Monday, January 31, 2011

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 1/11

Other movies I reviewed over the last month...



IN THEATRES...

* All Good Things, a true-ish crime story that is fine despite its distanced point of view.

* Another Year, Mike Leigh's incisive take on the ups and downs of a year in the life of a particular group of friends.

* Biutiful, Javier Bardem is here to help, but Alejandro González Iñárritu's movie is still absolutely dreadful.

* The Green Hornet, the odd pairing of Michel Gondry and Seth Rogen gives us too much and yet not enough.

* The Illusionist, Sylvain Chomet's charming, bittersweet animated adaptation of Jacques Tati.

* On the Bowery, Lionel Rogosin's 1957 Neorealist look at life on skid row.



ON DVD/BD...

* Backdraft, examining my past enjoyment of Ron Howard movies by watching the BD of the movie that started it all going wrong.

* The Color Purple, Steven Spielberg's unlikely adaptation of Alice Walker is still surprisingly effective.

* Inspector Bellamy, the final film from Claude Chabrol feels strangely unfinished. Starring Gerard Depardieu.

* Last Train Home, a heartbreaking documentary about a family of migrant workers in China.

* Red Hill, a modern western from Australia, starring the guy who plays Jason Stackhouse on True Blood as a city sheriff stuck in a small-town revenge plot.

Speaking of True Blood...

* The Romantics, Anna Paquin shines next to a bunch of TV refugees doing their best with an underdeveloped script.

* Welcome to the Rileys, a middling indie drama given significant heft by accomplished performances from James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo. (Not so fast, Kristen Stewart...)

* A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, Zhang Yimou's remake of Blood Simple is now on DVD.

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