A - All Films 2003-6/2009

A SIDE, B SIDE, SEA SIDE (d. Wing-Chiu Chan) ** 1/4

À TOUT DE SUITE (d. Benoît Jacquot) V. Jacquot doing 60's Godard pretty darn well. ***

ABOUNA (d. Mahamet Saleh Haroun) Chad AFF. Two young brothers and their trials finding their father. **

ABSOLUT (d. Romed Wyder) Fascinating, complex thriller about 2 computer hacker political terrorists & memory restoration. *** 1/4

ACCEPTED (d. Steve Pink) V. ** 1/2

ACNÉ (d. Federico Veiroj) ***

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (d. Julie Taymor) The '60s film I've been waiting 40 years for. ****

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (d. Julie Taymore) + Even on 2nd view, this is my fave film of decade so far. ****

ADAM & STEVE (d. Craig Chester) Silly at times, but also funny & touching romantic comedy about 2 quirky, mature gay men. ** 3/4

ADAM (d. Max Mayer) *** 1/4

ADAM'S APPLES (d. Anders Thomas Jensen) ***

ADDICTION (d. Minna Virtanen) ** 3/4

ADMIRAL, THE (d. Andrei Kravchuck) *** 1/2

ADORATION (d. Atom Egoyan) *** 1/2

ADORATION (d. Atom Egoyan) + Not quite as stunning the 2nd time around...but worse: 2nd time this week I went to a film I didn't realize I'd seen before! *** 1/4

ADVENTURELAND (d. Greg Mottola) Jesse Eisenberg, like Michael Cera is the ideal pomo hero. Pleasant, if subdued, rom-com. ** 3/4

ADVENTURES OF SEBASTIAN COLE, THE (d. Tod Williams) V. Coming of age/disfunctional family story nicely, if eliptically realized. Adrian Grenier! ** 3/4

AE FOND KISS (d. Ken Loach) Ill fated love of a young 2nd generation Paki for a white woman in today's Scotland. Subtle & affecting. ***

AFGHAN STAR (d. Havana Marking) ***

AFTER INNOCENCE (d. Jessica Sanders; docu) V. *** 1/4

AFTER MIDNIGHT (d. Davide Ferrario) Whimsical paean to film à la Amélie without the irony, a charmingly cockeyed love triangle. *** 1/4

AFTER THE WEDDING (d. Susanne Bier; Denmark) *** 1/2

AFTERLIFE (d. Alison Peebles) Affecting drama: ambitious man forced to care for Down's Syndrome sister. Tear jerker, never goes over the top. *** 1/4

AFTERMATH (d. Paprika Steen) Emotionally shattering, beautifully acted chamber drama about the affects of grief on a couple & the people around them. *** 1/2

AFTERSCHOOL (d. Antonio Campos) *** 1/4

AFTERWARDS (d. Gilles Bourdos) ** 1/4

AGAINST THE CURRENT (d. Peter Callahan) *** 1/2

AGENT CODY BANKS 2 (d. Kevin Allen) Silly, but coherent kids film. At least miles better than Inspector Gadget, which is saying something. ** 1/4

AGRONOMIST, THE (d. Jonathan Demme) V. Doc. about Haitian radio radical good guy Jean Dominique. Interesting, but slow mid-section disappoints. ** 3/4

AGUA (d. Verónica Chen) ***

AHEAD OF TIME (d. Ágúst Güdmundsson; Iceland) * 3/4

AHIMSA STOP TO RUN (d. Leo Kittikorn; Thailand) *

AIME TON PERE (d. Jacob Berger) Swiss AFF. High gloss road picture about Literature Nobelist and his estranged son. *** 1/4

AIMÉE, L' (d. Arnaud Desplechin) ** 1/4

AIN'T SCARED (d. Audrey Estrougo) **

AIRES DIFICILES, LOS (d. Gerardo Herrera) ** 3/4

AKA (d. Duncan Roy)V.+ Complete re-edit from multi-screen festival version 2 years ago. Well done British lower class gay imposter story. ** 3/4

AKEELAH AND THE BEE (d. Doug Acheson) Predictable, manipulative, moving film about an 11 yr. old black girl spelling genius. ** 1/2

AL FRANKEN: GOD SPOKE (d. Nick Doob, Chris Hegedus) *** 1/4

ALAMO, THE (d. John Lee Hancock) Mediocre script with too many levels of flashbacks; but otherwise fairly well made historical pic. ** 1/2

ALATRISTE (d. Augustin Diaz Yanes) ** 3/4

ALBINO ALLEGATOR (d. Kevin Spacey)V. Hostage film in a bar with some good perfs, but pretty average script and direction. ** 1/2

ALEGRE MA NON TROPPO (d. Fernando Colomo) Slick, high gloss '94 Spanish sex farce on confused sexuality with clever plot and some fine acting. ***

ALEX & EMMA (d. Rob Reiner) Romantic comedy. A novelist & a steno who are writing and acting out a novel. A real turkey, both novel and script. *

ALEXANDER (d. Oliver Stone) Epic with a confusingly constructed script but some great battle scenes. Jolie's accent inexplicable; but Farrell is pretty good. ** 3/4

ALEXANDRA (d. Alexander Sokurov) ***

ALFIE (d. Charles Shyer) Jude Law is an attractive star playing a cad in this somewhat boring, mediocre comedy. Shyer is a hack director; but his casting works. ** 1/4

ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL (d. W.R. Fassbinder) V. Indictment of conformest, xenophobic German character; old woman marries nice young Moroccan. ***

ALICE (d. Marco Martins; Portugal) ** 3/4

ALICE UPSIDE DOWN (d. Sandy Tung) ** 3/4

ALIVE (Zhivoy) (d. Alexander Veledinsky) ** 3/4

ALL HAT (d. Leonard Farlinger) ** 3/4

ALL IN (d. Nick Vallelonga) V. I usually like poker movies; but this barely watchable drama was terrible. *

ALL OR NOTHING (d. Mike Leigh)V. Finally caught Leigh's miserabilist version of Life is Sour. As usual, fine filmmaking; but depressing. ***

ALL OVER THE GUY (d. Julie Davis)+ V. One of the better gay films...bittersweet romantic comedy which has the ring of truth and originality. *** 1/4

ALL THE KING'S MEN (d. Steven Zaillian) Why was this film critically savaged? Maybe a little over-ripe; but fantastic drama. *** 1/2

ALL THE REAL GIRLS (d. David Gordon Green) Appalachian love story; poetry of the ordinary. Schneider & Deschanel are great. *** 1/2

ALL WILL BE WELL (Wszystko Bedzie Dobrze) (d. Tomasz Wiszniewski) *** 1/2

ALLEGRO (d. Christoffer Boe) **

ALMOST ADULT (d. Yousaf Ali Khan) ** 1/2

ALMOST BROTHERS (d. Lúcia Murat) Confusingly structured Brazilian story mixing City of God with Carandiru and inferior to both. **

ALMOST PEACEFUL (d. Michael Deville) Post WWII Jews trying to return to normal life in Paris dressmaking atelier. Gentle, pastoral, slow. ** 3/4

ALONE (d. Thomas Durschschlag) 2nd film in a row about a wounded girl: this one a German who cuts herself from psychotic low self esteem. ** 3/4

ALONE IN FOUR WALLS (Allein in vier wanden) (d. Alexandra Westmeier) *** 1/4

ALONG CAME POLLY (d. John Hamburg) Big stars, but a terribly tasteless script...even Philip Hoffman overdid his slob schtick. * 1/2

ALONG THE RIDGE (d. Kim Rossi Stuart) *** 1/2

ALPHA DOG (d. Nick Cassavetes) Better than expected. Timberlake & especially a game Ben Foster outstanding. ***

ALZHEIMER CASE, THE (d. Erik Van Looy) Polished thriller about a French mafia assassin whose Alzheimers is affecting his contract hit in Antwerp. ***

AMATEURS, THE (d. Michael Traegar) A silly comedy with a fine cast, mostly wasted. * 3/4

AMAZING GRACE (d. Michael Apted) Earnest, but sort of boring film with great perf by Ioan Gruffuid. ** 3/4

AMAZING MRS. PRITCHARD, THE (d. var.) V. Involving, realistic British political what-if fantasy miniseries. ***

AMEN (d. Costa-Gavras) Shattering Holocaust drama from pov of conscientious SS Lt. and an Italian priest with the ear of the pope. *** 1/2

AMERICAN COUSINS (d. Don Coutts) The mob (Ukraine and New Jersey versions) come to Glasgow. **

AMERICAN FORK (d. Chris Bowman) **

AMERICAN GANGSTER (d. Ridley Scott) A classic gangster flick, reminiscent of Heat. *** 1/2

AMERICAN HAUNTING, AN (d. Courtney Solomon) * 3/4

AMERICAN JOBS (d. Greg Spotts) V. Informative, reasoned docu about the effect of NAFTA etc. on the American worker. Good polemics and filmmaking. ***

AMERICAN PRIMITIVE (d. Gwen Wynne) ** 1/2

AMERICAN RULING CLASS, THE (d. John Kirby)V. *** 1/2

AMERICAN SHOPPER (d. Tamas Bojtor & Sybil Dessau) *** 3/4

AMERICAN SON (d. Neil Abramson) *** 1/2

AMERICAN SPLENDOR (US d. Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini) Clever biopic/documentary about Harvey Pekar, comix writer. *** 3/4

AMERICAN TEEN (d. Nanette Burstein) *** 1/4

AMERICAN VIOLET (d. Tim Disney) Prdictable "based on true" story of ACLU victory over Texas racial injustices. Good intentions & acting; but so so. ** 3/4

AMERICAN VISA (d. Juan Carlos Valdivia; Bolivia) ** 3/4

AMERICAN WEDDING (d. Jesse Dylan) V. A new scatological nadir for this series; but I have to admit that I laughed at some situations despite myself. * 1/4

AMERICANESE (d. Eric Byler) ** 3/4

AMERICANO (d. Kevin Nolan) Contrived travelog with little plot (young Americans in Spain finding themselves) and some poor acting. * 1/2

AMNESIA - THE JAMES BRIGHTON ENIGMA (d. Denis Langlois) Dusan Dukic shines, based on true story. ** 3/4

AMNESIA (d. Nicholas Laughland) V. BBC mystery-thriller about an amnesiac cop on the trail of a possible wife murderer. Nice script, but too pat. ** 3/4

AMREEKA (d. Cherien Dabis) *** 1/2

AN ALMOST ORDINARY STORY (d. Milos Petricic) Romantic comedy about a couple who may or may not be fated to marry. ** 3/4

AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY (d. Éva Gárdos) V. Maladjustment of child of Hungarian emigres. Well acted, subtle, true to '50s & a little stolid. ** 3/4

ANARCHIST'S WIFE, THE (d. Marie Noelle, Peter Sehr) ***

ANATOMY OF HELL (d. Catherine Breillat) Opaque narrative about a girl who hires a "gay" man to ravage her. Squickily sexually explicit. **

ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY (d. Adam McKay) Totally unfunny (for me) silly, even stupid comedy take on '70s newscasters. *

AND ALONG CAME TOURISTS (Am Ende Kommen Touristen) (d. Robert Thalheim) ***

AND NOW...LADIES AND GENTLEMEN (France d. Claude Lelouch) Fine, lush melodrama about a jewel thief & a chanteuse each with memory blackouts. ***

ANDER (d. Roberto Caston) Closeted Basque farmer tenderly falls for Peruvian immigrant. Slow, but well observed & touching. *** 1/4

ANGELA (Italy d. Roberta Torre) Slow, impressionistic drama based on the true story of a drug running family in Sicily-a torrid love triangle. ** 3/4

ANGELS IN AMERICA: MILLENIUM APPROACHES (d. Mike Nichols) V. Superb adaptation, utterly absorbing, fabulous acting. Great tv. ****

ANGELS IN AMERICA: PARESTROIKA V. Uneven...some parts superlative, some long political speeches I phased out. I'm in lust with Patrick Wilson. *** 1/2

ANGER MANAGEMENT (d. Peter Segal) Star power. Nicholson mugs & Sandler is quite fine. Embarrassingly bad script & even worse direction! * 1/4

ANGST (d. Oskar Roehler) Drama about a failing marriage, he has sex problems, she's an hysteric. Well acted, if over-the-top, hard to watch. ** 1/2

ANIMATRIX (US/JAPAN d. Various) 9 animated shorts from the Matrix universe. Some better than others. ** 3/4

ANNAPOLIS (d. Justin Lin) An average, predictable film with another charismatic perf by James Franco as a boxer-plebe. A guilty pleasure. ** 1/4

ANNIVERSARY PARTY, THE (d. Leigh & Cumming) V. An almost perfect video film of today's Hollywood creative types & their screwed-up fabulous lives. *** 1/2

ANONYMOUS (d. Todd Verow) Verow tries arty French porn (a la Porn Theater). He's not up to it as director or actor. Degrading, despicable disaster. 1/2*

ANOTHER GAY MOVIE (d. Todd Stephens) * 1/2

ANOTHER LIFE (d. Michele Placido) Stephano Accorsi's makes it worth sitting through this strange, eerie romantic film. ** 3/4

ANOTHER LIFE (Ovunque Sei) (d. Michele Placido) ***

ANSWER MAN, THE (d. John Hindman) ***

ANTARCTICA (d. Yair Hochner) Multi-character Israeli gay story of hot men & their sex lives. Well acted, somewhat involving. ***

ANTARES (d. Götz Spielmann) Circularly constructed, sexually explicit slice of life drama about denizens of a Vienna housing development. ***

ANTIBODIES (d. Christian Alvart) *** 1/2

ANYTHING ELSE (d. Woody Allen) A failure. Occasionally funny romantic comedy; but Allen's dialog seems false coming from 20-somethings. ** 1/4

ANYTOWN (d. Dave Rodriguez) ** 3/4

APARTMENT, THE (d. Billy Wilder) + Holds up remarkably, still Lemmon's and MacLaine's triumph; but also a fine original script. *** 1/4

APOCALYPTO (d. Mel Gibson) Gotta hand it to him, an art film with stretches of boredom; but overall it worked as an action film. ** 3/4

APPALOOSA (d. Ed Harris) I like westerns; but despite a fine cast this one seems derivative (e.g. 3:10 to Yuma) & lacking convincing motivations. ** 1/4

APRÈS VOUS (d. Pierre Salvadore) Annoying and contrived French farce. * 3/4

ARCHANGEL (d. Jon Jones) V. TV thriller from Robert Harris book with a dead fish Daniel Craig perf. pre-Bond, but quite authentic Soviet feeling. ***

ARCHANGEL'S FEATHER, THE (d. Louis Manzo) Venezuela AFF. Allegory, maybe about Archangel Gabriel vs. Big Brother.. ** 3/4

ARISTOCRATS, THE (d. Paul Provenza) 100 great standup comedians do history's worst dirty in-joke. 90 minutes of constant wracking laughter. *** 3/4

ARMIN (d. Ognjen Svilicic) ** 3/4

ARO TOLBUKHIN, EN LA MENTE DEL ASESINO (d. Agusti Villaronga etc.) Faux documentary about mass murderer in Guatemala. **

AROUND THE BEND (d. Jordan Roberts) 4 generation of a family's secrets made into a road picture, similar to Last Orders, but rather pedestrian. ** 1/4

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (d. Frank Coraci) A ridiculously overblown remake of a movie which didn't need to be remade. * 1/4

ARSÈNE LUPIN (d. Jean-Paul Salomé) Big film, bigger mess. Anachronistic narrative, a lead actor without enough gravitas, but gorgeous production design. * 1/2

ART AND COPY (d. Doug Pray) ***

ART OF CRYING, THE (Kunsten at Graede I Kor) (d. Peter Fog) *** 1/4

ART OF NEGATIVE THINKING, THE (Kunsten A Tenke Negativt) (d. Bard Breien) ***

ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL (d. Terry Zwigoff) Amusing black comedy satire. Broadbent is great; but this is no Ghost World. ***

ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES (d. Luc Besson) Luc should stick to live action; predictable, badly acted & animated. * 1/2

ARYAN COUPLE, THE (d. John Daly) Sometimes cheesy melodramas just work, as this well-cast, politically incorrect Holocaust story does for me. Judy Parfitt is wonderful. ***

AS IT IS IN HEAVEN (d. Kay Pollack)+ Watched again; some of the plot manipulations more obvious a 2nd time; but still fine, affecting film. *** 1/4

AS IT IS IN HEAVEN (d. Kay Pollak) Uplifting & emotionally satisfying drama about an artist who brings enlightenment to his backwater Swedish home town. *** 1/2

ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES (d. Andrew Dominik) Great looking; but the narrator on downers annoyed. ** 3/4

ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON, THE (d. Niels Mueller) Sean Penn is remarkable as a '70s loser who becomes a plane hi-jacker. ***

ASSASSINATION TANGO (d. Robert Duvall) Thriller on valium. Duvall is a fine actor; but lousy writer/director from this film. * 3/4

ASTRONAUT FARMER, THE (d. Michael Polish)V. Subdued Thornton in gentle mode; pretty, feel-good fantasy not typical of Polish Bros. ** 1/2

ASTRONAUTS (d. Santi Amodeo) Slight, wry romantic comedy about an ex-junky and a 16 yr girl. Not as cute as it tries to be. **

ASYLUM (d. David Mackenzie) ** 3/4

AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR (d. Gilbert & James) Low key docu about former Texas death row chaplin, esp. his remorse over past injustices & the penalty itself. ** 3/4

AT WEST OF PLUTO (d. Myriam Verreault & Henry Bernadet) ***

ATONEMENT (d. Joe Wright) Wright's direction & McAvoy's acting make this a special tearjerker. Oscar? Maybe. *** 1/2

AUGUST (d. Austin Chick) *** 1/4

AUGUST RUSH (d. Kirsten Sheridan) As delirious & affecting as Sheridan's Disco Pigs, but too many plot holes. ***

AURORA (d. Oxana Bayrak; Ukraine) ** 1/2

AUSTRALIA (d. Bazz Luhrmann) Reminiscent of Giant, a gigantic, yet intimate epic focusing on ranching & a country's ethos. Ambitions almost fulfilled. ***

AUTISM: THE MUSICAL (d. Tricia Regan) Moving, heart-rending docu...nice editing & photog. *** 3/4

AUTUMN BALL (d. Veiko Ounpuu ) * 1/2

AUTUMN SPRING (d. Vladimir Michátek) Czech comedy/drama about an old couple. Academy bait...so why did Czechoslavakia nominate another film? ***

AVELLANEDA'S MOON (d. Juan José Campanella) Long, high-gloss social comedy about an Argentine social club & its member's struggles to survive. ** 1/2

AVENUE MONTAIGNE (Fauteuils d'orchestra) (d. Daniele Thompson; France) + *** 1/2

AVIATOR, THE (d. Martin Scorsese) Powerful biopic, visually splendid with great perfs by Di Caprio and Blanchett. Too sprawling, but it worked magic for me. *** 1/2

AWAY FROM HER (d. Sarah Polley) Julie Christie is aging gorgeously. And her Alzheimer's is totally convincing. *** 1/2

AWAY WE GO (d. Sam Mendes) Wildly variable road flick, social satire. John Krasinski is becoming a major star. ** 3/4