Archive for May, 2007

Sweetness and whimsy fill the screen to capacity in “I’m Reed Fish,” a rural coming-of-age tale that’s so laid-back that its cast is almost horizontal.

A familiar underdog story told with unusual sensitivity, Davis Guggenheim’s “Gracie” depicts the obstacles faced by a young girl who dreams of playing on her high school soccer team.

“Four Lane Highway” stars Frederick Weller as Sean, a famous (dead) writer’s son who became a writer himself but has been blocked for some time.

Unfolding in a decrepit, present-day Moscow, “Day Watch” dazzles and confuses with equal determination.

With “The Fifth Empire,” the prolific 98-year-old director Manoel de Oliveira pushes his minimalist style as far as it can go.

“At World’s End” is the third and perhaps final episode in the swishy, swashbuckling “Pirates of the Caribbean” saga.

IMr. BrooksI does an excellent job of showing off Hurt and Costners unsettling inner dialogue, but cant manage to pull the scripts other storylines together quite so well. Moore is unyielding as the besieged Atwood and Dane Cook takes a bold turn from his usual comic characters to play something much darker, but good performances cant salvage the meandering script. With so many disconnects the movie ends up feeling like a bunch of great acting scenes strung together with no one to make sure they tell a solid, overall story.

Blending documentary elements and some dramatic material, “Radiant City” is an acerbic position paper on the cultural damage done by postwar architectural fads.

The latest from director and beloved Mupeteer Frank Oz, IDeath at a FuneralI is a painfully typical farce, full of wild coincidences and clich plot devices; Luckily, its put together with such energy and aplomb that even though you may have seen some of it before its still surprisingly funny. It stars a mostly British ensemble cast of unfamiliar names with familiar faces. If youre not a hardcore ISerenityI fan then you probably wont know who Alan Tudyk is, but when you see him standing bare-bottomed on a rooftop tripping on acid youll instantly think, oh hey its that guy!

IBugI is a cautionary chamber piece of trusting love and endless drug use, while the majority of audience will want to see Ashley Judd ripping the bugs out of her skin. Predetermined expectations of what the film will be, sight unseen, destroys IBugIs chances of finding its audience based purely on our reliance on marketing. The film makes no concessions for closed-minded viewers, who will ultimately dismiss the film as boring. William Friedkins directing is patient and cerebral.