Movie Reviews

Before the Fall - This is a well-written and intelligent piece and its subtlety is certainly its strongest point.

Bubble - What happens within its frames is certainly no cause for all the hype and excitement generated by its shooting and its marketing.

Memoirs of a Geisha - Like a good looking hooker who only has a junior high school education.

The Producers - This film makes one long for the fabulously silly glory days of Mel Brooks.

Rumor Has It... - This unusual and flimsy romantic comedy is saved only by the talents of Jennifer Aniston and Mark Ruffalo.

Transamerica - To achieve this with a transgendered lead and a bisexual hustler as a secondary character is revolutionary.

Grizzly Man - A brilliant director could have created something extraordinary and breath-taking with this footage.

Saint Ralph - Is the kind of film that makes you want to believe in miracles.

King Kong - Is an epic adventure full of marvelous insights, touching ideals and beautiful imagery. It's also the best action/adventure film of 2005... in a big way!

The Family Stone - Sometimes even a film that sucks very hard has one moment of beauty in it.

Ushpizin - Is the kind of movie that will be able to heal the heart of the most hardened cynic.

Cape of Good Hope - Isn't the worst film I've ever seen but it is probably the worst film I've seen at an arthouse this year.

Brokeback Mountain - Isn't just a great movie, it is perhaps the most important gay movie ever made.

Walk the Line - This film might as well be called "The Johnny and June Carter Cash Love Story."

Pride and Prejudice - Fantastic, authentic, realistic, compelling and romantic.

Ellie Parker - Introduces filmmaker Scott Coffey as one of the freshest and most unique voices working in digital cinema today.

Capote - contains two key elements in making a feature film successful: A perfect script and a brava performance.

A History of Violence - An interesting premise and surprising storyline is nearly ruined by a bad script evoking bad acting and bad direction.

Thumbsucker - Disfunction middle class families have become the staple of independent films lately it seems.

Jarhead - Tempered with the psychological understanding of the evolution of thought towards war and its soldiers.

Keane - This is a brava performance, one that leaves the viewer simply drained and breathless.

Prime - A relationship and family comedy that stands head and shoulders above most in the genres.

Brick - What starts out as a silly and confusing mess pretty much ends up as a silly and confusing mess.

Manderlay - Ah, Lars Van Trier. I wish someone would slap the shit out of him.

Transamerica - To achieve this with a transgendered lead and a bisexual hustler as a secondary character is revolutionary.

The Squid and the Whale - Imagine if Todd Solondz directed "The Ice Storm" and you've got a pretty good idea of what "The Squid and the Whale" is all about.

Shopgirl - The love that dare not speak its name - at least, not without a snigger.

Elizabethtown - It is easy to love this film if you're a sentimental romantic who loves unusual films.

Ascension - Young filmmakers with a shoestring budget in search of the primer on how to make a small independent film look visually stunning would be wise to take a look at "Ascension."

March of the Penguins - The complete story here is nothing short of a metaphor for the typical human heterosexual experience.

Roll Bounce - There's not only nothing new here, there's nothing that isn't standard and typical.

Waiting... - Without a doubt, this is the funniest movie I have seen all year and I doubt there will be one funnier.

5x2 - A movie about a woman who seemingly likes to be date raped and the asshole that she marries.

The Beat That My Heart Skipped - There is a wonderful character and story here and, even though it is a remake, it seems utterly fresh and modern and unique.

El Crimen Ferpecto - Isn't the best film to be seen this year, it is certainly a successful black comedy.

A Sound of Thunder - Nobody out in the real world far removed from Hollywood could have foreseen just how deliciously bad "A Sound of Thunder" was going to be.

Mirrormask - This film may not be perfect but it is a wonderful, magical, delightful film that can be enjoyed by kids of any age.

The 40 Year Old Virgin - This is a film as jammed with sexual related humor as any teen sex pic.

A tout de suite - This film seems very much like a beginning filmmaker's piece, a film by a new voice in cinema.

Broken Flowers - Meat of the film, its heart, is right on target.

Stranger Than Paradise - Has a lot of charm and almost no story.

Down by Law - Shows us a hidden American world.

Waiting for Nesara - If I didn't know better, I'd think that "Waiting for Nesara" was a mockumentary.

Underclassman - I'll take my swipes at Cannon here. In the vernacular of the young: He sucks.

Room - Is a allegorical masterpiece which exposes the subtle ways in which the drudgery and frustration of daily life can overwhelm and debilitate us.

The Island - This is the most hilarious, most ridiculous, most cheesy film to come out in over a decade.

9 Songs - Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The Movie.

Happy Endings - A thriving, living, breathing multi-storylined piece.

Junebug - A special movie. It's a perfect movie.

The Constant Gardener - Look, I know I should care but, let's face it, I'm a typical American; I don't.

The Brothers Grimm - I love Terry Gilliam as much as the next guy but this has to be his worst film ever. In fact, it is probably one of the worst films of the year.

The Chumbscrubber - This film feels like a watered-down version of Solondz, Haynes, and Aronofsky.

The Skeleton Key - The much hyped "twist ending" makes the film little more than a glorified "Twilight Zone" episode stretched out into a feature film but it's still entertaining.

Four Brothers - A coolness that underscores an interesting character study.

Red Eye - Craven is an odd choice for director here but he brings the film around easily and makes it work well.

Je t'aime moi non plus -Caused an uproar for its celebration of the female orgasm.

November - Sort of like "Pi" and "Groundhog Day.

Murderball - It's poignantly ironic that a filmed called "Murderball" is really about the beauty and the passion of living life to the fullest.

Last Days - Here everything is blurred: reality, sexuality, responsibility and the meaning of existence.

Lila Says - A sweet, subtle and beautiful movie that we become easily captivated.

The Great Raid - Believe it or not boys and girls. Once, it was actually possible to be proud to be an American.

Dark Water - Uninterested in scaring us, Salles provides a murky, water-logged and overcast world where light as well as hope seems an impossibility.

Wedding Crashers - A funny if not overly long and wildly uneven film.

Me and You and Everyone We Know - I don't think you are going to see a more unique and interesting film this year.

The Aristocrats - There's a true respect for comedy here.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants - As lame and trite as one would expect from a film aimed at teenage girls based on a novel aimed at teenage girls.

Kontroll - This is an awesome film. The visual imagery is fantastic.

Apres vous - One of the dullest, most yawn-inducing, supposed romantic comedies to disgrace the screens of American arthouses in quite a while.

Bad News Bears - If Linklater could have went for edgy, and delivered a R-rated film filled with foul language and kids having sex, smoking and drinking, then this film might have had something to offer.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - I was really surprised by how much I liked this film.

Funny Ha Ha - The improvisational style of the acting, the horrible camera work, the dull visual, and the overly subtle storytelling work against the film succeeding at every step.

Yes - As dull as could be imagined.

Batman Begins - Soars during almost every moment of its running time after the story really begins.

Bewitched - This fluff evaporates after viewing like cotton candy on a child's eager tongue.

Cinderella Man - An epic story made for the silver screen using every technique on expects in such a film exactly by the book.

Fantastic 4 - Lackluster and irritating, the film isn't even good ol' fluffy popcorn fun.

The Honeymooners - This must be the most asinine idea for a film yet.

Mysterious Skin - I love this movie.

Torremolinos 73 - Features some nudity and sexual situations, but it is hard to imagine a more gentile and innocent little film.

Turtles Can Fly - It's a horrific and depressing tale.

War of the Worlds - Cannot stand above its mid-film ridiculousness and its wildly populist final moment.

The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D - Very saccharine and very tame.

Sahara - Leave your brain at the door.

High Tension - I have to tell what happens in the film to prove what a piece of shit it is. Consider yourself warned.

Madagascar - left me feeling slightly bored, slightly old, and slightly ho-hum.

Layer Cake - The best thing about the film is that it doesn't really try to emulate the others.

Kicking and Screaming - This cinematic regurgitation is so bad that even the comic genius of Will Ferrell cannot save it.

A Lot Like Love - An edgy, interesting, well-written and cool post-2K romantic comedy.

The Interpreter - Some spoilers - although I can't spoil this movie much more than the script and direction already does mid-film.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Isn't something that fans of the work are going to exalt. In fact, many of them will quite rightly hate it.

Kingdom of Heaven - You have to be a religious scholar to understand what the hell is going on here.

Crash - One of the most uncompromising and important films of the new millennium.

Guess Who - When this new film relaxes and allows itself to simply be about the subtle differences in black and white culture in post-millennium America, it often is compelling, poignant and relevant.

Robots - A pointless, insipid, boring and obvious marketing ploy masked as an animated feature.

Travellers and Magicians - This is one of those fun and wonderful surprises that just makes seeing foreign films a real treat.

More of Lodger's reviews indexed alphabetically! Just click your favorite letter to go there.