Movie Reviews

Hollywood Dreams Made Real: Irving Thalberg And The Rise of M-G-M

Lana: The Memories, The Myths, The Movies

REVIEW | Life on the Stage: Richard Linklater's "Me and Orson Welles"

Like so many of Richard Linklater's films, his latest, "Me and Orson Welles," follows an ad hoc group working together towards an unlikely, and very impending, goal. In his winning "School of Rock" a bunch of children (and one mental child) aimed to play a great rock show. His pint-sized Bad News Be...

Movies: The Cure For What Ails You

I’ve been in the grip of a bad cold for almost two weeks; I somehow manage to get my most important work done and then I go to sleep every day. By Wednesday afternoon I was so frustrated—tired but restless at the same time—I decided I couldn’t stare at the wall (or my com...

REVIEW | A Long and Dreary Path: John Hillcoat's "The Road"

With its drearily brief paragraphs and poetic emphasis on imagery over dialogue, Cormac McCarthy's 2006 post-apocalyptic novel "The Road" practically reads like a screenplay. Not unreasonably, John Hillcoat's tense, discomfiting big screen adaptation remains almost entirely faithful to the book's di...

REVIEW | Wright and Wrong: Rebecca Miller's "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee"

One of contemporary cinema's most graceful, taken-for-granted actors, Robin Wright, too long in the shadow of her ex-husband, would seemingly have finally found the perfect leading role in Rebecca Miller's "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee," in which she plays a graceful, taken-for-granted wife and mo...

criticWIRE This Week: "The Road" Leads Thanksgiving Offerings

John Hillcoat's "The Road," Rebecca Miller's "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" and Richard Linklater's "Me and Orson Welles" mark a rather star-studded batch of specialty films making their way to theaters this Thanksgiving week. Generally regarded as one of the most potent filmgoing holidays of the ...

Introducing criticWIRE: Sokurov's "The Sun" Tops This Week

Alexander Sokurov's "The Sun," from the 2005 Berlinale, is currently atop indieWIRE's new criticWIRE among films opening in theaters this week. The new section of indieWIRE, being officially unveiled today, features hundreds of grades for new and recent films from dozens of film critics and bloggers...

REVIEW | Oddly Coarse and Compellingly Offbeat: Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant"

EDITOR'S NOTE: This review was originally published as part of indieWIRE's coverage of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. "The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" opens this Friday in theaters.