Screen
Gospel slop
Assembled from spare parts of Footloose and Sister Act, the serviceable gospel contraption Joyful Noise takes place in an economically hard-hit Georgia town, where the multiracial members of the Divinity Church Choir raise voices and spirits under the direction of ...
Home viewing: ‘The Breaking Point’
When Jack Warner previewed The Breaking Point in the summer of 1950, he knew he had a hit on his hands. And with good...
Conned by a film
The brilliantly untrustworthy documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop reminds us that a film can start out in one direction and then change course so radically, it becomes an act of provocation unto itself. It’s billed as the first feature by the shadowy British ...
Out of this world
Another Earth is quietly and movingly out of this world. Director Mike Cahill has woven sci-fi imaginings and quantum physics theories of parallel universes into a provocative meditation on the prospect of rewriting your life history. It is no simple task to ...
Don’t pity the A-Team
Based on the 1980s TV series of the same name, The A-Team starts with the formation of the team by former Army Rangers. Eighty successful missions later, they’re tricked into recovering stolen U.S. Mint plates that threaten to enable terrorists destroy the nation’s...
Cookies tossed, paradise lost
Until now, writer/director Harmony Korine’s brand of artistic weirdness has been completely useless. Intentionally obtuse to the point of sloppy goofiness, his work has differed from student films solely because he wasn’t enrolled...
Rose-tinted world
At the end of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, house-servantturned-space-commander Riff Raff threatens the sequinned-and-fishnetted Dr. Frank-N-Furter with a laser trident and yells, “Say goodbye to all of this, and hello to oblivion...
‘Youth in Revolt’ part inspired, part irresponsible
"Punk" and "rebel" don't belong in the same sentence with "Michael Cera." But somehow, they connect in the few-holds-barred teen comedy "Youth in Revolt...
Life before test screenings
"And then the big Native American smothers him to death with a pillow after he sees that he’s been lobotomized! Wait, Mr. Producer! Where are you going...
