Drama

Friday Night Lights film review

When the lights come on at the 20,000-seat Ratliff Stadium, the city of Odessa, Texas shuts down. Streets are deserted and stores close early so that everyone can crowd onto the sparse campus of Permian High School to cheer on their Panthers. In this small, barren town, Friday night football is bigger than life. Based ….

The Glass Shield film review

At least it sounded like a good idea. Unfortunately, the execution of the new Miramax film, The Glass Shield, a drama set in an L.A. sheriff’s station, leaves the viewer with little more than the perception that he’s just seen a movie that could have been something, but didn’t quite make it. The Glass Shield’s ….

Killer of Sheep film review

Year: 1977 Killer of Sheep was so far ahead of its time 30 years ago when it was made, and it’s just as stunning and relevant today. This simple film presents a realistic portrayal of African American urban living, at a time when most images of African Americans on screen were defined by sex and ….

I Heart Huckabees film review

In David O. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees, everyone talks a little bit like they’re in a play – the dialogue is unusually dense and abstract for a film, even an artsy one, even an “existential comedy,” as this one purports to be. Huckabees is like a screwball comedy filtered through a student thesis project, but ….

In Time film review

(Reviewed as part of the Short Film Competition at Sundance 2005) In Time is a short film about a modern day African family living in the U.S. It’s based around a mother and her two daughters. One of the daughters is engaged to be married to a young man from their native country. The mother, ….

Into the Wild film review

Year: 2007 Who is Alexander Supertramp? He is a mythological figure who brought enlightenment to all he touched. Who is Alexander Supertramp? He walked among us and synthesized his pain into energy. Who is Alexander Supertramp? Christopher McCandless asked himself that same question everyday. The film Into the Wild is so amazingly brilliant, I left ….

Keane film review

This intense little item from independent cinematographer-turned-filmmaker Lodge Kerrigan (Clean, Shaven; Claire Dolan) is an exercise in grit. For 90 minutes, this intense character study literally follows around a mourning father, William Keane (Damian Lewis), who tortures himself by wandering around New York City’s Port Authority bus terminal and the bleakest neighborhoods of New Jersey ….

Haiku Tunnel film review

Josh Kornbluth is a funny guy. He has a nervous, jittery way about him, delivering his views on the world with gusto, while giving off a unique combination of being both obsessed and lazy. He looks odd, a pudgy schlump with glasses, a balding head, long messy hair on the sides and back, and an ….

Higher Learning film review

I first saw John Singleton’s Higher Learning when I was 17. Back in 1995, my friend and I left the theater feeling like we had seen an important commentary on American society. We felt informed. It just goes to show you how clueless teenagers are. At 23, I rented the movie again and realized that ….

Kinsey film review

In 1948, Alfred Kinsey, a goofy-looking professor from Indiana University previously known (if at all) for his long and laborious study of gull wasps, published Sexual Behavior in the American Male, and the country was never the same. For years, Kinsey had been trekking across the country with his team of researchers, interviewing and studying ….

AKEELAH AND THE BEE

Studio: Lions Gate Films Cast: Angela Bassett as Tanya Anderson, Keke Palmer as Akeelah Anderson, Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Joshua Larabee, Curtis Armstrong as Mr. Welch, Kahlil Ashanti as Postman, Brittany Curran as Pigtail Girl, Sahara Garey as Georgia, Lee Garlington as Regional Judge, Marjorie Harris as Head Judge, Erica Hubbard as Kiana Anderson, Julia ….

A GOOD WOMAN

Studio: Lions Gate Films Cast: Helen Hunt as Mrs. Erlynne, Scarlett Johansson as Lady Windermere, Tom Wilkinson as Tuppy, Stephen Campbell Moore as Lord Darlington, Mark Umbers as Robert Windemere, Milena Vukotic as Contessa Lucchino, Diana Hardcastle as Lady Plymdale, Roger Hammond as Cecil, Jane How as Mrs. Stutfield, Giorgia Massetti as Alessandra and John ….

The Marriage of Maria Braun (Ehe Der Maria Braun, Die) film review

Fassbinder’ s masterpiece The Marriage of Maria Braun follows the life of a young German woman named Maria Braun (Hanna Schygulla), married to a former soldier (Klaus Lowitsch) in the waning days of WWII. The film details the sad lives of German citizens dealing with a lost war, and a lost spirit and trying to ….

CRONICAS

Genre: DRAMA / MYSTERY Release Dates: 2005 Production Company: Cabezahueca / Tequila Gang / Producciones Anhelo Synopsis:When the star of a sensationalistic Miami news show travels to the Ecuadorian coastal village of Babahoyo to cover the story of a serial killer known as Monster of Babahoyo, who hunts children, his personal ambition gets out of ….