World's Greatest Dad
Bobcat Goldthwait directs Robin Williams in this comedy that harpoons pious sentimentality.
Marjorie Baumgarten
1291-1320 of 4,268 entries
Movie Review, Sept. 4, 2009
Taking Woodstock
The director of Brokeback Mountain looks for peace and love in another decade and finds it at the legendary festival through the story of one key participant.
Movie Review, Aug. 28, 2009
Something Wilder
AFS Essential Cinema: Censors, Drop Your Scissors! Billy Wilder's Later Comedies
Screens, Aug. 28, 2009
Once Upon a War Story
Quentin Tarantino rewrites the spaghetti western with a side of sour Krauts in 'Inglourious Basterds'
Screens, Aug. 21, 2009
Tetro
Francis Ford Coppola embraces smaller-scale filmmaking with this story about the reunion of estranged brothers in Buenos Aires.
Movie Review, Aug. 21, 2009
Shorts
A magic wishing rock becomes the undoing of an entire community in this appealing new kids romp from Robert Rodriguez.
Movie Review, Aug. 21, 2009
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Hasbro brings their boy toys to life with this story about an elite fighting squad.
Movie Review, Aug. 14, 2009
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
Jeremy Piven stars in this swift-moving, cynical, equal-opportunity offender about a team of used-car liquidators.
Movie Review, Aug. 14, 2009
Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love
Seeming more like an electronic press kit than a bona fide documentary, this profile of the Senegalese singer is both welcome and lacking at the same time.
Movie Review, Aug. 14, 2009
Shrink
A well-chosen cast props up this otherwise shallow story that stars Kevin Spacey as a therapist who turns to pot in the wake of a personal crisis.
Movie Review, Aug. 14, 2009
The Cove
This marvelously made agitprop documentary exposes the dark secrets that underpin the world’s dolphin mania.
Movie Review, Aug. 7, 2009
Little Ashes
Robert Pattinson costars as Salvador Dalí in this sexually speculative history of the artist's student years spent with friends, Federico García Lorca and Luis Buñuel.
Movie Review, Aug. 7, 2009
The Stoning of Soraya M.
This impassioned work of persuasion is like a splatter film made for the Lifetime network, a screed against stoning made for audiences who already agree.
Movie Review, July 31, 2009
The Ugly Truth
In this formulaic battle of the sexes, no one will be mistaking Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler for Hepburn and Tracy.
Movie Review, July 24, 2009
A Married Woman;
Made in U.S.A.;
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
Made in U.S.A.;
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
Go, go, Godard!
Screens, July 24, 2009
The Merry Gentleman
Michael Keaton directed and stars in this glum story about a suicidal hit man and the woman who may save him or prove to be his undoing.
Movie Review, July 17, 2009
Sitting in a Tin Can, Where Hell Is Still Other People
Director Duncan Jones on his debut film, 'Moon'
Screens, July 10, 2009
Michael Jackson Memorial Simulcasts Today in Austin at High Noon
Michael Jackson Memorial simulcasts in Austin
Screens, July 7, 2009
Management
This romantic comedy about a saleswoman and her stalker strains credibility.
Movie Review, July 3, 2009
Whatever Works
Confessions of a cranky misanthrope.
Movie Review, July 3, 2009
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Full metal racket.
Movie Review, June 26, 2009
Away We Go
See it for the many lovely performances, although the film’s vision of Gen-Y nesting is liable to leave you up a tree.
Movie Review, June 19, 2009
Easy Virtue
In this adaptation of an early Noël Coward play, Jessica Biel is the American newcomer whose brash attitudes disrupt the British decorum of her new mother-in-law (Kristin Scott Thomas).
Movie Review, June 19, 2009
Steven Prince: 30 Years After
Tommy Pallotta's film, "American Prince," is available for download.
Screens, June 12, 2009
Adoration
Atom Egoyan returns ambitiously to form with this probing, if not always successful, drama that reveals his ongoing fascination with the subjective nature of truth.
Movie Review, June 12, 2009
Treeless Mountain
So Yong Kim is an astute observer of young people as demonstrated with this film whose story is mostly told on the expressive faces of its two very young protagonists. Never overly sentimental or forcibly cute, Kim’s austere shooting style and scarcity of narrative accouterments provide a nice counterbalance to the sweetness of her young stars.
Movie Review, June 12, 2009
Summer Hours
The French filmmaker Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep, Demonlover) has upped his game with this new work of uncommonly lyrical humanism.
Movie Review, June 12, 2009
My Life in Ruins
Nia Vardalos, who hit pay dirt with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, is on shakier ground with this clichéd story about an American tourist guide in Greece.
Movie Review, June 5, 2009
Outrage
The objective of this documentary by Kirby Dick is to out closeted gay and lesbian policymakers, whose hypocrisy harms the GLBT community.
Movie Review, May 29, 2009
The General Specific
AFS Essential Cinema explores the singularities and commonalities of the human experience
