BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD (2007, directed by Sidney Lumet, 117 minutes, U.S.) AMERICAN GANGSTER (2007, directed by Ridley Scott, 157 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Talk about a Dream Factory. The modern Hollywood press machine now holds the power to make the backstory of a new theatrical release the front story, in a way that practically lets a film review itself. I’ve read, heard and viewed so many stories about how the 83-year-old master director Sidney Lumet was in top form with his latest crime drama, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead, that it began to […]

CONTROL (2007, directed by Anton Corbijn, 121 minutes, U.K.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC An ultimate music geek movie Control allows Joy Division über fan, their one-time photographer Anton Corbijn, to reconstruct the dreary world of mid-seventies Manchester for this new biopic of band singer/lyricist Ian Curtis [pictured, right]. It’s a dazzling resurrection, in overblown black & whiteCorbijn gets every detail right in his obsession to summon the stark landscape that gave birth to Joy Division desolate vision. Once we get used to Control‘s austere beauty, we find a film hung up by the same problems that have always afflicted […]

THIRTY DAYS OF NIGHT (2007, directed by David Slade, 113 minutes, U.S.) EXHUMED FILMS 10th ANNIVERSARY 24- HOUR HORROR MARATHON! (Doors 11 a.m. TOMORROW, International House, 3701 Chestnut St., www.ihousephilly.org, $20 ) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Growing up in the ’70s and ’80s you could always count on the weekend before Halloween to deliver some disreputable horror film to our podunk local movie theater. The tiny South Jersey town I lived in was packed with churches and real controversy ensued over attending the flick. Pastors would howl against it from the altars, teachers (particularly the openly devout ones) would […]

DEAR PHAWKER, Normally i wouldn’t comment, but man, by my watch — phawker were the only ones that nailed the review. love wes anderson, but i thought critics by and large gave this movie a huge pass. when a movie’s is this dull, and strangly lifeless; anderson’s whole thing starts to feel like a formula to me. and when it starts to feel like a formula — it cheapens the memories of movie’s past.. and that is a drag. nice job on stepping out on this one. JIM SUTCLIFFE PREVIOUSLY: The Royal Dressing Down PREVIOUSLY: Live And Direct From The […]

Meeting Resistance Trailer  

DEAR PHAWKER, At what age are snarky, dismissive film critics for online publications required to find a new schtick? Or is it acceptable for you characters to continue following the same script: praising early esoteric efforts from young directors, and then criticizing them for the same esotericness after their films have become more popular, because their later efforts fails to fulfill some abstract and ad hoc social contract to which you, in your infinite if largely uncredentialed expertise, choose to hold up films? This is, ostensibly, a movie review. And yet I learned precious little about the movie, and far […]

BY JONATHAN VALANIA Well, this turned out to be kind of a bust. The publicists decided to move up the press conference from 3:30 to 3 PM, with just 15 minutes notice. What, do they think us podunks in Philly have nothing better do all day than interview Wes Anderson? Okay, even if that is technically true, it’s still unprofessional and inconsiderate. So I am standing in the hall way outside suite 561 of the Four Seasons, where the press conference is well underway. Through the door, I can hear the soft muffled huzzah of Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman […]

THE DARJEELING LIMITED (2007, directed by Wes Anderson, 91 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Wes Anderson is back with yet another elegantly arch Technicolor rendering of luxurious kitsch and melancholy mopery, winsome 60’s folk-rock and immaculate, intelligently-designed preciousness. Fans of Anderson’s trademark sad-eyed whimsy can rejoice, The Darjeeling Limited doesn’t stray much from the stylistic imprint he has single-mindedly pursued since his second film, the Prep School fantasy Rushmore. The rest of us can begin to ponder how much longer we have to give event status to the claustrophobic creations of this unadventurous auteur. Undeniably, Anderson has made […]

You could begin the story of Todd Haynes’s Dylan movie at the very beginning, about seven years ago, while Haynes was driving cross-country in his beat-up old Honda. But since Todd Haynes?s film about Dylan is as much about Todd Haynes as it is about Dylan (or maybe even more); and since Haynes is a filmmaker who, in midcareer at age 46, is doing his best to take the experimental into the multiplex; and, further, since those who don’t like the film are likely to consider it a kind of gorgeous indulgence, a bizarre experiment, the temptation is to skip […]