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BRETT MICHEL

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Review: Attack the Block

London crawling
As a group of teenage thugs approach their intended victim (only their eyes are visible as they glare at the trainee nurse who's walking the cold south London streets alone on the way home from her shift), you'll be forgiven if you recall the recent wave of rioting in the UK.

By: BRETT MICHEL | August 23, 2011

Miranda July takes a cookie break

Meow!
July had just nabbed a chocolate-chip cookie from a table set up for a conference of visiting doctors. She was surprised — not only by the fact that one of the physicians had recognized her — but that the woman had also already seen July's latest, which is set to open in the Boston area next Friday.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 27, 2011

Review: The Smurfs

An uninspired rip-off
It may be a 3D movie set in a world populated by computer-animated blue-skinned natives, but this isn't Avatar .

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 26, 2011

Review: Winnie the Pooh

Disney dusts off the bear of little brain
If you don't mind paying full price for something so brief, you'll be delighted to find a musically driven film the whole family can enjoy.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 19, 2011

Review: Horrible Bosses

Overplayed quirks
After two comedies, it's clear Seth Gordon is good at making . . . documentaries.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 12, 2011

Review: A Better Life

The illegal immigrants keeping LA afloat
A Better Life tells a tale of a father's love and his struggles to give his son the opportunities he never had.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 12, 2011

Review: Larry Crowne

A lighter-than-air trifle
Coming 15 years after That Thing You Do!, Tom Hanks's second, confident outing as a feature director finds him co-writing a lighter-than-air trifle with old family friend Nia Vardalos, who's made nothing but awful films since initially charming audiences with My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 05, 2011

Review: Just Like Us

Leave the directing to someone else
This brainchild of Egyptian-American comedian Ahmed Ahmed is basically a collection of his home movies as he travels from the US alongside comics like Maz Jobrani and Whitney Cummings to perform stand-up in Dubai, Beirut, Cairo, Riyadh, and back.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 05, 2011

Andrew Rossi gets the story on Page One

Good Times, bad Times
Despite the Gray Lady's disdain for his own effort, Rossi nonetheless had only good things to say about the paper's media editor, Bruce Headlam, reporter Brian Stelter, former reporter Tim Arango, and, especially, media columnist David Carr.

By: BRETT MICHEL | June 29, 2011

Review: Bad Teacher

All talk and no action
Both Bad Santa and the Bad Lieutenants (Keitel and Cage) were really bad, but they were entertaining. Cameron Diaz's Bad Teacher, Elizabeth, is neither.

By: BRETT MICHEL | June 29, 2011

Review: Bride Flight

Sombogaart contrives to place the would-be couple in front of a mirror on the plane, her in a wedding gown, him standing behind her, reflecting a life that cannot be.

By: BRETT MICHEL | June 16, 2011

Kathryn Bigelow introduces her retrospective at MoMA

Bin there, done that
For the first woman ever to be awarded the Best Director Oscar, and who most recently has set out to make a film about the biggest triumph in the war against terror, the killing of Osama bin Laden, Kathryn Bigelow certainly is humble.

By: BRETT MICHEL | June 09, 2011