Movie review by Greg Carlson Australian director Phillip Noyce, the helmer behind such wastes of time as “Sliver,” “The Saint,” and “The Bone Collector,” has practically erased the bad memories of his recent Hollywood sludge with the masterstroke of making two prestige art films in a single year. Along with an updating of Graham Greene’s […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson After picking up the Audience Award at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, it is easy to see why “Real Women Have Curves” is popular with moviegoers.  Alternately working the timeworn traditions of a mother-daughter generation gap struggle and the rites-of-passage, coming-of-age awakenings of a young high-school graduate, the film sparkles […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson A Norwegian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at last year’s Academy Awards, Petter Naess’ comic “Elling” is a typical, familiar “Odd Couple” tale of two mentally ill men who must learn to cope in the world in spite of their status as social misfits. Fortunately, “Elling” surpasses the […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson His most accomplished film to date, director Todd Haynes’ “Far from Heaven” is certainly one of 2002’s strongest American movies, and is likely to bring an Academy Award nomination to actress Julianne Moore. Lavishly, meticulously recreating the mise-en-scene of 1950s Technicolor melodramas, Haynes aestheticizes and fetishizes his raw materials, from […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson “Bowling for Columbine,” the latest documentary from professional provocateur Michael Moore, is as disturbing and heartbreaking as it is funny. Moore’s combination of ironic wit and genuine emotion has been the filmmaker’s trademark since his auto industry polemic “Roger & Me” made him a celebrity in 1989, and his new […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson The great pleasure of Steven Soderbergh’s “Solaris” lies in the film’s identity as the most elliptical, thought-provoking, and enigmatic movie released by a major Hollywood studio this year. Few directors other than Soderbergh – who has cannily alternated his projects between narrative-fracturing, low-budget, poetic meditations like “The Limey” and big-name, […]

Movie review by Greg Carlson Movies about smarty-pants teenage boys who think of themselves as tortured, misunderstood souls are not everyone’s idea of a swell time, but filmmakers keep cranking them out – and are not likely to stop in the near future (blame Salinger, I guess). From “The Graduate” to “Harold and Maude” to […]