Drama

Blood and Oil: The Middle East in World War One

Year: 2006 Blood and Oil, a new documentary from Inecom Entertainment, was utterly impressive. Director Marty Callaghan, whose previous work includes writing and producing a TV mini-series called The 20th Century: A Moving Visual History, clearly has a strong personal interest in his subject, and conveys a sense of immersive passion as he pursues the ….

Chasing Liberty film review

If you really want to know what Mandy Moore did last summer, then check out her European travelogue called Chasing Liberty. But be warned, watching her travels in this film makes sitting through the reels of your grandparent’s vacation seem like an easy walk in the park. Moore’s third film about finding true love is ….

Constellation film review

Year: 2005 Constellation deals with an African-American family dealing with racial and familial issues in Huntsville, Alabama. It stars Billy Dee Williams as a bitter man still harboring the ill-effects of the old South and its prejudiced practices that he holds responsible for his sister’s (Gabrielle Union) life-wasting pursuit of a white man that could ….

The Doors film review

I figure most of us thought The Doors was plenty of movie at 138 minutes. Little did we realize that one of Oliver Stone’s least favorably received movies would call for a two-disc DVD set with 43 minutes of deleted scenes, numerous documentary extras, and a feature length commentary track from Stone. And yet here ….

Flip the Script film review

Year: 2005 Flip the Script is a romantic comedy about two high school loves trying at reconnect as a result from the loss of a mutual high school friend. Robin Givens plays a massage therapist still holding on to feelings for her high school love, played by Miguel A. Nunez Jr., now a successful gynecologist, ….

Frida film review

Year: 2002 The Life of Mexican Painter Frida Khalo Selma Hayek turns in an unforgettable performance as the Mexican bisexual feminist/painter plagued throughout her life by poor health and unrequited love. In concert with Frida’s paintings, director Julie Taymor conceives her life as a sensuous collage, with Frida forever adrift, driven in her quest for ….

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 ….