Indie film news, reviews, commentary, interviews, podcasts and more, updated throughout the week.
Reviews: October 2009 Archives
Doing It to Death
By Rob Nelson on 10/28/2009
Smooth criminal or fragile humanitarian? Eternally childlike or mortally flawed? Black or white? Might not the late Michael Jackson have been all of the above? As for Kenny Ortega, the longtime MJ associate entrusted to whittle three-and-a-half hours of rehearsal footage down to less than two, he was obviously never going to be Barbara Kopple or Albert Maysles, much less Pedro Costa or Frederick Wiseman. But at least Ortega's "This Is It" allows us to see the self-anointed King of Pop as a moonwalking mass of contradictions right to the end, which is about as much as one could reasonably... MORE »
-
- Comment
Satan's Churches
By Rob Nelson on 10/21/2009
Filed under: ReviewsThose who say that "Antichrist" is without redeeming value don't know what the hell they're talking about. Because despite Lars von Trier's images of child death, bodily torture and forest animals in various states of evisceration, not to mention dialogue that could cause temporary damage to the brain, "Antichrist" does have genuine healing power. A short time before the grieving parents known only as He (Willem Dafoe) and She (Charlotte Gainsbourg) are (spoiler alert!) genitally mutilated, He teaches She the "five, five, and five" method of breathing -- that's five seconds each for the inhaling, holding, and exhaling of breath.... MORE »
Wild Mood Swings
By Rob Nelson on 10/14/2009
Filed under: ReviewsIs the family-film crowd that flocked to "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" ready for the deep melancholy of Spike Jonze's "Where the Wild Things Are"? At a recent preview screening in Seattle, the audience dutifully sported the studio's gold paper crowns and acted giddy with anticipation as the film's co-writer Dave Eggers invited viewers to howl like wild things whenever the mood struck. Unless this critic's ears failed him, no one howled during the film -- a compliment of sorts to its discomfiting subversion of the kiddie-flick holla-back formula. In Jonze's admirably realist adaptation of Maurice Sendak's book, the... MORE »
Fear and Learning
By Rob Nelson on 10/07/2009
Filed under: ReviewsEvil is a bitch in "Paranormal Activity." Notwithstanding a few things that go bump in the night, Paramount's supernaturally successful Slamdance pickup -- promoted this week from midnight cult-film spooking to a limited release in normal business hours -- might more accurately be called "Scenes From a Hellish Relationship." Living sinfully in San Diego, young day trader Micah (Micah Sloat) and his English-majoring girlfriend Katie (Katie Featherston) bicker over how to deal with ghosts in the house -- otherwise known as skeletons in the closet. Asserting in various ways that the place is his to protect (he paid for it,... MORE »
