DVD of the Week – Review of The Hangover (2009)
by NIR SHALEV
Director Todd Phillips’ Old School (2003) has become a cult phenomenon much like its obvious inspiration National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). On that note I remain in the minority of movie goers that hates Old School and finds it grossly infantile and unfunny. That’s why it gives me particular pleasure to announce that I love Phillips’ new film The Hangover because it works as a smart comedy and also on every other level. Read more 
Movie Review – The Princess and the Frog (2009)
by HELEN GEIB
Disney’s new animated feature The Princess and the Frog is a deliberate throwback that invites comparison with classic Disney films and, from the post-Walt era, with The Little Mermaid, with which it shares co-directors Ron Clements and John Musker. The return to the studio’s roots starts with the 2D hand-drawn animation and inspired-by-a-classic-fairy-tale story and continues through the big Broadway musical sensibilities. It’s still a winning formula, and The Princess and the Frog is a charming, funny, tuneful, and gorgeous to look at addition to the Disney canon. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
Danish filmmaker/provocateur Lars von Trier and musician Dave Matthews might not have a lot in common most of the time, but they do this week: both have movies opening in Indiana for one week only. Yup, if you want to see either von Trier’s latest, Antichrist, or Larger Than Life - the 3D concert film featuring Matthews, Ben Harper, and Gogol Bordello – in a theater, you have just one week to do so. For more on both films – and updated information about films holding over in Indiana and opening elsewhere around the country – read on below…. Read more
Movie Review – The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans (2009)
by NIR SHALEV
Crazy auteur and part-time genius filmmaker Werner Herzog (Fitzcarraldo, Grizzly Man) got his kicks during the 1970s directing films that starred an even crazier man, Klaus Kinsky. He and Kinsky made great films together in which Kinsky’s character was usually crazy. The director and actor were also good friends. Now Herzog has made friends with Nicolas Cage and it’s one of the best film-related happenings of the decade. Read more
DVD of the Week – AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa
by HELEN GEIB
“AK 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa” is a new box set from Criterion timed to coincide with the centenary of Kurosawa’s birth. The box set includes all but five* of Kurosawa’s films. Four of the films in the set- Kurosawa’s first four films as director- are being released on DVD for the first time. Read more
Movie Review – Armored (2009)
by HELEN GEIB
Armored is a taut thriller directed by Nimród Antal from a script by James V. Simpson. Its subject is an inside job heist of an armored truck transport. The criminals are the security detail, two three-man crews: Mike, Baines, and Ty, played respectively by Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne, and Columbus Short; and Quinn, Palmer, and Dobbs, played by Jean Reno, Amaury Nolasco, and Skeet Ulrich. The film’s other significant characters are a sheriff’s deputy (Milo Ventimiglia), the shift boss (Fred Ward) at the security company, and Ty’s younger brother Jimmy (Andre Kinney). Read more
Movie Review – Pirate Radio (2009)
by NIR SHALEV
Writer/director Richard Curtis, who’d brought us Love Actually reproduces its formula but places us on a boat during the 1960s. Much like in Love Actually, we have a huge variety of actors playing characters that may or may not be important to the story, but they’re there and they entertain us and they fill in the gaps usually left by silence. Read more
Thinking Outside the Multiplex
by MIKE MACCOLLUM
So it’s another unusual week for theatrical releases in Indiana. We get the curious-looking Paa, along with a most-unexpected documentary about steam-powered trains in England – but all is again quiet on the new-art-film-front at the Keystone Arts (although some relief may be in the offing two weeks from now). For all of this and more, more, more – not to mention this week’s listing of limited release films opening around the country – read on below…. Read more
Hollywood Releases Preview – December, 2009
by HELEN GEIB
This is going to be a good month at the multiplex. It’s not all good. But there’s enough. Read more
DVD of the Week – Review of Gomorrah (2009)
by TOM NIXON
It makes Goodfellas look dishonest and The Godfather ridiculous; Gomorrah delves deep into the Camorra-run Scampia slums and finds at their core an all-consuming abyss. This is a cold, cold cinema, a sprawling machine of tiny disposable parts which have no awareness of – interest in – anything existing beyond. There’s nothing elegiac about the deadened tone, nor is the process of stripping down itself romanticized a la No Country For Old Men. This is a gangster movie which hates other gangster movies for conjuring glorious, sweeping dramas out of a cesspool. It says a lot that the film feels as modern as anything. Read more
