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Recent Posts Tagged With 'a's'
Getafilm Gallimaufry: Amreeka, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Road, and Anticipating Avatar
[Note: This series includes scattered thoughts on various movie-related topics. I was looking for a word that started with the letter "g" that means collection or assortment, but lest you think I'm some elitist wordsmith, know that I'd never heard of...
Living in Emergency: A Nationwide Screening and Discussion on Monday, December 14
Recently shortlisted for an Oscar, you have the rare chance to see the film and watch a live panel discussion moderated by Elizabeth Vargas Soon after watching Mark Hopkins' award-winning documentary, Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without...
REVIEW: Crude (A)
As I see it, the disappointing increase in popularity and production of Michael Moore-style "agit-docs" (agit, short for agitating) over the last few years has seriously threatened to diminish the credibility of actual documentary films. These days I...
REVIEW: Milking the Rhino
Picture the last nature documentary you saw about the African bush: bilbao trees, tall grasses, lush jungle, parched desert, and wildlife ranging from impalas to elephants, zebras to giraffes. If it's anything like the last one I saw, the animals ap...
Getafilm Gallimaufry: This Is It, Wild Things, Flute-Playing Goat & Tyler Perry
[Note: This series includes scattered thoughts on various movie-related topics. I was looking for a word that started with the letter "g" that means collection or assortment, but lest you think I'm some elitist wordsmith, know that I'd never heard of...
REVIEW: A Serious Man (A)
Consider some of the classic songs featured at pivotal moments of Coen Bros. movies: the operatic "Oh Danny Boy" in Miller's Crossing, the psychedelic "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" in The Big Lebowski, and the bluegras...
REVIEW: P-Star Rising (A-)
If you were at a club at 2:00 AM and a nine year-old little girl got up on the stage and started rapping, your natural instinct would likely cause you to smile and say, "Aw, that's so funny/cute/random/disturbing." You'd have an amusing story to tell...
300 Words About: Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
Jazz just sounds cooler when it's backing a black and white scene, doesn't it? Gives it an organic, refreshing sound, almost a palpable texture. Jazz under neon blue lights and nightclub smoke makes for a great atmosphere, too, but that's sultry and ...
Getafilm Gallimaufry: Lorna, Basterds, Slumdog, and Sellouts
[Note: This series is comprised of scattered thoughts on various movie-related topics. I was simply looking for a word that started with the letter "g" that means collection or assortment. Lest you think I'm some elitist wordsmith, I'd never heard of...
REVIEW: Take Out (A)
I believe the only moment in the extraordinary Take Out that made me laugh occurred while main character Ming Ding (Charles Jang) was sweeping the sidewalk. He has one of those telescoping dust pans and brooms, and as he tries to sweep the pile into ...
Taking It Home: The Battle of Algiers
("Taking It Home" is an alternative review style in which I share my thoughts on a movie's themes and how they may relate to my life, while focusing less on the acting, writing, technical aspects, or even plot of the film. It's a collection of the id...
300 Words About: Ponyo
As a stand-alone painting this is beautiful, as a feature-length film it's incredible...I probably should have kept my mouth shut a few months ago when I whined, " I fear we're going to lose the human element to animation". I knew both Ponyo and The ...
REVIEW: The Cove (A)
Before I left San Diego a few years ago, I made an effort to try and visit all of the local attractions that I'd always avoided as tourist traps, such as Sea World. All the times I'd driven to and through Mission Beach, I never stopped at Sea World. ...
300 Words About: In the Loop
The charming face of international diplomacy...Every time I go to Washington, D.C., I find myself increasingly noticing the ugliness of the place. Of course the city is not physically ugly (I love the National Mall), or culturally ugly (quite the opp...
Taking It Home: The Hurt Locker
[A reminder: "Taking It Home" is an alternative review style in which I haphazardly share my thoughts on a movie's themes and how they may relate to my life, while focusing less on the acting, writing, technical aspects, or even plot of the film. It'...
CDtZ: School of Rock (2003)
[Note: This is a submission for Counting Down the Zeroes, a brilliant, year-long project headed up by Film for the Soul's ambitious chief, Ibetolis. By the end of this year it will exist as a comprehensive collection of the best movies of the decade ...
An Inconvenient Food
(Food, Inc. opens tomorrow at the Landmark Lagoon Theater. This is a long and scattered follow-up to my preview of the film from April.) It wasn't too long ago that Morgan Spurlock's mischievous Super Size Me successfully, and perhaps surprisingly, e...
Up: "You Know, That Disney Pixar Movie"
Carl recalls the days when a Disney movie was known as a "Disney movie"...In the week or so since seeing Up, I've heard about a dozen people refer to it in conversation as "that Pixar movie", which, of course, it is. But it's also a Disney movie, off...
Revanche, Jerichow, and the State of the American Suspense Thriller
In discussing the Underrated MOTM for May, Breakdown, I lamented that American suspense thrillers are about as prevalent and dependable as American cars these days:"...shouldn't we appreciate it and movies like it more during this absolute droug...
REVIEW: The Song of Sparrows (A)
(The Song of Sparrows opens this weekend at the Landmark Edina Cinema)Sometimes I watch movies like The Song of Sparrows and shake my head (out of a sense of righteous global-mindedness, of course). There couldn't be more obstacles in its way in catc...
Taking It Home: Anvil! The Story of Anvil
"We're gonna do it together. We're gonna get there - we're gonna be rock stars! It's a dream...but I'm gonna make it come true!"Don't let the fact that Sacha Gervasi wrote and produced The Terminal dissuade you from seeing his directorial debut, ...
300 Words About: Tokyo Sonata
(Tokyo Sonata opens today at the Landmark Edina Cinema)The family that broods together stays together...If, like me, you didn't understand the big fuss about American Beauty ten years ago, consider taking a look-see at Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata...
REVIEW: Tyson (A-)
(Tyson opens tomorrow at the Landmark Edina Cinema)For as much international fame and fortune he once acquired for knowing his way around a boxing ring, Mike Tyson rarely received due praise for knowing his way around a dictionary. This is a guy who ...
REVIEW: Tulpan (A-)
(Tulpan plays in exclusive engagement at the Walker Art Center this Friday-Sunday, May 8-10. Tickets) If there is a place on Earth that looks as unforgiving as Minnesota in January, it is the Kazakh Steppe as seen in Sergei Dvortsevoy's Tulpan, an as...
REVIEW: Goodbye Solo (A-)
"A Pakistani guy, a couple of Hispanic kids, a Senegalese guy, even William, who feels even more like an outsider in Winston-Salem than Solo—that’s a huge part of the meaning. These are three American films by an American director named, Ramin Ba...
MSPIFF Weekend #2 Roundup
After seeing some good to great movies at MSPIFF last weekend, I hit Il Divo and Heart of Fire (review likely forthcoming) on Monday and A Walk to Beautiful on Thursday. I had a tough time following Il Divo due to either confusion or exhaustion (or b...
REVIEW: Sugar (A)
A few years ago I attended the semi-finals and finals of the inaugural World Baseball Classic. I'm a baseball fan (Twins and pre-2004 Red Sox during college, when they were still lovably cursed and I worked part-time at a souvenir shop at Fenway Park...
Sita Sings the Computer Animated Blues?
While watching Sita Sings the Blues I was again revisited by a question that pops up everytime I see an animated movie: have computers completely taken over the realm of animation? If so, is that for the better or for the worse? If not, where does th...
REVIEW: Medicine for Melancholy (A-)
While I'm admittedly no expert on analyzing film trends, I'm confident enough calling myself an observer of them. It would appear that over the last 18 months, for example, a New Wave of American independent filmmaking has begun in earnest.Somehow, w...
Taking It Home: Pray the Devil Back to Hell
As Margaret Mead famously stated:"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Today in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, International Women's Day will be celebrat...
