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Care's Coming-of-Age Through Comics, with "Altar Boys"
Creation is the best revenge in "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys," Peter Care's gossamer-hued re-imagining of Chris Fuhrman's 1994 coming-of-age novel about Catholic school "tweens." Adrift in a lazy seventies Southern hamlet, these kids channel boredom and pubescent longing into a violent, sexually explicit comic book called "The Atomic Trinity." When they aren't imagining themselves as Captain Asskicker, Skeleton Boy and Major Screw in a series of recurring animated sequences conceived by "Spawn" creator Todd MacFarlane, the hormone-addled gang enacts a series of rebellious pranks designed to disrupt their stone-faced nemesis Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster). This rite-of-passage drama, sort of a "Stand by Me" for the stoner rock set, walks a rickety fence between snarky and sentimental without letting its cartoonish flights of fancy loom too large. But the animated sequences won't be enough to appease the comic book crowd, and nostalgists will likely be disappointed by the picture's overt eschewing of pop cultural references. "That '70s Movie" this ain't; rather it's a mostly subdued film that merits a much larger audience than it will likely find. (January 19, 2002)

Care's Coming-of-Age Through Comics, with "Altar Boys"
Creation is the best revenge in "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys," Peter Care's gossamer-hued re-imagining of Chris Fuhrman's 1994 coming-of-age novel about Catholic school "tweens." Adrift in a lazy seventies Southern hamlet, these kids channel boredom and pubescent longing into a violent, sexually explicit comic book called "The Atomic Trinity" that gets them into hot water with their elders. When they aren't imagining themselves as a superhero triumvirate in a series of recurring animated sequences conceived by "Spawn" creator Todd MacFarlane, the hormone-addled gang enacts a series of rebellious pranks designed to disrupt their stone-faced nemesis, the peg-legged Catholic school instructor Sister Assumpta, played by Jodie Foster. This rite-of-passage drama, sort of a "Stand by Me" for the stoner rock set, walks a rickety fence between snarky and sentimental without letting its cartoonish flights of fancy loom too large. But the animated sequences won't be enough to appease the comic book crowd, and nostalgists will likely be disappointed by the picture's overt eschewing of pop cultural references. Andy Bailey reviewed "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" at Sundance 2002; ThinkFilm releases the movie today. (June 14, 2002)

Casualties of (Balkan) War: No One Wins in Smart "No Man's Land"
It's not much of a date movie, and it provides little in the way of fuzzy warmheartedness or spiritual uplift (qualities that most arthouse audiences seem to be looking for these days), but Danis Tanovic's new multinational co-production, "No Man's Land" (screening this Saturday in Toronto's Gala section), is very much worth seeing nonetheless. A powerful recapitulation of everything about the recent Balkan wars that we've been desperately trying to forget, it also works as a suspenseful thriller, a subtle psychological study of men and violence, and a probing (if predictably inconclusive) analysis of just what went wrong. Featured in the competition at Cannes this year, "No Man's Land" was, fittingly, awarded the prize for best screenplay. Writer-director Tanovic is a master of timing and knows when to add a new twist to his sometimes surreal (but always believable) plot, and even new characters, just moments before we begin to tire of the old. As it progresses, the film reinvents itself a handful of times, passing from the realistic fire fights with which it begins, to a dramatic catalogue of basic survival mechanisms, and then to broad farce, before ending on a cosmic note of pessimism that, if ultimately depressing, is well and deeply earned. Peter Brunette reviews. (September 07, 2001)

Caught; Tlati Captures Women During "The Season of Men"
What's the difference between Moufida Tlati's Tunisian offering, "The Season of Men," and say some half-assed West Coast/indie bastard such as Tim Blake Nelson's dyspeptic "O" or Ed Burns' forthcoming "Sidewalks of New York"? Director Richard Brooks probably said it best: "People in Hollywood can't face the truth in themselves or in others." Well, on Mr. Burns' behalf, he's apparently been enamored of himself for decades, and that's a start. As for Hollywood, it's now a state of mind that has replaced the world's ozone layer. It's pretty much inescapable. But somehow Ms. Tlatli is an escapee. Overlooking a pacing that could have used a few drops of Jerry Bruckheimer's vital fluids and/or a cropping of twenty or so minutes, "The Season of Men" (playing exclusively for two weeks at New York's The Screening Room) is a harrowing, empathetic look at the plight of a woman caught between a generation still handcuffed by old traditions and one that's slightly more feminist. Yes, a new era where the fairer sex can be educated and even be loved by a man who treats her as an equal. Brandon Judell reviews the film, which premiered at Cannes 2000. (September 26, 2001)

Channing Shines in Stettner's Uneasy Layover, "The Business of Strangers"
While it's easy to write "The Business of Strangers" as "In the Company of Women," Patrick Stettner's polished first feature does a laudable job of examining the fear and loathing among women determined to get ahead, or simply stay afloat, in corporate America. The film, perhaps inevitably, progresses towards a ballbusting psychosexual revenge climax that feels like an indie retread of "9 to 5," but its two deftly drawn central characters prove formidable enough adversaries to keep the movie feeling fresh. Anchored by a career-best performance by Stockard Channing as fast-track frequent flyer Julie Styron, a peripatetic executive of a certain age who's unsure of her footing in the corporate hierarchy, Channing ambles through a faceless Midwest delivering one methodical presentation after another, convinced each pitch might be her last. When audiovisual assistant Paula Murphy (Julia Stiles) fails to show up at a crucial meeting, Julie flips out and fires her on the spot. Andy Bailey reviewed the IFC Films release after its Sundance Film Festival world premiere. (December 12, 2001)

Channing Shines in Stettner's Uneasy Layover, "The Business of Strangers"
While it's easy to write off serviceable Dramatic Competition entry, "The Business of Strangers" as "In the Company of Women," the film's popular moniker among Park City pontificators, Patrick Stettner's polished first feature does a laudable job of examining the fear and loathing among women determined to get ahead, or simply stay afloat, in corporate America. The film, perhaps inevitably, progresses towards a ballbusting psychosexual revenge climax that feels like an indie retread of "9 to 5," but its two deftly drawn central characters prove formidable enough adversaries to keep the movie feeling fresh. (January 26, 2001)

Chapter 8, "Enter Night" from "Metallica: This Monster Lives"
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's latest documentary, "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster" takes viewers inside the making of an album and offers a look at the challenges facing the members of one of the biggest bands in the world, and delivers keen insight into the creative process and group dynamics. Berlinger's new book, "Metallica: This Monster Lives," written with Greg Milner, depicts the experience of making the film and probes the inner workings of a rock band. Released in theaters earlier this year, "Some Kind of Monster" screened at Sundance, SXSW, Edinburgh, and the San Francisco, Full Frame, and True/False Film Festivals, among others, later receiving a nomination for best documentary from the IDA and the Independent Spirit Awards. (December 10, 2004)

Charm School: Andrew Bujalski's "Funny Ha Ha"
Completed in 2002 and having acquired a sizable cult following since that time, "Funny Ha Ha" is finally, mercifully being released in theaters this week. It may seem somewhat fanatical on my part to proclaim this as an event of any magnitude seeing as how "Funny" itself is one of the most disarmingly modest pieces of filmmaking to come from an American artist in quite some time, but it's a testimony to the film's plucky distributors that director Andrew Bujalski's forthrightly guileless debut is seeing the light of day, however small the rollout. "Funny Ha Ha" is more like a 90-minute stammer, a hemming, hawing, unobstructed plunge into filmmaking at its most appealingly coarse. Michael Koresky reviews the film, opening in limited release this week, with responses from Nick Pinkerton and Jeff Reichert. (April 26, 2005)

"Chutney Popcorn," The Lesson is, Keep it Light
Few American independent films in recent memory are as critic-proof as the cleverly written, sprightly paced "Chutney Popcorn," and therein lies a lesson for aspiring young filmmakers. While often reliant on the genuinely funny ethnic and sexual one-liners in its beguiling script to propel it over some awkward characterizations and choppy narrative, there's little doubt that director and co-writer Nisha Ganatra has a nascent talent for pleasing crowds. Eddie Cockrell reviews from Berlin. (February 22, 2000)

Close Encounters with a Blurred Mind; Considering "She's One of Us"
"She's One of Us" so desperately wants us -- needs us -- to see the vapidity of capitalist society's products and living centers (the homogeneous supermarket makes a mandatory appearance, as does the local shopping mall) that every shot screams "Isolation!" with all the subtlety of "One Hour Photo." The film sinks into self-parody -- and contrived commentary. (January 18, 2005)

Coen Brothers' "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" a Mixed Blessing
Joel and Ethan Coen are exceptionally talented moviemakers whose films are imbued with a visual acuity and technical mastery that is absolutely breathtaking to behold. In close collaboration with their great cinematographer Roger Deakins, the Coens create a moment by moment visual invention that is bedazzling and brilliant. With their new Cannes competition work, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" the plays of light, color, movement and contrast are so elegantly and beautifully realized that it obfuscates the movie's complications and problems. It is entertaining, funny, vibrant but also thin and weightless. (May 16, 2000)

Coen Brothers' "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" a Mixed Blessing
Joel and Ethan Coen are exceptionally talented moviemakers whose films are imbued with a visual acuity and technical mastery that is absolutely breathtaking to behold. In close collaboration with their great cinematographer Roger Deakins, the Coens create a moment by moment visual invention that is bedazzling and brilliant. With their new work, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" the plays of light, color, movement and contrast are so elegantly and beautifully realized that it obfuscates the movie's complications and problems. It is entertaining, funny, vibrant, but also thin and weightless. Patrick McGavin reviewed the latest Coen brothers film at last year's Cannes Film Festival. The Buena Vista release opens in wide release today. (January 12, 2001)

Color of a Brisk and "Sleepy Gal," Munch's Poetic Return
With his third feature, "The Sleepy Time Gal," the highly gifted director Christopher Munch has adroitly merged the romantic elusiveness of "The Hours and Times" with the poetic rapture of "Color of a Brisk and Leaping Day." Munch specializes in the pain and emotional debilitation of confronting the unobtainable. This hypnotic and beautiful Dramatic Competition work represents the most successful realization of his distinctive aesthetic. Patrick Z. McGavin reviews from Park City. (January 26, 2001)

Competition Shows Promise, Not Perfection: "Nobody Knows" and "Consequences of Love"
The first two films to be shown in competition at Cannes 2004 were each promising in their own way, but neither lit any fires within the heart of Critics. The first, a Japanese film called "Nobody Knows," by art-house favorite Kore-eda Hirokazu scored more than a few striking images, but at 160 minutes needs to be brutally pared by at least an hour to become commercially -- or even artistically -- viable. The second was "The Consequences of Love," a stylish Italian thriller by the relatively unknown director Paolo Sorrentino, which borrows the suavely crisp tone of "The Usual Suspects" to good effect but which could use a powerful injection of content to make it more palatable. Peter Brunette reviews from Cannes. (May 14, 2004)

Costa-Gavras Returns to Form "Amen."
While it hardly breaks new cinematic ground, Costa-Gavras' latest film, "Amen.," is a solid, even engrossing drama whose central theme, the reluctance of the Vatican to speak out about Nazi atrocities during World War II, is brilliantly explored in all its aching complexity. Peter Brunette reviewed the film at the 2002 Berlinale; Kino International released the film on Friday. (January 29, 2003)

Coulda Been a Contender, Minahan's "Series 7"
Writer-director Dan Minahan, who once toiled on the set of CourtTV, takes the reality TV formula to zany new heights in his Premiere selection "Series 7," a low-budget parody inspired by the first wave of reality TV hits (Cops, A Current Affair et. al) that stands up remarkably well alongside the latest wave of meta-game shows like Survivor, programs that hurl average citizens on one outward-bound adventure after another. "Series 7" envisions a lurid America at war with itself, in which average citizens are selected via national lottery to compete as "contenders" in a televised war of attrition, stalking and killing each other off until a lone champion survives. Andy Bailey reviews the Sundance Premiere and USA Films release. (January 20, 2001)

Crisis In & Out of the Home; Nir Bergman's Family Drama "Broken Wings"
"Broken Wings," a first feature from 34-year-old Nir Bergman, is the latest entry in the current wave of small but feisty films coming out of Israel. The story of a family imploding after the death of their father, "Broken Wings" is striking for its focus on the personal rather than the political -- there's not a single direct allusion to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict racking the region (a trait shared with other recent Israeli films that either ignore the conflict or treat it ambiguously or metaphorically.) Erica Abeel reviews the film, which Sony Pictures Classics releases on Friday. (March 09, 2004)

"Crocodile" Tears: Jude Law Looks for Love in Your Blood
Director Po Chih Leong has apparently been signed by MGM to direct "Blood & Chocolate" which is the tale of "a teenage werewolf who finds herself conflicted by her love for a human boy and for her werewolf pack." By comparison, his "The Wisdom of Crocodiles" (opening Friday) is a walk in the woods believability-wise. It's Bulgarian hero, Steven Grlscz (Jude Law) is missing some vital nutrients in his plasma. Sadly, his prescription is not available at the local Duane Reade. "I need the love that's in your blood," Steven explains to one of his victims. It seems that "the extreme emotional state of the human body can cause crystals" to form in the blood that this young man needs to digest, otherwise his body will slowly deteriorate. Brandon Judell reviews the Miramax release. (July 13, 2000)

Crouching Russian, Hidden Nazi; Annaud's "Enemy" Breaks Open Berlin's Gates
It's easy to see why Jean-Jacques Annaud wanted to direct the latest in a current wave of World War II movies: Snow. "Enemy at the Gates," which opened the 51st Berlin Film Festival on Wednesday night, is filled with snow. It's a lovely manifestation of nature -- clean and pure -- that becomes corrupted in dirtied, blood-strewn ways. Though in barest form, the film's plot is Russian sniper vs. German sniper during the gruesome battle of Stalingrad, Annuad, as usual, filters the narrative through his running theme of juxtaposing the beauty and cruelty of nature vs. the beauty and cruelty of human nature. Except for that all-too human frailty known as Hollywood plotting that rears its ugly and corrupted head near the end, along with the usual Annuad slow spots, "Enemy at the Gates" is a rich, sumptuous big-budget production that will awe, but won't pack a wallop. But then, it doesn't want to. G. Allen Johnson reviews the epic, which Paramount Pictures will release in March. (February 09, 2001)

"Croupier" Pays Off Big with Splendidly Nasty Tale of London Casino Life
At breakfast, a sweet little girl asks her dad: "What's the population of the world?" "Too many," he, a killer-for-hire, replies as he waits for his next assignment to eliminate a gent or two. This is pure Mike Hodges. Tongue-in-cheek misanthropy. It's a lousy world so you might as well kill off the villains that have done you wrong. Hodges' first theatrical release "Get Carter" (1971), which he also wrote and directed, is a masterpiece of vindictive surliness that has not aged a bit if you overlook the muttonchops on the guys and the cervix-length miniskirts on the gals. Now Hodges has hooked up with Paul ("The Man Who Fell To Earth") Mayersberg, a screenwriter as perverse as he is himself. The result is a splendidly nasty, dry-humored look at the world of gambling in London called "Croupier." Starring Clive Owen ("Close My Eyes," "Bent"), Gina McKee ("Notting Hill," "Wonderland") and Alex Kingston (TV's "E.R."), "Croupier" opens this Friday in the Shooting Gallery's film series. Brandon Judell reviews. (April 20, 2000)

Crowe Charms Again with Slight "Almost Famous"
Cameron Crowe may be the lyric poet of happiness in the gloomy vista of today's American studio cinema: a renegade filmmaker seeking bliss and joy in stories of puppiest love and mooniest longing, rather than through surging cinematic sensation. Resist the charms of his movies, if you will -- and I forgave much I found foolish in the characters' behavior in "Jerry Maguire" -- but "Almost Famous" is, and I forgive myself for saying so, almost great. Ray Pride reviews the tempered autobiography, drawing on Crowe's personal history as a precocious reporter for Creem and Rolling Stone when he toured with the likes of Led Zeppelin, premiering tonight at the Toronto Film Festival. (September 08, 2000)

D-word.com Weighs in on the Political Documentary
In light of recent successes of political documentaries like "Fahrenheit 9/11," "Supersize Me," "Control Room," and "The Corporation," D-word.com, a discussion site hosted by UTNE independent culture magazine, held a weeklong forum to discuss the ethics and business behind political documentaries today. Academy Award-winner Pamela Yates, director of "Witness to War" and "Presumed Guilty," and "Control Room" director Jehane Noujaim were the forum's special guests and any registered member of D-word was allowed to contribute. The frame for the discussion centered on the definition of a political doc, but often the discussion turned into intriguing tangents concerning the dearth of right-wing political docs, whether the currency of political documentaries will eventually go bankrupt, and how to measure the success of a film when its political intentions are hard to articulate. Sandra Ogle reports. (August 16, 2004)

Dagur Kári's "Nói"; Icelandic Eccentries in a Washed-Out World
"Nói" is the Icelandic entry, following the recent Swedish film "Kitchen Stories," in the genre of droll Nordic tragicomedy that has lately been populating film festivals around the world. The reliance on sight gags and eccentric characters is present once again, but this time a misunderstood teenaged hero is added to the mix. It won't surprise you to discover that Nói, our protagonist, has a drunk for a father, or that he's at least partially saved by a fetching young woman, but it may come as a shock that he's an albino. As such, he fits right in to the dominant setting of the film, which is snow, snow, and more snow. Peter Brunette reviews the film, which Palm Pictures opens on Friday. (March 17, 2004)

Dancer in the Dark: Music is the Doctor
A simplistic story of Catholic guilt spruced up with 100 anamorphic DV-cam, well choreographed musical numbers and the presence of a pop star, "Dancer in the Dark" is the final part of a trilogy of women-based films from Danish Dogme founder Lars von Trier. It doesn't take much thought to figure out why he's called it quits after three ã he's run out of ideas. A broken record of "Breaking the Waves" without an actress of Emily Watson's caliber to float on top of the sea of melodramatic murk, "Dancer in the Dark" is curiously empty and uninvolving. (May 19, 2000)

David Gordon Green's "All the Real Girls"; The Magic and Madness of Young Lovers
Paul and Noel, the ill-starred young lovers in David Gordon Green's sophomore feature, "All the Real Girls," are like cats: they feel so many conflicting feelings of desire and admiration and possession that all they can do is explode. The 27-year-old director has made another American original. Ray Pride reviewed the film at Sundance 2003, where it won a special jury prize for emotional truth; Sony Pictures Classics releases it on Friday. (February 11, 2003)

Davies' Still Lives; Power-"House of Mirth"
Terence Davies' severe, perseverant adaptation of Edith Wharton's tragic 1905 novel, "The House of Mirth," seems a retreat from the impassioned stylization of his earlier work. When it's released this Christmas by Sony Pictures Classics, most of the talk, however, will be about the fastidious shaping of performances, and particularly Gillian Anderson's brilliant turn as a doomed, headstrong young New York socialite whose broaches of civility are not countenanced at the turn of the century, and missteps in manners lead to her exclusion and disgrace. Ray Pride reviews the film, which screened last weekend at the New York Film Festival. (September 24, 2000)

Deep Breath: Phil Morrison's "Junebug"
These moments are recreated for me onscreen Phil Morrison's lovely American treasure, "Junebug," a North Carolina based portrait of human contradictions and the conundrums of the familial bond which locates the ineffable, spiritual balm of the home womb. The opening of "Junebug" is more than slightly disorienting, moving headlong and devil-may-care from a romantic, joie de vivre credit sequence. Michael Koresky reviews Phil Morrison's "Junebug," with responses by Danielle McCarthy and Jeff Reichert. (August 02, 2005)

"Deep End," She's Got Tilda Swinton Eyes
A mother will always fight to the death for the welfare of her children, but when that mother happens to be the great actress Tilda Swinton, the fight enters a startling new arena. In "The Deep End," Scott McGehee and David Siegel's polished follow-up to "Suture," Swinton wields those glassy cat-like eyes with such cool vengeance that her frigid composure becomes a kind of suspense mechanism unto itself. Kim Carnes should think about taking her voice out of mothballs to pay tribute to the Tilda Swinton Eyes that help keep this slick suspenser afloat. Andy Bailey reviews the Dramatic Competition entry. (January 25, 2001)

Diegues' "Orfeu," A Mythic Tale -- Purely and Powerfully Operatic
Carlos Diegues' Brazilian drama "e;Orfeu," based on the same play that inspired the 1959 classic "Black Orpheus," has its good moments and bad, a mythic tale, talented cast and vivid look. But all of it -- settings, story structure, character development, emotional trajectory -- is purely and powerfully operatic. Only the music, a rich melange of traditional samba and modern rap-influenced pop, is far removed from opera. The story revolves around Orfeu (Antonio V. Garrido), a charismatic samba composer from a slum neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. Just before Carnival, a beautiful girl named Euridice (Patricia Franca) arrives from the countryside. Before they can meet their romantic, and ultimately tragic, fate together, life is complicated by erratic violence and a simmering battle with a corrupt cop, as well as the bitterness of Orfeu's ex-girlfriend and other former lovers he's left behind. From last September's Telluride Film Festival, Margaret McGurk reviewed the film, which New Yorker Films will release today in New York. (August 25, 2000)

Dirty Deeds; Opener "Last Wedding" Celebrates Sullied Couples
Daringly opening the Toronto International Film Festival, normally the turf of migrating geese, red violins or Atom Egoyan, British Columbia director Bruce Sweeney's anti-romantic comedy "Last Wedding" is sure to send Armani-suit-wearing sponsors into a petulant frenzy. Like other B.C. filmmakers, Sweeney states with his films that theory is irrelevant: the contradictions of human beings will suffice. (His 1995 "Live Bait," which won Best Canadian film at the TIFF, featured a university-age slacker losing his virginity to a senior citizen.) With his third film, Sweeney returns triumphantly with a raw black comedy about middle-class relationship disintegration and male weakness. Almost entirely constructed of interiors, it's got leaky condos, architects in crisis and sexual and professional jealousy -- with nary a mountain or beach in sight, it's the Vancouver left out of tourist brochures. Mark Peranson reviews. (September 06, 2001)

Dirty Pretty Things: Michael Winterbottom's "9 Songs"
The first 30 seconds of "9 Songs" are a teaser trailer for the 70 minutes that follow: the camera flying above a barren glacial landscape before cutting to the breathy, shrouded face of an orgasmic woman, then jostling into a crowded rock show at London's Brixton Academy. Those images -- overlaid by the first and most succinct voice-over from our male lead -- abstract plot, character, and the aural and visual themes so well that, much like the effect of an over-descriptive trailer, sitting through the ensuing film feels anticlimactic. Which, I presume, is pretty much what director Michael Winterbottom had in mind for this melancholic presentation of two hetero fuck buddies and the doomed union of their grainy, color-saturated genitalia. Eric Hynes reviews "9 Songs" with responses by Kristi Mitsuda and Nick Pinkerton. (July 19, 2005)

Discovery and Expression From South of the Border; Film Forum's Cine Mexico Series
Film from south of the border -- save for rare exceptions like "Amores Perros" and "Y Tu Mama Tambien" -- rarely make it to arthouse screens. A welcome antidote is the three-week, 26-film survey of Mexican cinema entitled Cine Mexico that Film Forum hosts today through July 22. The series ranges from silents to works of the early '90s, including films by Alfonso Cuaron ("Love in the Time of Hysteria," 1991) and Arturo Ripstein ("The Beginning and the End," 1993). Howard Feinstein looks at some of the series' notable films. (July 02, 2004)

Done in By Detail; Tavernier's Sprawling "Laissez-Passer"
The estimable veteran French director Bertrand Tavernier has chosen a marvelous subject for his new film, "Laissez-Passer." Set in Paris during World War II, the film actually manages to explore a completely new milieu about this period, namely the Continental Films studio, which made frothy French films under stringent German supervision. Anyone who has ever encountered Tavernier even for a moment knows that he rivals and perhaps even surpasses Martin Scorsese in his obsessive passion for and knowledge about cinema history. That passion and knowledge are evident in every minute of this nearly three-hour film, but alas, they also serve as its downfall. Peter Brunette reviewed "Laissez-Passer" at Berlin 2002; it is also playing at the 40th New York Film Festival and opens theatrically on Friday. (October 09, 2002)

Donnie Darko Plays with the Time of Our Lives
Everyone wondered what the kids of the Eighties would grow up to achieve. Steeped in too much pop culture, tempted by excess, assured they'd never attain the incomes or accomplishments of their parents' generation, our Reagan-era youth woke up from the long night of the soul hopped up on Prozac, drenched in self-help effluvium and armed with a pervasive cynicism that would seep into the next decade and beyond. It's almost perfect that Drew Barrymore would go on to defy her roots as an alcoholic child star and grow up to produce a movie as sensitive and epochal as "Donnie Darko," which is not merely the salvation of the moribund teen pic genre but a square-peg adolescent classic to rank up there with "Rushmore" and 'Say Anything.' Andy Bailey reviews the Sundance Dramatic Competition entry. (January 21, 2001)

"Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut": The Strange Afterlife of an Indie Cult Film
Despite a devastating box office performance just three years ago, Richard Kelly's debut feature "Donnie Darko" is finding new life in theaters thanks to Newmarket Films, which will release the director's cut of the film Friday in New York and Los Angeles. The new version of this surprise cult classic will have 20 minutes of additional footage, enhanced sound, more special effects, and an expanded soundtrack. indieWIRE's Adam Burnett talked to the director, Richard Kelly, and distribution guru Bob Berney about the re-release of the film. (July 22, 2004)

Don't Forget "Memento," Solid Thriller of Memory Loss
"I can't make new memories," says Leonard, the plaintive, existential protagonist at the center of Christopher Nolan's second feature, "Memento." This solid, effective thriller has a fascinating texture, propelled by a brilliant premise that transcends its stylistic and narrative repetition. As its title suggests, this is a work about the ineffable, and that very fragmentary, incomplete aspect gives the movie its kick. Leonard (Guy Pearce) is a terse, violent avenger obsessed with finding and killing the man who raped and killed his wife. This psychological trauma and subsequent sexual anxiety -- frustratingly underdeveloped -- has incapacitated him, depriving him of his short-term memory. The very nature of consciousness -- incident, detail, conversation, emotion, action is the ultimate blank space that is continuously erased, manipulated and bent to the demands and vagaries of the moment. Patrick Z. McGavin reviews the Sundance Dramatic Competition entry. (January 21, 2001)

Dreamtigers and the Best of Everything: "Tropical Malady" and "The World"
With the release of two important works from East Asian filmmakers coming so close after the completion of Reverse Shot's East-West symposium (there's more coverage on both "The World" and "Tropical Malady" there), we were left with a bit of a dilemma for this week's column: How to choose between the two? In the end, we decided that only not choosing would serve our readers best, so here we offer two takes on two films, both opening in New York this weekend, and hopefully coming to a theater near you soon. Michael Joshua Rowin reviews "Tropical Malady" and Elbert Ventura reviews "The World," with responses by Jeff Reichert ("Tropical Malady") and Travis Mackenzie Hoover ("The World"). (June 28, 2005)

Drowning at the "Moulin Rouge"; Luhrmann's Spectacle Spasms
Except for possibly Ridley Scott, there is not another active filmmaker whose work wields shamelessness and emotional manipulation in such an aggressively ecstatic manner as Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann. With each successive movie ("Strictly Ballroom," "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet"), Luhrmann is avid to prove how brazen, daring and dazzling his reach extends. For better and (a lot) worse, the director's third feature, "Moulin Rouge," a monstrously inflated, over-hyped movie -- the opening film of the 54th Cannes International Film festival -- marks the fullest expression of his sensibility. Luhrmann no doubt believes it is revolutionary and groundbreaking. I find it the death of aesthetics. Patrick Z. McGavin reviews the Cannes opener -- "a movie boldly conceived, though bleakly executed." (May 11, 2001)

Dumont's Relentless, Metaphysical Look at "Humanity"
Soon to be the most controversial film released this millennium, Bruno Dumontís relentless, unique "Humanity" has divided critics since its debut at Cannes last year, where it won the Grand Jury Prize. A painting that moves as slow as life itself, "Humanity" is an intellectually rigorous, powerful, philosophical work about the basic metaphysical issues that concern us all. Dumont shows what is often left unseen, and shocks with the way he chooses to depict us. Mark Peranson reviews the WinStar release from Rotterdam. (June 15, 2000)

DVD RE-RUN REVIEW: Curran and Gross Probe Domestic Strife in "We Don't Live Here Anymore"
With the exception of an obvious, enduring masterpiece like Ingmar Bergman's six-hour "Scenes from a Marriage," most films about marital infidelity and domestic strife -- think of "Ice Storm" -- don't fare as well, aesthetically or commercially, as the novels on which they're (usually) based. John Curran's new film, "We Don't Live Here Anymore," which is based on two short stories by Andre Dubus (whose work was most recently seen as the source of "In the Bedroom"), is naturally vulnerable to this same difficulty -- but within the limits of this admittedly dicey genre, Curran and his screenwriter, the very talented Larry Gross, have constructed a deeply probing if imperfect tale that is charged with enthralling performances by its four principals. Peter Brunette reviewed the film for indieWIRE earlier this year, it will be released on DVD this week. (December 12, 2004)

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