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Review: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Driving through the wasteland
In Nuri Bilge Ceylan's minimalist "Eastern," the Leone-esque title seems ironic, as a team of bumbling investigators spend hours driving through the Anatolian wasteland searching for the grave of a murder victim.

By: PETER KEOUGH | May 08, 2012

Review: This Is Not A Film

Artistic provocation
It can't be a film, because the acclaimed director Jafar Panahi ( The Circle , etc.) has been ordered not to make any by the Iranian theocrats who have also sentenced the dissident filmmaker to an upcoming jail sentence.

By: GERALD PEARY | May 01, 2012

Review: The Five-Year Engagement

Nicholas Stoller's inventive, funny, and sometimes subversive romantic comedy won't revive that benighted genre, but it does offer hope.

By: PETER KEOUGH | May 01, 2012

Review: Marvel's The Avengers

Awkward first steps
Even for a hard-ass like Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), head of the ultra-secret S.H.I.E.L.D agency, getting a billionaire genius in a metal suit, a scientist with a bad temper, a cryogenically preserved WWII warrior, a Norse god, and two secret agents (how did they get in?) to play nicely together can take a while.

By: PETER KEOUGH | May 06, 2012

Review: Safe

A lot of blood
There actually is a safe in Boaz Yakin's Safe , but you have to wade through a lot of blood to get there, and then more after that.

By: PETER KEOUGH | May 01, 2012

Review: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

A pleasant diversion
Filled with Indian (and British) clichés, it is nonetheless a pleasant diversion that doesn't involve special effects or 3D glasses.

By: BRETT MICHEL | May 03, 2012

Review: Chimpanzee

Disney-distributed documentary
Following in the footsteps of African Cats , this Disney-distributed documentary combines breathtaking wildlife footage with silly, self-conscious voiceover narration aimed at preschoolers.

By: MILES HOWARD | April 24, 2012

Review: Turn Me On, Dammit

High school alienation
In the nowhere Norwegian mountain town of Skoddeheimen, Alma, 15, is bored with her surroundings, alienated from her mom, and so horny that she pays for a telephone sex service.

By: GERALD PEARY | April 24, 2012

Review: The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Dry romp on the high seas
Peter Lord, animator behind claymation staples Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run , directs this very British, very dry romp on the high seas during the time when Britannia did indeed rule the waves.

By: TOM MEEK | April 24, 2012

Review: The Raven

John Cusack as Poe
If only Poe could find the solution to the mystery in his own texts! Or if the filmmakers made any use of them.

By: PETER KEOUGH | April 26, 2012

Review: A Simple Life

Ann Hui's aptly titled film
The most sensitive and heartbreaking depiction of old age since Korean director Lee Chang-dong's Poetry, Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui's aptly titled account of the slow decline of a beloved housekeeper doesn't involve violent crime like Lee's film, but does recreate the evanescence of everyday life with equal evocativeness.

By: PETER KEOUGH | April 18, 2012

Review: Marley

Bob Marley remains elusive
After two-and-half hours of hagiography, talking heads, archival footage, still photos, and snatches of his songs, Bob Marley remains elusive in Kevin Macdonald's documentary.

By: PETER KEOUGH | April 18, 2012

Review: To the Arctic

The Arctic is still melting, people
Heart-wrenching footage of polar cubs wrestling and caribou mothers pushing their young to higher ground isn't necessary to educate the viewer on the thoroughly depressing domino effect of melting sea ice. But hot damn, does it help.

By: CASSANDRA LANDRY | April 18, 2012