|
click
here for the previous week's New Movies
click
here for 2007 OVERVIEW!
NEW MOVIES!
MAY 1 - MAY 7, 2007
|
 |
ALPHA DOG (dir: Nick
Cassavetes, R) – As far as I’m concerned, this tale of LA youths in a downward spiral of drugs and violence is just a BULLY rip-off starring Justin Timberlake. Over 30s needn’t bother, but if you’re in the target demographic, it could just be the best film you’ve ever seen. |
|
 |
DANIELSON: A FAMILY MOVIE (OR, MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE HERE)
(dir: J.L. Aronson, Not Rated) – If JESUS CAMP shows us the scary side of Christian fanaticism, then this movie is here to show us its warm and fuzzy side. Documentary subjects Daniel Smith and Sufjan Stevens make music so adorable, you just gotta believe! |
|
 |
DIGGERS (dir: Katherine
Dieckmann, R) – It’s the old “I gotta get out of this nothing town” story, only this time about clam diggers in 1970s Long Island. A great cast, including Paul Rudd and Maura Tierney, bring substance to this slight slice-of-life comedy-drama. |
|
 |
DREAMGIRLS (dir: Bill Condon, PG-13) – You’ll be puzzled how American Idol-loser Jennifer Hudson could have possibly won an Oscar for her performance until about halfway through the movie when she gets to belt out the song "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." The way she sells that song she could sell ice cubes to an Eskimo. |
|
 |
THE GHOST (dir:
Tae-kyeong Kim, Not Rated) – It’s an Asian horror movie, so a plot synopsis is pretty much beside the point. Needless to say, a young woman encounters a bunch of scary, unexplained happenings which, by the end of the movie, remain unexplained. |
|
 |
HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER (dir: Paul J. Bolger / Yvette Kaplan, PG) – Look, kids! It’s yet another revisionist fairy tale-themed CGI movie. More dreck than
SHREK, and you can quote me. |
|
 |
THE HITCHER (dir: Dave Meyers, R) – I don’t know, Sean Bean. It seemed like you were headed down the Clive Owen/Daniel Craig road of legitimate, respectable movie star. But then you decided to follow in Rutger Hauer’s footsteps. |
|
 |
HOBOKEN HOLLOW (dir: Glen Stephens, Not Rated) – Lost in life? Need somebody to tell you what to do? Don’t join the army! Head on down to Hoboken Hollow and check yourself in at Dennis Hopper’s slave ranch! |
|
 |
*LITTLE CHILDREN (dir: Todd Field, R) – OK, so this entry in the Suburban Hell genre is definitely one of the best movies of the year, and THE BAD NEW BEARS’ Jackie Earle Haley is outstanding as the “sympathetic” pervert, but if Kate Winslet gets cast as “the ugly one” in one more movie, I’m fire-bombing Hollywood. |
|
 |
MATTHEW BARNEY: NO RESTRAINT (dir: Alison
Chernick, Not Rated) – As if making a baby with Bjork wasn’t enough of an artistic statement, Matthew Barney continues to film things nobody ever wanted to see. This behind-the-scenes documentary of his DRAWING RESTRAINT 9 features him and his baby-mommy on a Japanese whaling boat with 20 tons of lube. |
|
 |
^OLD JOY (dir: Kelly
Reichardt, Not Rated) – Even if you’re not familiar with musician Will Oldham’s work, you’ll enjoy his performance as a slightly-too-sincere hippie who convinces an old married friend to join him on a camping trip in the Cascades. A small-scale gem. |
|
 |
A Collection of 2006 Academy Award Nominated SHORT FILMS (dir: Various, Not Rated) – One of the nice things about DVD is that people are willing to put out compilations like this which allow us to see some of those little films that we can’t weigh in on at the Oscars because they never get shown. |
|
 |
TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER (dir: Wisit
Sasanatieng, Not Rated) – This campy cowboy melodrama from Thailand, shot in garish Technicolor, has to be seen to be believed. A movie buff’s delight, it’s like Douglas
Sirk, Sam Peckinpah and Guy Maddin in a Southeast Asian blender. |
|
 |
WHO THE #$&% IS JACKSON POLLOCK? (dir: Harry Moses, PG-13) – The art world gets turned on its ear when a woman pays $5 at a garage sale for what might actually be an authentic Jackson Pollock painting. Did I mention she’s a 73-year-old foul-mouthed former truck driver? This documentary has got the goods. |
|
 |
YANG BAN XI: THE 8 MODEL WORKS (dir: Yan Ting Yuen, Not Rated) – If you’re in China during the Cultural Revolution and you’re not really sold on the whole Communist thing, what better than propagandistic musicals to get your Red blood flowing? Here’s a documentary sampling some of the best. |
|
| * = Greg's
pick of the week! ^ = Bart'S
pick of the week! |
