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An Inconvenient Truth (2006): B
Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth is cinematic brussel sprouts – a brand of good-for-you documentary that’s far from alluring but undeniably intellectually nutritious. Largely a filmed version of Gore’s oft-given speech on global warming, Davis Guggenheim’s movie deftly alternates its visual attention between the surprisingly charismatic former V.P. and his easily digested, graphics-heavy PowerPoint presentation,…
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District B13 (2006): B+
The purest adrenaline rush of the summer, Pierre Morel’s District B13 (co-written by Luc Besson) is the type of enthusiastically frenzied, go-for-broke action flick that Michael Bay only dreams he could make. Self-consciously shallow with regards to its political subtext (about the haves’ fascistically nasty treatment of the have-nots), Morel’s whirling dervish directorial debut is…
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‘R Xmas (2002): B+
Analogizing the commercialization of illegal drugs and the December holidays is Abel Ferrara’s nominal aim with ‘R Xmas, but such parallels between upper-class materialism (embodied by two women fighting over the season’s coveted Party Girl doll) and lower-class cocaine dealing ultimately feel less inspired than the film’s authentic depiction of ritual as the substance that…
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New Rose Hotel (1998): B
Christopher Walken’s idiosyncratic mannerisms and strangely articulated turns of phrase are in full bloom throughout Abel Ferrara’s New Rose Hotel, though the uneven film’s real center of gravity is Asia Argento, whose sensual presence haunts this William Gibson-based tale of futuristic corporate espionage and romantic delusion. One of the most fully realized female characters in…
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The Blackout (1997): C
Released theatrically abroad and direct-to-video here in the States, Abel Ferrara’s The Blackout shares some of Dangerous Game’s ideas about art, commerce, and the tangled relationship between filmmaking and real life but never manages to control its turgid chaos. A movie star with a cocaine vacuum for a nose (Matthew Modine’s Matty) is traumatized by…
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Maniac Cop (1988): B
A tag-team made in B-movie heaven, director William Lustig (Maniac) and writer/director Larry Cohen (It’s Alive, Q: The Winged Serpent) joined forces in 1988 for Maniac Cop, a sturdy slasher flick that laces its splattery slayings with some anti-establishment undertones. Detective Frank McCrae (Tom Atkins) is on the hunt for a killer cop whose modus…
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Wassup Rockers (2006): C
Different movie, same story for Larry Clark, whose awesomely titled Wassup Rockers proves to be yet another of the directors’ portraits of rebellious, sexualized teen-dom that’s more concerned with ogling than with understanding its horny under-21 protagonists. This time around focusing on South Central Salvadorian skate kids, Clark vacillates between Kids rowdiness and Ken Park…
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Woman on the Run (1950): B+
With his lumbering frame and granite mug, Dennis O’Keefe was one of film noirs most endearing hard cases, and his presence is one of the many delights of Woman on the Run, Norman Foster’s 1950 romantic thriller about a San Francisco woman (Ann Sheridan) who, along with an intrepid journalist (O’Keefe), goes in search of…
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Pushover (1954): B
Undercover cop Fred MacMurray dates blond bombshell Kim Novak (in her first starring role) to nab her bank robber boyfriend, only to find himself irresistibly drawn into a Double Indemnity-style scheme, in the crackling Pushover. Confined – until its fatal shootout finale – to a few apartment building rooms and hallways, Richard Quine’s noir is…
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Agnes and His Brothers (2006): C+
Oskar Roehler aspires to Fassbinder-ian heights with Agnes and His Brothers, only to prove incapable of matching his muse’s storytelling skillfulness and aesthetic virtuosity. In this fitfully engaging but narratively messy tale of social and sexual suffering, three brothers find life complicated by their below-the-belt urges: government official Werner (Herbert Knaup) is driven mad by…
