. It focuses on two kindly individuals going through pre-mid-life mid-life crises. That’s a subject certainly worthy of the screen, but any film this formulaic just isn’t. The characters are flat and frustrating, the beats are totally predictable, […]
