Last week saw the opening of three fairly negligible mainstream titles and Roman Polanski’s remarkable The Ghost Writer (all reviewed in this week’s Xpress). This week brings us two new mainsteam offerings in wide release—How to Train Your Dragon and Hot Tub Time Machine—along with Atom Egoyan’s Chloe (also reviewed in Wednesday’s Xpress), opening at the Carolina exclusively, and the highly acclaimed French film A Prophet, opening exclusively at the Fine Arts.

Last week as you remember (or maybe not), I wrote a little about the age-old practice of filmmakers borrowing from earlier films and being influenced by other filmmakers and their work. I promised this week to move into the realm of filmmakers who move beyond the odd swipe and general influence to those who specifically […]

OK, so last week was pretty grim, but there was a lot of it: Green Zone, Our Family Wedding, Remember Me, She’s Out of My League. (All are reviewed in this week’s Xpress.) Well, yes, there was The Girl on the Train and The White Ribbon, but almost no one went to see those. In fact, most people stuck with Alice in Wonderland. There are fewer titles this week, but most of them don’t look like they’re likely to be any better than last week’s crop. The notable exception is Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, which opens Friday at the Fine Arts Theatre.

No question seems to conjure more controversy among the cineaste crowd than the one that arises in connection with modern film and the tendency of quite a few filmmakers to lean heavily on movies of the past. Now, when I say modern film, I’m talking about film that’s been modern for quite a long time now.