A comic formula wrapped in lonely sentiments, Robert Siegel's "Big Fan" is an engaging portrait of obsession. Siegel, the former editor of "The Onion," wrote "Big Fan" several years ago while attempting to launch his screenwriting career; the darkly humorous story of a New York Giants aficionado cau...
Read More »Risky material matters more than the skilled technique and earnest performances throughout writer/director Lee Toland Krieger's battling brothers drama "The Vicious Kind." Granted, all the core ingredients of a quality dysfunctional family drama are here: family conflict, violence, sexual impropriet...
Read More »Much is remarkable about the sweet and wonderful coming-of-age period drama “An Education,” the latest from Danish director Lone Scherfig and the first unqualified breakout at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. For Scherfig, who remains best known for her 2000 foreign-language comedy “Italian for ...
Read More »[An indieWIRE review from Reverse Shot.]
Read More »If the great comedian Bob Newhart had an Asian American love child it would be Charlyne Yi. She's the drollest comic working today and her deadpan style makes the comic documentary "Paper Heart," premiering in dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival, a fresh, irreverent road comedy.
Read More »Sophie Barthes's "Cold Souls" belongs to a genre of self-reflexive movie actors playing themselves — and it's one of the few that has nothing to do with Charlie Kaufman. It doesn't take much effort to explain why Kaufman's name must come up here: Paul Giamatti plays himself in an amusingly surreal s...
Read More »Seek out the specific source of youthful energy that brightens Argentine filmmaker Alexis Dos Santos' lovely London romance "Unmade Beds" and you will fail. There's no guaranteed technique behind a film as colorful, vibrant and emotionally sweet as "Unmade Beds," a love story with the power to move ...
Read More »To call filmmaker Emily Abt's compelling coming-of-age tale "Toe to Toe" the debut film of the New Obama Cinema, qualifies her debut feature drama as an American movie that treats race and class with insight and enthusiasm equal to the excitement over President elect Barack Obama and his impact on r...
Read More »Lynn Shelton's "Humpday" is a comedic "Revolutionary Road" for twenty-first century audiences. Shelton's third feature evokes many of the underlying themes present in Richard Yates' novel of suburban discontent. You wouldn't guess that from the premise: Set in Seattle's hip urban youth scene, the mo...
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