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V for Vendetta (2006): D
Alan Moore made quite a stink earlier this year by publicly disassociating himself from the cinematic adaptation of his 1982 graphic novel V for Vendetta, which he assumed – after unpleasant experiences with From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – would be bastardized in its translation to the screen. It turns out, however,…
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Ms. 45 (1981): A-
Contradictions abound in Ms. 45, the most prominent of which is director Abel Ferrara’s ambiguous stance toward his pistol-packing female avenger. A mute seamstress working in NYC’s garment district, Thana (the incomparable Zoë Lund), after being raped twice in one afternoon, goes on a murderous rampage against the city’s entire male population. That the first,…
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The Driller Killer (1979): B-
Abel Ferrara may have gone on to make some great movies, but The Driller Killer – his “respectable” first feature following a few shorts and the skin flick Nine Lives of a Wet Pussy – only sporadically exhibits the skill and wit of his scintillatingly skuzzy subsequent efforts. Using Repulsion as its template, Ferrara’s rote…
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Friday Five
Two solid new releases hit theaters this weekend, and I’m not referring to any sequels featuring animated critters or Sharon Stone’s cooch. Also out today is a front-runner for the worst film of the year (hint: it’s named after a state). And for those interested in some seriously bizarre Russian filmmaking, check out my enthusiastic…
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Rocky, R.I.P.
My two-year run contributing reviews to alt-weekly The Rocky Mountain Bullhorn is over, as the newspaper went out of business in early February. Since I only learned about the paper going belly-up by checking out their site, I don’t have any insider info about the publication’s sudden demise. But it’s nonetheless depressing to know that…
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The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (2005): B+
A neorealist coming-of-age story infused with the pulse-pounding anxieties and excitement of first love, The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros focuses its tender gaze on the titular twelve-year old Filipino (Nathan Lopez), an effervescent, effeminate boy whose loyalty to his criminal father and two brothers wavers after he falls for adult police officer Victor (JR Valentin).…
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Iron Island (2005): B+
Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iron Island details the day-to-day dramas aboard an immobile oil tanker in the Persian Gulf that functions as home to a disparate collection of Iranian outcasts. Their shipboard community offering a microcosmic glance at Iran’s social and political strains, the film might have functioned as an unbearably obvious metaphor-writ-large were it not for…
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Aw, Change
As David Lee Roth once opined, nothing stays the same. It’s a sentiment that certainly holds true for this blog, which is once again undergoing some cosmetic changes. I should have the new design finished in the next day or so, but in the meantime, feel free to send along any suggestions…
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Con Job
Don’t believe the (surprisingly overwhelming) hype – Spike Lee’s latest, Inside Man, is not great. It’s not, in fact, even good. Unfortunately, the same holds true for everything I’ve seen recently, as you can find out by following the below review links. However, for those in NY or LA, be sure to check out Jean-Pierre…
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In Bed (2006): C
A man and a woman meet at a party, retire to a motel, and spend the night alternating between screwing their brains out and sharing their innermost thoughts on relationships, movies, and other potentially revealing topics. A sluggish rehash of Before Sunrise minus the romance and philosophical insightfulness, Matías Bize’s In Bed (En La Cama)…
