Movie Reviews

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

criticWIRE This Week: "A Single Man" Leads Anticipated Field of Debuts

A super low budget entry from Werner Herzog, a not-so-low budget Alice Sebold adaptation care of Peter Jackson, the directorial debut of Tom Ford, and Clint Eastwood taking on Nelson Mandela. Only in December would we get all of these films coming at us on a single Friday. And to make your decisio...

REVIEW | Ready, Set, Heal: Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus”

Clint Eastwood, who deals in a variety of subjects yet often gives his films recognizable authorial stamps, would seem to be prime evidence of the strength of auteurism: the dulcet-toned romantic weepie “The Bridges of Madison County” feels as much like an “Eastwood film” as the shadowy political th...

REVIEW | Depth in Beauty: Tom Ford's "A Single Man"

Directed by former Gucci creative director Tom Ford, "A Single Man" has a few of the qualities you’d expect from a fashion designer’s first film. On a superficial level, nearly every frame is highly styled to the point where it would not seem out of place printed in Italia...

Trucker

Trucker is an emblematic American indie film. It offers a juicy leading role to an actress who usually works in mainstream Hollywood fare, and completely fulfills its modest ambitions. Writer-director James Mottern has crafted a vivid, credible character study of a young woman whose fierce indep...

Singin' In The Rain: The Making Of An American Masterpiece

criticWIRE This Week: "Up In The Air" Leads December's First Batch (UPDATED)

Jason Reitman's "Up In The Air," Jim Sheridan's "Brothers," Michael Hoffman's "The Last Station," Cheryl Hines' "Serious Moonlight," Kirk Jones' "Everybody's Fine" and Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu's "Before Tomorrow" mark December 2009's first five releases, an eclectic group that featu...

The Wicked Wit Of The West

REVIEW | Gag Order: Cheryl Hines's "Serious Moonlight"

The enormous groundswell of sympathy and support surrounding the release of Adrienne Shelly's "Waitress" blinded most viewers to its clear deficiencies. It might be unfair to conjecture what the critical reception for the good-natured if contrived and shabbily visualized romantic comedy might have b...