Gregarius » NYT > Movie Reviews

Out of Control

Posted: May 30th, 2008, 10:08pm EDT by By PETER KEEPNEWS

An oral biography of the comedian Chris Farley.

Out of Control

Posted: May 30th, 2008, 9:08pm EDT by By PETER KEEPNEWS

An oral biography of the comedian Chris Farley.

Film: That License to Kill Is Unexpired

Posted: May 30th, 2008, 2:34pm EDT by By CHARLES McGRATH

Ian Fleming, had he lived, would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Wednesday. James Bond, his greatest invention, is ageless and immortal.

Film: That License to Kill Is Unexpired

Posted: May 30th, 2008, 1:34pm EDT by By CHARLES McGRATH

Ian Fleming, had he lived, would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Wednesday. James Bond, his greatest invention, is ageless and immortal.

Movie Review | 'Sex and the City': The Girls Are Back in Town

Posted: May 29th, 2008, 8:05pm EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

A little Botox goes a long way in “Sex and the City,” but a little decent writing would have gone even further.

Movie Review | 'Savage Grace': Lustrous, Glittering, Monied Dysfunction

Posted: May 29th, 2008, 6:07pm EDT by By A. O. SCOTT

“Savage Grace,” Tom Kalin’s long-awaited second feature (after “Swoon”), swoons through a number of lovely, storied places on its way to a sad and sordid end.

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McCain’s Quiet Cinematic Turn

Posted: May 29th, 2008, 4:33pm EDT by By MICHAEL CIEPLY

A DVD release of the 1987 film, "The Hanoi Hilton" may end up being well-timed for John McCain.

An Appraisal: Sydney Pollack, Filmmaker New and Old

Posted: May 29th, 2008, 3:22pm EDT by By A. O. SCOTT

The director’s career was in many ways a throwback to an earlier era in American movies.

Studios in a Tentative Deal With TV Actors in One Union, but Uncertainty Remains

Posted: May 29th, 2008, 1:02am EDT by By MICHAEL CIEPLY

The agreement between the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the producers builds pressure on a bigger actors union, the Screen Actors Guild, to craft a similar solution.

Movie Review | 'Postal': Anarchy With a Short Attention Span

Posted: May 28th, 2008, 11:18pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

Infantile, irreverent and boorish to the max, “Postal” explodes with bad attitude and lousy filmmaking.

Movie Review | 'Heavy Metal in Baghdad': How to Rock in Iraq

Posted: May 28th, 2008, 11:16pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

Iraq documentary fatigue gets a rock-hard slap in the face with “Heavy Metal in Baghdad,” an intrepid, unlikely and altogether splendid feat of D.I.Y. reportage.

Books of The Times: 007 Runs Full-Throttle Through a New Book

Posted: May 28th, 2008, 10:41pm EDT by By JANET MASLIN

On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ian Fleming, the novelist Sebastian Faulks adds another ersatz James Bond title to the shaky bibliography compiled after Fleming’s death.

Movie Review | 'The Machine Girl': Retrofitted for Revenge

Posted: May 28th, 2008, 12:06pm EDT by By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

The Japanese obsession with cavorting ninjas and cunning hardware reaches some kind of climax with “The Machine Girl.”

Movie Review | 'Mukhsin': A Tomboy in Malaysia Is Introduced to Hormones

Posted: May 28th, 2008, 12:01pm EDT by By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Deceptively simple and threaded with gentle humor, “Mukhsin” paints the turmoil of puppy love on a canvas of family relationships as delightful as it is believable.

Sydney Pollack, Director of High-Profile Hollywood Movies, Is Dead at 73

Posted: May 27th, 2008, 4:30pm EDT by By MICHAEL CIEPLY

Mr. Pollack defined an era with star-laden movies like “The Way We Were,” “Tootsie” and “Out of Africa.”

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Critic’s Choice: New DVDs: Action and Adventure

Posted: May 27th, 2008, 2:51pm EDT by By DAVE KEHR

For all of its implication in its historical moment, “The Thief of Bagdad” plays like a timeless fantasy and a new version of “Come Drink With Me” is highly satisfying visually.

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At World’s End, Honing a Father-Son Dynamic

Posted: May 27th, 2008, 12:53am EDT by By CHARLES McGRATH

For the crew of the movie version of “The Road,” set to open in November, filming involved an upending of the usual rules of making a movie on location.

Indy Jones Finds Gold at Global Box Office

Posted: May 26th, 2008, 11:14pm EDT by By BROOKS BARNES

The box office gross, generated between Thursday and Monday, put to rest questions about whether one of moviedom’s most popular characters could strike a cultural chord after a 19-year hiatus from the big screen.

His Life With the Deaths That the State Carried Out

Posted: May 26th, 2008, 11:05pm EDT by By FELICIA R. LEE

“At the Death House Door” has the material to renew debate about the death penalty.

Warner Tries a New Tactic to Revive Its DVD Sales

Posted: May 25th, 2008, 11:17pm EDT by By BROOKS BARNES

Warner Brothers Entertainment is trying to boost DVD sagging sales by releasing companion projects to its films exclusively on DVD.

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At Glittery Cannes, a Gritty Palme d’Or

Posted: May 25th, 2008, 10:47pm EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS and A. O. SCOTT

At the closing ceremony of the 61st Cannes Film Festival, the red carpet was overrun by teenagers when the French film “The Class” (“Entre les Murs”) won the Palme d’Or.

Film: Israelis and Arabs Walk Into a Film ...

Posted: May 25th, 2008, 2:50am EDT by By DAVE ITZKOFF

“You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” attempts to satirize the continuing tensions between Israel and its Arab neighbors, one of the least funny topics of modern times.

Scene Stealer: Indie Films, Coming to a Small Screen Near You

Posted: May 25th, 2008, 12:14am EDT by By BROOKS BARNES

A new business aims to act as a sales agent for independent filmmakers not picked up by Hollywood — with an eye to distribute content on the Web or on other on-demand services.

Movie Review | 'War, Inc.': A Hit Man in a War Zone That Could Easily Be Iraq

Posted: May 23rd, 2008, 2:33pm EDT by By STEPHEN HOLDEN

The zany, nihilistic “War, Inc.” is gonzo moviemaking with a bleeding heart.

Cannes Journal: Soderbergh and Che, Provocateurs

Posted: May 23rd, 2008, 2:30pm EDT by By A. O. SCOTT

At Cannes, the expectations surrounding “Che,” Steven Soderbergh’s biopic of Ernesto Guevara, could hardly have been higher.

Gay, Punk and Ever the Provocateur

Posted: May 23rd, 2008, 2:26pm EDT by By DENNIS LIM

Derek Jarman, indie pioneer, iconoclast and the subject of a new documentary and DVD set, is ripe for reappraisal, years after his death.

Movie Review | 'The Children of Huang Shi': Invasion of the Heart

Posted: May 23rd, 2008, 12:07am EDT by By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

“The Children of Huang Shi” is a Hollywood weepie snuggled inside a humanitarian tribute.

Cannes Journal: Where Children Fight the Wars, Innocence Dies First

Posted: May 22nd, 2008, 10:42pm EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS and A. O. SCOTT

“Johnny Mad Dog” is an assaultive fiction about Liberian child soldiers and “Delta” is a Hungarian film that rigorously upholds the conventions of the festival art film genre.

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Movie Review | 'The Edge of Heaven': Tying Knots That Bind Lives Despite the Divisions of Generation and Nationality

Posted: May 22nd, 2008, 5:18pm EDT by By A. O. SCOTT

In the course of the extraordinary film “The Edge of Heaven,” children are lost, lost parents are never found, and generational and geographical distances grow wider.

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Movie Review | 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull': The Further Adventures of the Fedora and Whip

Posted: May 22nd, 2008, 12:34am EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

There’s plenty of frantic energy in “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” lots of noise and money too, but what’s absent is any sense of rediscovery.

Headbangers From Iraq, Thrashing and Waiting

Posted: May 22nd, 2008, 12:26am EDT by By MELENA RYZIK

The documentary “Heavy Metal in Baghdad” follows the band Acrassicauda, billed as Iraq’s only heavy-metal band.

Movie Review | 'A Jihad for Love': Torn by the Contradictions of Being Gay and Muslim

Posted: May 21st, 2008, 12:06am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“A Jihad for Love” is a dispatch from the outer limits of marginalization: a documentary on devout Muslims struggling with their homosexuality.

Cannes Journal: Reality Rudely Intrudes in the Screening Rooms

Posted: May 18th, 2008, 5:54pm EDT by By A. O. SCOTT

As the Cannes Film Festival approaches its midpoint, a rich sampling of modern cinematic realism has been on display.

Film: Call Him the Worst Director (Then Duck)

Posted: May 18th, 2008, 3:58pm EDT by By JOHN SCHWARTZ

Uwe Boll, the man who has been called the world’s worst filmmaker, wants respect. Is that too much to ask?

Film: John Cusack Goes to War

Posted: May 18th, 2008, 3:19am EDT by By DAVID CARR

Undeterred by the dismal box-office record of Iraq films, a big name joins the fray with the savage satire “War, Inc.”

Heavy Metal, Light on the Success

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 3:25pm EDT by By JOHN ANDERSON

The documentary “Anvil! The Story of Anvil” charts the story of a rock band that has stuck to its dream of glory.

Investigator to the Stars Is Convicted in Wiretaps

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 1:43pm EDT by By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Anthony Pellicano was a ripped-from-a-pulp-novel private eye who made himself an indispensable Hollywood fixer.

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Movie Review | 'Sangre de Mi Sangre': A Teenager’s Betrayal in Brooklyn

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 11:29am EDT by By STEPHEN HOLDEN

Although “Sangre de Mi Sangre” exhibits a heartfelt connection with illegal immigrants, its myriad inconsistencies and strained plotting are frustrating.

Movie Review | 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian': Out of the Wardrobe, Into a War Zone

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 11:11am EDT by By A. O. SCOTT

“Prince Caspian” is quite a bit darker than “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” both in look and in mood. It is also in some ways more satisfying.

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Movie Review | 'My Father My Lord': Another Abraham’s Story, With a Different Ending

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 10:56am EDT by By STEPHEN HOLDEN

“My Father My Lord” observes the severe family life of an ultra-Orthodox rabbi.

Film: Shaking Up the Crowd at Cannes

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 10:43am EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

The apocalypse came early to the Cannes Film Festival this year, filling screening rooms with snarling dogs, bursting bombs, shouting men and screaming women.

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For Movies, a Summer That’s Shy on Sequels

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 10:42am EDT by By MICHAEL CIEPLY

With this year’s crop of summer movies, Hollywood may have trouble topping last year’s success.

Questions for Cynthia Nixon: Chick Crit

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 9:32am EDT by Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON

The “Sex and the City” star talks about growing up with the name Nixon, learning to watch sports on TV with her girlfriend and why the small screen may be the new Broadway.

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Movie Review | 'Quantum Hoops': This Is Basketball, Boys; It’s Not Rocket Science

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 7:03am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Quantum Hoops” tells the story of the California Institute of Technology’s men’s basketball team, a farcical topic in the context of college sports.

John Phillip Law, 70, Film Actor, Is Dead

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 7:02am EDT by By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Mr. Law was the handsome movie actor who captured attention as an angel in the futuristic “Barbarella” and a lovesick Russian seaman in “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.”

Movie Review | 'Reprise': Two Friends, Two Novels, One Mailbox: Lives at the Speed of Ambition

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 12:48am EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

An exuberant, exhilaratingly playful testament to being young and hungry, “Reprise” is a blast of unadulterated movie pleasure.

Movie Review: When Selling a Soul, Consider the Price

Posted: May 16th, 2008, 12:47am EDT by By STEPHEN HOLDEN

Christian Petzold’s enigmatic thriller “Yella” offers a surreal X-ray vision of cutthroat capitalism in 21st-century Germany.

Film: Special Effects From the Real World

Posted: May 15th, 2008, 10:17pm EDT by By DAVE KEHR

Tarsem, the director of “The Fall,” didn’t need computer-generated dazzle. Just ask the swimming elephant.

Cinematic Life in Oslo (Where Else?)

Posted: May 15th, 2008, 10:17pm EDT by By DENNIS LIM

“Reprise” shows some parallels between its characters and the two men behind the movie.

Film: 50 Years of Dizzy, Courtesy of Hitchcock

Posted: May 15th, 2008, 10:17pm EDT by By TERRENCE RAFFERTY

When “Vertigo” hit screens a half-century ago, it was not at all what audiences had come to expect from the master of suspense.

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Critic’s Choice: New DVDs: Mitchell Leisen and ‘The Big Trail’

Posted: May 14th, 2008, 10:21pm EDT by By DAVE KEHR

This week’s DVDs include two films from the director Mitchell Leisen and Raoul Walsh’s 1930 epic western, “The Big Trail.”

Movie Review | 'Paraguayan Hammock': In Paraguay, Time Melts in the Torpid Air

Posted: May 14th, 2008, 12:08am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

That “Paraguayan Hammock” happens to be one of the few features to emerge from Paraguay in recent decades in no way diminishes its rarity.

Uncertain Futures for Bounty at Cannes

Posted: May 13th, 2008, 11:44pm EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS and A. O. SCOTT

With the 61st Cannes Film Festival, hurdles lie between festival screens and American theaters.

Film: Mike Tyson Film Takes a Swing at His Old Image

Posted: May 13th, 2008, 1:57pm EDT by By TIM ARANGO

Mike Tyson, his days as heavyweight champion long behind him, finds himself on an unlikely path forward as a new documentary about his life makes its premiere at Cannes.

Indiana Jones Is Battling the Long Knives of the Internet

Posted: May 12th, 2008, 5:40pm EDT by By MICHAEL CIEPLY

An online review of a coming Indiana Jones movie by Steven Spielberg has breached the film’s tight security.

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Arts, Briefly: ‘Iron Man’ Shows Muscle

Posted: May 11th, 2008, 10:57pm EDT by Compiled by LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

“Iron Man” extended its run as the No. 1 box-office attraction by pulling in $50.5 million over the weekend at movie theaters in North America.

Movie Review | 'Surfwise': A Family That Surfs to a Beat: Its Own

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 1:13pm EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

“Surfwise” has a bohemian vibe and a cool sheen, but it’s an eager-to-please, pleasing commercial enterprise with a reassuring narrative arc.

Movie Review | 'Surfwise': A Family That Surfs to a Beat: Its Own

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 12:13pm EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

“Surfwise” has a bohemian vibe and a cool sheen, but it’s an eager-to-please, pleasing commercial enterprise with a reassuring narrative arc.

Movie Review | 'Speed Racer': Gentlemen, Start Your Hot-Hued Engines

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 1:21am EDT by By A. O. SCOTT

“Speed Racer” sets out to honor and refresh a youthful enthusiasm from the past and winds up smothering the fun in self-conscious grandiosity.

Movie Review | 'Speed Racer': Gentlemen, Start Your Hot-Hued Engines

Posted: May 9th, 2008, 12:21am EDT by By A. O. SCOTT

“Speed Racer” sets out to honor and refresh a youthful enthusiasm from the past and winds up smothering the fun in self-conscious grandiosity.

Movie Review | 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead': Going for the Finger-Licking Gusto

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 11:18pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead” is just about as perfect as a film predicated on the joys of projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea can be.

Movie Review | 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead': Going for the Finger-Licking Gusto

Posted: May 8th, 2008, 10:18pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead” is just about as perfect as a film predicated on the joys of projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea can be.

Uma Thurman Tells of Odd Card Left by Pursuer

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 1:54am EDT by By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

Little pieces of torn paper, a dollar bill and a picture of a headless bride fell out of an envelope the actress told a jury she received from a suspected stalker in 2005.

Jury Gets Hollywood Wiretap Case

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 1:40am EDT by By THE NEW YORK TIMES

The six-year-old Hollywood wiretapping case went to the jury after a federal prosecutor urged the panel members to look past the celebrities and entertainment moguls involved.

Arts, Briefly: At TriBeCa Film Festival, Winners Dot the Map

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 12:53am EDT by Compiled by LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

Films from Sweden, Turkey, the Netherlands, Britain, the United States and Spain captured the top awards Thursday in juried competitions at the TriBeCa Film Festival.

Movie Review | 'Iron Man': Heavy Suit, Light Touches

Posted: May 2nd, 2008, 12:09am EDT by By A. O. SCOTT

“Iron Man” is an unusually good superhero picture. Or at least — since it certainly has its problems — a superhero movie that’s good in unusual ways.

Movie Review | 'Redbelt': In a Chokehold, on the Mat and in Life

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 11:31pm EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

“Redbelt” is a satisfying, unexpectedly involving B-movie that owes as much to old Hollywood as to Greek tragedy.

Movie Review | 'As Tears Go By': Struck by Love in a Moody Underworld

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 11:30pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“As Tears Go By,” Wong Kar-wai’s first feature film, heralds a new vision not yet in perfect focus.

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Movie Review | 'Made of Honor': My Best Friend’s Big Fat (Shouldn’t Happen) Scottish Wedding

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 11:29pm EDT by By STEPHEN HOLDEN

The romantic comedy “Made of Honor” adds tart satirical flavors to a cotton-candy formula without sabotaging the sugar rush.

Movie Review | 'XXY': Confronting the Perils of Puberty Squared

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 11:28pm EDT by By STEPHEN HOLDEN

The moody, surreal “XXY” explores the world of Alex, an intersex teenager navigating the treacherous emotional and hormonal rapids of uncertain gender.

Movie Review | 'Mister Lonely': Marilyn Monroe Returns Home to Her Husband, Charlie Chaplin

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 11:28pm EDT by By A. O. SCOTT

“Mister Lonely” is enigmatic, its moods and meanings sometimes elusive, but nearly every frame is an image of arresting clarity and beauty.

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Movie Review | 'Son of Rambow': Lonely Boy’s ‘First Blood’ and First Pal

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 11:27pm EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

“Son of Rambow” is a likable, lightly sticky valentine to childhood, the 1980s and the dawning of movie love.

Movie Review | 'The Favor': A Photographer of Pets and Perps

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 10:13pm EDT by By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

“The Favor,” a dreary, interminable drama written and directed by Eva Aridjis, is exactly one-third of a good movie.

Movie Review | 'Hollywood Chinese': Diversity of Talent and Spirit

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 10:03pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

A welcome entry in the constituency-cinema canon, “Hollywood Chinese” surveys a century’s worth of Chinese-American entertainers.

Movie Review | 'Fugitive Pieces': Dark Memories Abound

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 9:53pm EDT by By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

For a tale spiked with so much torment, “Fugitive Pieces” feels remarkably soothing.

Movie Review | 'Viva': Swinging Suburbia and the Sensual City

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 9:45pm EDT by By MANOHLA DARGIS

“Viva” is a startlingly pitch-perfect reproduction of the kind of gauzy sex movies from the 1960s and early 1970s that preceded the hard-core revolution.

Who Needs Cachet if You Have New York?

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 1:29pm EDT by By DAVID CARR

The Tribeca Film Festival has become more of a local event than a global player.

Pellicano on Pellicano: He Was No Mastermind

Posted: May 1st, 2008, 12:14am EDT by By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

Defiant and colorful to the end, the accused Hollywood wiretapper Anthony Pellicano told jurors in his racketeering trial that he was simply a diligent private eye.

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