Sundance 2012: Ranking the Best and Worst of the Festival

And so we come to the end of another Sundance film festival. All in all, I saw 32 films, including a couple I checked out at Toronto last ye...

Sundance 2012: '28 Hotel Rooms' Review

You would assume that the strongest offerings at Sundance would be in the competition sections, but for my money the two best movies I'v...

Sundance 2012: 'Mosquita y Mari' review

Two teen Chicana girls share a close personal bond in Mosquita y Mari , but does that mean they're in love with one another? That's ...

The Kills - "Future Starts Slow"

One of the fun side effects of seeing so many movies at Sundance is getting a chance to hear a particularly great song in a new setting. Fo...

Sundance 2012: 'For Ellen' review

For Ellen is the third film from writer-director So Yong Kim, and by this point in her career, you should know what to expect from her movie...

Sundance 2012: 'The Words' review

I think I'm really starting to turn the corner on Bradley Cooper. Where once he did nothing for me, now I'm enjoying his onscreen pr...

Sundance 2012: 'Gypsy Davy' review

I haven't had a chance to see any documentaries yet at this year's Sundance -- I've been focusing on features for the first half...

Sundance 2012: 'Goats' review

Generally speaking, Sundance's Premieres section is where they spotlight indie-ish films that will eventually get into theaters. They...

Sundance 2012: 'Black Rock' review

Director Katie Aselton's first film was The Freebie , about a married couple who decide that since their sex life is in a rut they'r...

Sundance 2012: 'Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie' review

Don't have the mistaken impression that all the movies at Sundance are stunning works of independent and world cinema. Some of them are ...

Sundance 2012: 'LUV' review

LUV is a film I wanted to like, but I just couldn't get all the way there. It tells the story of an 11-year-old African-American (Michae...

Sundance 2012: 'For a Good Time, Call...' review

For a Good Time, Call... looks like the sort of movie that when it hits theaters will be described as "this year's Bridesmaids ....

Sundance 2012: 'Smashed' review

Smashed is hardly a momentous or revelatory movie, but I wish more American indies were like it. Small-scaled but emotionally honest, it tel...

Sundance 2012: 'Compliance' review

I had been impressed with Craig Zobel's first film, Great World of Sound , but nothing prepared me for what he would do next. That would...

Sundance 2012: 'Lay the Favorite' review

Rebecca Hall is a good actress, but she should never, ever play a ditzy Florida stripper who moves to Vegas and ends up getting sucked into ...

Sundance 2012: 'Wrong' review

Wrong is the new film from Quentin Dupieux, who last made the killer-tire horror-comedy Rubber . Wrong isn't a genre send-up like Rubber...

Sundance 2012: 'Celeste and Jesse Forever' review

No Strings Attached and Friends With Benefits were failed attempts by Hollywood to try to modernize the romantic comedy by suggesting that...

Sundance 2012: 'Red Lights' review

Despite some reservations, I liked Buried , the 2010 thriller starring Ryan Reynolds as an ordinary man who finds himself buried alive in a ...

Sundance 2012: 'Wish You Were Here' review

Two years ago at Sundance, I saw Animal Kingdom , an exceptional Australian thriller starring (among others) Joel Edgerton. He was a virtual...

TV on the Radio - "Killer Crane"

For me, one of the biggest shocks of this year's Pazz & Jop music poll was how low TV on the Radio's Nine Types of Light ranke...

'Red Tails' review

George Lucas spent more than two decades trying to bring the story of the Tuskegee Airmen to the big screen. And now he has ... and it'...

My Pazz and Jop Ballot; or, Defending 'Goblin'

Even though it's been six years since Robert Christgau got fired from The Village Voice , I remain positively giddy each January when h...

The Roots - "Make My"

Seriously, folks, I'm gonna keep saying it until it sinks in: The Roots are America's best band. (Well, either them are Drive-By Tru...

Godard's 'Weekend' at the Cinefamily

This is an occasional feature called Blind Spots . It gives me a chance to write about movies or albums or whatever that I missed during the...

'The Devil Inside' review ... and the State of Studio Horror Films

The Devil Inside opens today. As you might imagine, it's not so good. But I wanted to touch on a few things that I didn't have the ...

Washed Out - "Eyes Be Closed"

Washed Out (real name Ernest Greene) has acquired a bit of fame due to the fact that his "Feel It All Around" is used as the theme...

'Beneath the Darkness' review

January. It's a terrible time for new movies. (Although that's not entirely true: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia hits theaters this ...