Slogging through a Will Ferrell comedy in which he plays a human being who’s been raised as an elf at the North Pole was not high on the list of things I wanted for myself for Christmas. Imagine my surprise when I found that Elf was generally charming, often very funny and almost completely entertaining! […]

Just an American Boy came about in part when Artemis Records’ president Danny Goldberg asked writer/filmmaker Amos Poe if he’d like to do “a Don’t Look Back on Steve Earle” (referring to D.A. Pennebaker’s classic cinema verite documentary on Bob Dylan). Poe immediately loved the idea of a black-and-white documentary/concert film on the firebrand troubadour […]

I know I’m in the minority in giving The Matrix Revolutions a good review, but then I gave its immediate predecessor a good one, too — and not always for the reasons I think the Brothers Wachowski intended (and, in part, because I didn’t find The Matrix Reloaded all that much different from its much-praised […]

The mere fact that Brother Bear is a cartoon, and streets ahead of Disney’s last attempt at a kiddie flick involving bruin antics (The Country Bears), is itself a cause for minor celebration (emphasis on the word “minor,” however). Brother Bear is not only a return to the corporate-filmmaking mentality the studio blessedly eschewed with […]

Let’s face it, In the Cut — publicity-wise — is really about the utterly perky, utterly cute, utterly clean Meg Ryan popping her top. So let me assure you straight off that, yes indeed, this does occur. And, yes, Ryan actually does have breasts — which, I’m sure, has been a very troubling concern for […]

Christmas comes early this year with this completely captivating, wholly successful, unabashedly romantic (in every sense of the word) first-time directorial effort from writer Richard Curtis. Curtis’ name may initially mean little or nothing to you (writers, you know, rarely get the respect they deserve), but a quick scan of his credits tells all: from […]

If this movie were a tree in Vermont, it’d have a tap driven into it and be sporting a bucket to catch the sap. I have yet to figure out whether Radio was geared to bring a smile to the faces of the manufacturers of Kleenex or the Chapman Crane people. It’s a toss-up, but […]

All right, so it ain’t art. It’s a parody. And parodies — as separate from outright satire — are almost never art. In this instance, that’s a good thing, since the main targets of this latest — and new-and-improved — Scary Movie entry are hardly significant enough to deserve satire. The closest the movie gets […]

Here’s a movie for people who thought Mystic River was too cheerful. Actually, that’s not entirely fair, since Peter Mullan’s The Magdalene Sisters does crack the occasional smile (if a crooked one), and does offer the viewer at least a few moments of personal satisfaction within its grim confines. (And classic-movie fans are excused a […]

This clever, goofy little comedy by Greensboro filmmaker Thomas Barker (with assistance by Asheville Disclaimer writer Dave Cole, who also plays the title role of Morris) is not a great film. By the end, in fact, it’s slightly worn out its welcome. But it does show what a little inspiration, a lot of making-do and […]

Mystic River contains some great performances, plus a lot of mood and atmosphere. It’s very well made, which is no surprise coming from Clint Eastwood (who continues — even after the box-office disappointment of Blood Work — to craft films his way, making no effort to be trendy, hip or overly concerned with demographics). With […]

When word leaked out that the Michael Bay-produced remake of Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was going to eschew the kind of uber gore that’s marked such recent horror flicks as Freddy Vs. Jason, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth from some corners. Well, those who were upset about being shortchanged in […]

Veronica Guerin was a real-life Dublin journalist whose sensationalistic (we’re talking British Isles press here) exposes of the Irish drug trade shocked the nation, leading to her murder and sweeping reforms of Irish drug-enforcement laws. That much is true, but don’t go to director Joel Schumacher’s by-the-numbers biopic expecting to learn anything more than that […]

Yes, this is a bit lower on the quirk-o-meter than usual for the Coen brothers, but that hardly means that Intolerable Cruelty is quirk-free. In just about anyone else’s filmography, it would be considered at least mildly off-the-wall. While neither as good — nor as strange — as Coen offerings Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, O […]

Just how seriously does Quentin Tarantino take himself? I am increasingly convinced by the evidence on the screen that the director doesn’t take himself seriously at all, even though his more devoted followers do — and Miramax seems to have bought into that same mindset with the highly touted Kill Bill Vol. 1. Not only […]

Back in 1973 when Paper Moon came out, director Peter Bogdanovich was Hollywood’s Golden Boy — fresh from the double-punch success of The Last Picture Show and What’s Up, Doc?. Paper Moon would continue that winning streak, but it would be the last of his films to get by on a free pass. (Daisy Miller […]

Lost in Translation seems to be the movie to see these days. Yes, it’s been out for three weeks (even if it just got to Asheville) and it’s at the bottom of the Top Ten while The Rundown sits in the No. 1 spot. The Rundown, however, is on no less than 3,152 screens, while […]

Out of Time attempts to be an old-style film noir — and it sometimes succeeds in at least creating that illusion. The problem is, it’s just that: an illusion. There’s very little within this film’s often stylish confines that isn’t cobbled from other sources, most notably John Farrow’s The Big Clock (for purposes of plot) […]

Duplex is a Danny DeVito picture, so that means certain things are a given. The film will be, for instance, immaculately designed. The color scheme will lean toward dark, deep shades (Duplex‘s 19th-century Brooklyn house lends itself to this perfectly), and the entire movie will have a rich, heavily saturated look. The performances will be, […]