New Releases

5 Ridiculous Lines From "Battle Los Angeles."

By now it should come as no surprise that the thinly conceived alien invasion movie "Battle Los Angeles" is a serious dud. But even the whiff of awfulness conveyed by the trailer (below) and those nondescript posters can't fully convey the absurdity of this vaguely fascist and blatantly pro-war para...

Watch a Gory Scene from "Santa Sangre."

An Alternative Top Ten for 2010.

Today indieWIRE announced a group of top ten lists submitted by industry friends and contributors to the site. Since I already listed my favorites from 2010, I decided to offer a separate list of titles that in another year could just as easily serve as my favorites. After the jump, the alternative...

Gamers Get Serious in 'Well Played.'

One of the more significant gaps between the various generations of media consumers alive today has come from the influence of videogames. Initially relegated to the arcade, videogames only became available as complex interactive experiences for non-professionals with the advent of the console and computer games some twenty-five years ago. So if you were born around that time, there's a much stronger chance that you have at least an appreciation for videogames than people unconvinced of their aesthetic merits. As a casual gamer, I try to follow all the latest developments, not only for the sake of keeping in touch with the cultural zeitgeist ...

iW Reviews in Rewind: 12/10.

It has been a somewhat crowded week for indieWIRE reviews. (And a big week for indieWIRE's history.) Links to coverage of this weekend's new releases follow.

My Top Ten for '10.

Winter is upon it, and with the blistering cold comes the inevitable avalanche of top ten lists. I always regret putting something on there or missing something else, and I'm sure I'll try to correct the record before the year is done. But since I just submitted my favorites to the indieWIRE and Vil...

Tidbits for a Turkey Day

Some clips from me to you in celebration of whatever you want.

Gyllenhaal's Strengths Evident in 'Source Code.'

I wasn't too wild about the Jake Gyllenhaal-Anne Hathaway vehicle "Love and Other Drugs," which I wrote about in this new essay for indieWIRE, but let me clear: I have an affinity for both of those actors. Hathaway's bold willingness to play against her star persona with her icky rehab-bound character in "Rachel Getting Married" proved she can really inhabit the skin of a persona, no matter how unpleasant. And Gyllenhaal has always impressed me as the rare leading man to combine youthful vitality with a mysterious dark side, as he displayed in performances ranging from "Donnie Darko" to "Brokeback Mountain." Now comes "Source Code," director ...

Review: 'The King's Speech.'

"The King’s Speech” fuses several genres into an unlikely blend. It’s a lavish period piece about British rule in the years leading up to World War II, a buddy movie about two men of different social classes learning to get along, and a crowdpleasing tale of athletic triumph, complete with the requisite training montage. Director Tom Hooper focuses on the travails of Bertie (Colin Firth), the son of King George V (Michael Gambon), future king of England, and notorious stutterer. Hooper turns history into formula: Can poor Bertie gather the nerves to address his people when duty calls? Under the fervent guidance of speech therapist Lionel Logu...