Gregarius » Items by By NATHAN LEE

Movie Review | 'The Beautiful Truth': The Evils of the Medical-Industrial Complex

Posted: November 13th, 2008, 8:39pm EST by By NATHAN LEE

“The Beautiful Truth” is a documentary about contemporary health hazards and alternative treatments.

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Movie Review | 'Dinner With the President: A Nation’s Journey': Searching for Democracy in the Pakistani Mosaic

Posted: November 13th, 2008, 12:04am EST by By NATHAN LEE

In “Dinner With the President” the filmmakers go in search of nothing less than the meaning of democracy in Pakistan.

Movie Review | 'Repo! The Genetic Opera': Playing the Organs

Posted: November 6th, 2008, 9:48pm EST by By NATHAN LEE

Darren Lynn Bousman, the director of several “Saw” sequels, has devised an excruciating new torture with “Repo! The Genetic Opera.”

Movie Review | 'Otto; Or, Up With Dead People': Straddling the Line Between Art and Smut

Posted: November 6th, 2008, 7:52pm EST by By NATHAN LEE

“Otto; Or, Up With Dead People” is sexy and silly in just the right proportions, a cult item with a real heart.

Movie Review | 'Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback': United by Shared Ambivalence

Posted: October 31st, 2008, 12:43am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback,” an ambitious but unfocused documentary, bids to immortalize this short-lived if influential group.

Movie Review | 'The First Basket': Immigrant Hoop Dreams

Posted: October 29th, 2008, 11:21am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“The First Basket,” a functional (if narrowly interesting) recollects the rich history of Jewish participation in basketball.

Movie Review | 'Saw V': Grand Guignol, by Way of the Tool Shed

Posted: October 25th, 2008, 12:38am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

The latest and least of the “Saw” films is just plain boring and even a little tame — albeit by the standards of a genre that helped bring the phrase “torture porn” into the lexicon.

Movie Review | 'The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror': Campy Chills

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 12:09pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

The heroes of “The Gay Bed & Breakfast of Terror” are so catty, obnoxious and generally unpleasant, you can’t wait for them to start getting hacked to bits.

Movie Review | 'The Universe of Keith Haring': An Artist With Enthusiasm

Posted: October 24th, 2008, 2:52am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

Keith Haring was not a great artist. He might not even have been a very good one. But he was the right person in the right place at the right time.

Movie Review | 'An American Carol': Comic Right-Wing Broadside (Very Broad)

Posted: October 4th, 2008, 12:15am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

Cheap shots and mean spirits abound in “An American Carol,” a lazy satire of the radical left.

Movie Review | 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua': Barking With Bite

Posted: October 3rd, 2008, 3:42am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” approaches but never quite achieves a truly spectacular level of absurdity.

Movie Review | 'Smother': Juggling Spouse and Parent, Painfully

Posted: September 27th, 2008, 2:57am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Smother,” starring Diane Keaton and Dax Shepard, is a shrill would-be comedy that isn’t easy to watch.

Movie Review | 'Wild Combination': Strange and Soulful Music

Posted: September 26th, 2008, 10:44am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

The music of Arthur Russell fused minimalist drone to ethereal melody, cello thrum to warbling vocals, downtown braininess to universal pop.

Movie Review | 'Forever Strong': Sports Therapy

Posted: September 26th, 2008, 4:10am EDT by By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS NATHAN LEE NEIL GENZLINGER LAURA KERN

“Forever Strong” was devised by committee, plotted by machine and acted on cruise control.

Movie Review | 'The Man From London': Slowly, Slowly in the Fog to Noir, via Simenon

Posted: September 22nd, 2008, 12:27am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“The Man From London,” directed by Bela Tarr, is an outrageously stylized, conceptually demanding film.

Movie Review | 'Bangkok Dangerous': An Assassin Arrives to Turn Off the Lights

Posted: September 6th, 2008, 7:31am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

Directed by the Pang brothers (Danny and Oxide), “Bangkok Dangerous” is a halfhearted remake of their 1999 picture of the same name.

Movie Review | 'Save Me': Going Straight to Church

Posted: September 4th, 2008, 7:19pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

Never quite shaking off its aura of second-rate made-for-TV movie, this gay conversion melodrama has a lot of heart but little nerve and no surprise.

Movie Review | 'Ping Pong Playa': Hip-Hop With Paddles

Posted: September 4th, 2008, 7:05pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Ping Pong Playa” mines hip-hop comedy gold from the least gangsta context imaginable: the assimilated Chinese-Americans of suburban California.

Movie Review | 'Disaster Movie': Chipmunks With Rabies? That Is So L L Not Cool J

Posted: August 30th, 2008, 12:29am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Disaster Movie,” the latest disposable parody of disposable Hollywood movies, has a shelf life of about five minutes, tops.

Movie Review | 'Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild': Gay Again

Posted: August 28th, 2008, 7:56pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

There’s nothing generic about “Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild!” This wretched gaysploitation number is, in fact, the worst gay sequel ever.

Movie Review | The Sensation of Sight: An Existential Mope, Hither and Thither He Goes

Posted: August 22nd, 2008, 1:01pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

David Strathairn suffers a midlife crisis and oppressively mannered filmmaking in this tale of small town tragedy and whimsy run amok.

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Movie Review | 'Death Race': Heavy Automotive Metal in a Rusty Pileup Soufflé

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 11:40pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Death Race” is a supercharged junkyard apocalypse powered by an unabashed relish for brutal comeuppance and a flair for delirious vehicular mayhem.

Movie Review | The Longshots: Tossing Around an Old Pigskin With a Rocker, Turned Director

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 8:40pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit fame directs what may be the most formulaic football movie ever made.

Movie Review | The House Bunny: The Misadventures of an Ex-Centerfold

Posted: August 21st, 2008, 7:46pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

Anna Faris proves herself a faux-bimbo par excellence in this breezy, ditzy comedy about a Playboy bunny who goes back to school.

Movie Review | 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars': An Animated Force

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 2:26pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” comes as something of a surprise: it isn’t the most painful movie of the year!

Movie Review | 'Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69': Nazisploitation Making a Comeback

Posted: August 15th, 2008, 10:31am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

Let’s go ahead and get this out of the way because I’m sure you’re dying to know: no, you shouldn’t see “Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69.”

Movie Review | 'One Bad Cat: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story': Painting His Fears

Posted: August 14th, 2008, 8:59pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

Directed by Thomas G. Miller, “One Bad Cat” brings fresh light to the artist Albert Wagner.

Movie Review | 'Fly Me to the Moon': Space in 3-D

Posted: August 14th, 2008, 8:37pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Fly Me to the Moon” bills itself as the first animated feature created expressly for 3-D. Too bad it wasn’t created expressly for, you know, pleasure or art.

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Movie Review | 'Beautiful Losers': Keeping It Real, Totally, Y’Know, Back in the Day

Posted: August 8th, 2008, 8:56am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Beautiful Losers” bids to immortalize the ethos and achievement of a group of artists affiliated with the Alleged Gallery in Manhattan.

Movie Review | 'Spirit of the Marathon': On the Run

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 7:16pm EDT by By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS NATHAN LEE

A symphony of snapping sinews and pumping thighs, “Spirit of the Marathon” makes you feel like a slug.

Movie Review | 'Passing Poston': Bearing Witness to a Historical Disgrace

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 7:07pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Passing Poston” recollects one of the most shameful episodes in United States history: the forced internment of American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II.

Movie Review | 'The Forgotten Woman': Stigmatized by Society

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 6:59pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“The Forgotten Woman,” about the marginalization of widows in India, has visual beauty, graceful compassion and understated anger.

Movie Review | 'Last Stop for Paul': An Arrival for the Dearly Departed

Posted: August 7th, 2008, 6:47pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Last Stop for Paul” follows two goofy dudes, Charlie (Neil Mandt) and Cliff (Marc Carter), as they gallivant around the globe in search of adventure.

Movie Review | 'The Reflecting Pool': Trade Secrets

Posted: July 10th, 2008, 8:11pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

The problem with “The Reflecting Pool,” an investigative drama that mucks around with 9/11 conspiracy theories, is not that its ideas are silly.

Movie Review | 'Eight Miles High': The Life of a World-Class Sex Kitten

Posted: July 10th, 2008, 8:04pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

The mythologizing of the ’60s gets a lusty, Germanic twist in “Eight Miles High.”

Movie Review | 'Harold': Old Boy

Posted: July 10th, 2008, 7:51pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“Harold” is the type of one-note dead zone ideally suited for a bathroom break while sitting home on a Saturday night, alone and semidrunk, in front of the television.

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Movie Review | 'La Rivière Gentille': Feeding a Creative Headwater

Posted: July 10th, 2008, 1:36pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“La Rivière Gentille” affords an exceedingly long afternoon in the company of the artist Louise Bourgeois.

Movie Review | 'We Are Together': The Gifts That Song Can Bring

Posted: July 3rd, 2008, 10:39pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“We Are Together” is another feel-good documentary about a feel-bad topic: the bright-eyed, golden-voiced children of Agape, an orphanage in South Africa.

Movie Review | 'Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World': A Whirling, Digitized Ride on a Small Celluloid Raft

Posted: June 27th, 2008, 9:13am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

An eye-popper and brain-boggler, “Razzle Dazzle” is also, remarkably, a thing to stir the soul.

Movie Review | 'All in This Tea': Dipping Into Many Modes

Posted: June 26th, 2008, 7:05pm EDT by By NATHAN LEE

“All in This Tea” is a delicious documentary about a beverage.

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Movie Review | 'Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine': Portrait of a Haunted Artist Who Befriended Giant Spiders

Posted: June 25th, 2008, 11:23am EDT by By NATHAN LEE

This uncommonly elegant and evocative portrait of Louise Bourgeois reveals much about the haunting and haunted master while leaving intact the thing you cannot explain.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.