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Cold Mountain (2003): C+
(Originally posted on 1/21/04) Anthony Minghella’s dewy-eyed Civil War romance Cold Mountain is cast as a Homeric travelogue of the picturesque, war-torn South in which slavery appears only as a decorative footnote and noted thespians randomly cameo in a bid for supporting actor Oscars. After a brief courtship of furtive conversations and lustful glances (and…
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Monster (2003): C
(Originally posted on 1/10/04) I love serial killers. Wait, let me rephrase that. I love watching, reading, and learning about serial killers. Thus, I approached Monster, Patty Jenkins’ dramatic film about Aileen Wuornos — a Florida prostitute executed in 2002 for killing her male clients — with reasonably high hopes. Unfortunately, with the exception of…
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House of Sand and Fog (2003): B
(Originally posted on 1/10/04) Vadim Perelman’s adaptation of Andre Dubus’ acclaimed novel House of Sand and Fog is, courtesy of ace cinematographer Roger Deakins, one beautiful film. Shot in subdued, natural hues that exhibit a clarity meant to contrast with the story’s hazy moral center, the film concerns the battle over a beachside house between…
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The Fog of War (2003): A-
(Originally posted on 12/24/03) I’m a long-time fan of documentarian Errol Morris, whose 1978 debut Gates of Heaven – a touching examination of two Middle America pet cemeteries – remains one of my all-time favorite films. His latest, The Fog of War, is a stunning portrait of Robert McNamara, the notorious Secretary of Defense during…
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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003): A-
(Originally posted on 12/22/03) With Christmas rapidly approaching, I don’t have adequate time to give Peter Jackson’s mesmerizing The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King its due. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to extol, however briefly, the virtues of this series’ awe-inspiring finale. Jackson culminates his trilogy in grand style, elevating the film’s…
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In America (2002): B+
(Originally posted on 12/19/03) Jim Sheridan’s In America comes so close to greatness that it’s incredibly frustrating to see it stumble in its final moments. Based on the acclaimed writer/director’s own experiences, the film focuses on married Irish couple Johnny (Paddy Considine) and Sarah (Samantha Morton) who, along with their two precocious daughters Christy (Sarah…
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Big Fish (2003): A-
(Originally posted on 12/16/03) After the visually inventive but dreary Sleepy Hollow and the across-the-board awful Planet of the Apes, Tim Burton returns to more familiar quirky territory with Big Fish, an ebullient tall tale about the magic of imagination and the power of myth. Edward Bloom (Albert Finney in the present; Ewan McGregor in…
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Elephant (2003): C+
(Originally posted on 12/15/03) Following on the heels of his existential wilderness tour Gerry, Gus Van Sant’s Elephant brings us inside an anonymous Middle America high school in the morning hours before a Columbine-esque massacre. The result is an hour and a half tease in which the audience is asked to dutifully wait for the…
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Shattered Glass (2003): B
(Originally posted on 11/30/03) As a student who’s spent the last three months learning about journalistic ethics at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, I had a special interest in catching Shattered Glass, the story of disgraced writer Stephen Glass. In 1998, Glass, a suave, imminently personable star reporter for The New Republic (“The in-flight…
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Bad Santa (2003): A-
(Originally posted on 11/30/03) Terry Zwigoff’s Bad Santa is an uproarious all-out assault on propriety. Billy Bob Thornton plays Willie, a crass, profane drunken crook who, with his midget sidekick Marcus (Tony Cox), spends each Christmas working as a department store Kris Kringle with the aim of robbing his place of employment. As Marcus aptly…
