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Dog Days
August hasn’t been particularly kind to moviegoers, and this latest batch of reviews likely won’t make anyone feel better about the start of September. Nonetheless, it’s my civic duty to provide you with these, my newest critiques: This weekend: The Cave (Slant magazine) The Memory of a Killer (Slant magazine) The not-too-distant future: An Unfinished…
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Rivers and Tides (2001): B+
Overlook Scottish sculptor Andy Goldsworthy’s occasional dips into vague New Age abstraction, and Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time is an absorbing portrait of a unique artist’s professional and personal communion with nature. Goldsworthy’s medium is the earth itself, and Riedelsheimer’s documentary follows the gray-bearded 46-year-old husband and father as he produces circuitous,…
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The Skeleton Key (2005): C
“Who do you hoodoo?” would have been a fitting tagline for The Skeleton Key, a blundering New Orleans-set thriller under the spell of archaic stereotypes about Southern Bayou blacks. Disgusted by the medical establishment’s impersonal treatment of the elderly, Caroline (Kate Hudson, with straight hair impervious to humidity frizz) takes a job working as an…
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The Dukes of Hazzard (2005): C+
A Southern-fried surprise that’s as stupid as Enis but as goofy-cool as the General Lee, The Dukes of Hazzard proves that every big-screen remake of a ‘70s-era TV show need not be a disgrace to both its source material and the art of moviemaking. Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar (a member of the Broken Lizard comedy…
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2046 (2005): B
Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love was an erotic masterpiece of desperately suppressed romantic longing, making his schizoid-remix-follow-up 2046 – an often chilly, remote and repetitive rumination on similar themes – such a letdown. Wai’s bifurcated tone poem charts playboy writer Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) – seemingly a doppelganger of In the Mood…
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New Design, New Reviews
While I wouldn’t exactly call chasing an 8 month-old girl around the beach for two weeks “relaxing,” I’ve returned from the Jersey Shore eager to resume my film-criticizing ways. Thus, here are reviews for three of this weekend’s new releases, one of which (hint: it’s the one with the awesome movie poster I’m using for…
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Red Eye (2005): B+
An efficient thriller that alludes to both the war on terror and female abuse without allowing either issue to interfere with its consistently taut action, Wes Craven’s Red Eye takes its place alongside last year’s Cellular as that all-too-rare Hollywood creation: a tightly wound, intelligent, and gimmick-free suspense film. Upscale hotel manager Lisa Reisert (Rachel…
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Broken Flowers (2005): B+
In criticism, as in life itself, sometimes a slightly detached perspective is preferable to an immediate knee-jerk reaction. That’s certainly the case with regards to Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers, a road-trippin’ saga charting an aging lothario’s reunion with past lovers that initially struck me as a wee bit lethargic but which – after spending time…
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Beach Break
Before embarking on a NJ Shore respite from watching and reviewing movies, I’ve got a bunch of new stuff for those interested in seeking shelter from the heat in a nice, air-conditioned cineplex. Although given the negativity oozing from the below reviews, theatergoers would be wise to avoid this weekend’s junky new releases and check…
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The Island (2005): D+
Though the wretched Star Wars prequels are thankfully over, Michael Bay makes sure that the attack of the clones continues with The Island, a loud, odious sci-fi spectacular that employs the director’s trademark incomprehensible action for a paranoia-drenched story condemning stem cell research. In the foreseeable future, pretty Ewan McGregor (with a pretty awful American…
