Sir! No Sir!

The GI anti-war movement during the Vietnam war is recounted in this revelatory documentary whose current implications cannot be underestimated.

"...alternative centers for military persons to associate and share ideas outside the confines of the base. It’s a history..."

May 19, 2006 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Trudell

John Trudell, the Native American rights activist and spoken-word artist and musician, is the subject of this reverential biographical portrait that feels more like a press package than a full-fledged biopic.

"...the No Nukes movement stems from his totemic philosophical ideas about Mother Earth. To her credit, Rae gives free..."

March 31, 2006 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Pulse

The ghost is literally in the machine in this prototypical Japanese horror film that works primarily with dread and inexplicable phenomena rather than blood and guts.

"...be as lonely to endure as life. The film’s ideas are provocative, yet vague and unfully formed. It’s much..."

Jan. 6, 2006 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Aeon Flux

Its heart is in the right place, but Aeon Flux's head is just a little too high to make much sense.

"...authors, it doesn’t lack for nifty (and often depressing) ideas of where mankind is currently heading. Based on Peter..."

Dec. 9, 2005 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

A League of Ordinary Gentlemen

This documentary about Americans' love of bowling traces our fascination through the sport's glory decades and eventual decline to its recent revival.

"...Seventies to Nineties. He puts into play some key ideas for his documentary: The glory days were a time..."

Sept. 30, 2005 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Mondovino

Sprawling documentary about the globalization of the wine industry is ambitious but frequently directionless – for true connoisseurs only.

"...narrative films, fails to bring over the most basic ideas of storytelling – of setting a scene and introducing..."

June 10, 2005 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

The Jacket

This mix of amnesia, time travel, and Adrien Brody adds up to a fairly forgettable experience.

"...the film never really confronts any of the rich ideas inherent in the time-travel conceit, nor uses any of..."

March 4, 2005 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

We Don't Live Here Anymore

What people fight about when they fight about love.

"...so inhumane in the process? There are some interesting ideas kicking around here – especially about the imbalance of..."

Sept. 3, 2004 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring

A Buddhist monk, viewed from childhood to old age, becomes a vehicle for exploring the journey of the soul in this cinematically rich Korean film.

"...each shot so that it communicates a wealth of ideas to the viewer cinematically. He indulges in camera tricks..."

May 21, 2004 Movie Review by Marrit Ingman

The Same River Twice

A documentary about how things change and don't change.

"...in a while, we sense the filmmaker touching on ideas about the choices we make in life and their..."

March 26, 2004 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Calendar Girls

Middle-aged British women bare all for charity.

"...tweaks the status quo without ever really challenging cultural ideas about propriety and body image. The story gets under..."

Jan. 2, 2004 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

The Missing

Ron Howard directs Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett in tough Western drama.

"...tone and budget, it’s clear from The Missing that ideas about the Old West were still rattling around in..."

Nov. 28, 2003 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Millennium Actress

This Japanimation import is a sweeping romantic saga full of big, lush ideas.

"...Actress is nothing if not full of big, lush ideas about self and self-sacrifice. They match the rolling scope..."

Oct. 24, 2003 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Casa de los Babys

The new film from John Sayles presents a great group of characters and then strands them without a plot.

"...him. What Sayles gives us is a jumble of ideas and stunning performances that never coalesce into a satisfying..."

Oct. 10, 2003 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Scorched

"...manage to eke out humor from the barest of ideas. Although Scorched is no thigh-slapper, its comedy is light..."

Aug. 1, 2003 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Levity

"...indeed peck away at some of the movie’s core ideas about redemption and forgiveness, but in the end it’s..."

July 11, 2003 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

My Wife Is an Actress

"...us feeling touched and amused by several moments and ideas, but nevertheless dissatisfied with the movie as a whole...."

Aug. 30, 2002 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Sunshine State

"...owe much to Sayles' screenplay, in which words and ideas converge with crystalline clarity. The monologues sound as if..."

Aug. 2, 2002 Movie Review by Steve Davis

Family Fundamentals

"...whereas I tend to see only spilt milk. Certain ideas are incapable of co-existence, but glory be the human..."

July 19, 2002 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Ice Age

Prehistoric buddy cartoon.

"...but glinting through the cracks are some surprisingly progressive ideas about living in harmony in the midst of nature's..."

March 15, 2002 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Metropolis

"...race, and eternal life. It's a mini-epic, bursting with ideas and overflowing with some of the most spectacular animation..."

Feb. 15, 2002 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

A Beautiful Mind

"...Yet he finds organic visual means for conveying these ideas, and actors up to the task of rendering the..."

Dec. 28, 2001 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Vanilla Sky

"...makes Vanilla Sky a success. With plenty of big ideas lurking just out of sight behind John Toll's lush,..."

Dec. 14, 2001 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Focus

"...model of how blanket hatreds of particular groups or ideas can spread like wildfire from house to house is..."

Dec. 7, 2001 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

O: The Movie

"...words still make sublime sense. When done wrong, his ideas rub like an anachronistic rug burn in modern times...."

Aug. 31, 2001 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

"...Curse of the Jade Scorpion has plenty of terrific ideas bubbling just below the surface, but because the director..."

Aug. 24, 2001 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Princess and the Warrior

"...the director is tossing off a raft of fine ideas (love, fate, and random chance again play into the..."

July 20, 2001 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Monkeybone

"...a movie lost in a tide of brilliant, unrealized ideas -- too many of them, perhaps. The concept of..."

Feb. 23, 2001 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Mr. Accident

"...auteur Yahoo Serious is a frenetic mishmash of half-baked ideas and nonstop physical and prop-oriented comedy that, in a..."

Dec. 8, 2000 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Pola X

Carax's follow-up to The Lovers on the Bridge is based on Herman Melville's novel Pierre, or the Ambiguities, and is rich in images and ideas. A man who shuffles between the houses of his mother and fiancée becomes involved with a woman who says she is his illegitimate sister.

"...suggestively supple, Carax's images are rich with emotion and ideas. Mostly emotion, though -- it's not for nothing that..."

Oct. 27, 2000 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

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