Most excellent.

THE DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY (2007, directed by Julian Schnabel, 112 minutes, France/U.S.) WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY (2007, directed by Jake Kasdan, 96 minutes, U.S.) THE SAVAGES (2007, directed by Tamara Jenkins, 113 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC Who can forget the Phawker episode a few months back when our editor/provocateur ruffled academic feathers by opining that the journalism majors should study something/anything else and then bring that speciality into their journalistic interests? Outrage and hilarity ensued. Too bad we couldn’t get our fearless editor’s act booked into the country’s film schools because they’re aching […]

BY MATTHEW DADDONA It is a curious symptom of our modern digital world — where the DNA of art can be easily transposed, transported or transformed with the click of a mouse, a process that used to take years and a cast of thousands in the analog age — that the basic premise of a landmark film can be altered in the director’s cut DVD version twenty years after the fact. This is literally rewriting, or more accurately re-editing, history. Prior to its initial theatrical release back in 1982, Warner Bros studio execs were so convinced that audiences wouldn’t be […]

Though he would never, ever admit it, this part ALWAYS makes the editor bawl like a baby.

THE MIST (2007, directed by Frank Darabont, 127 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK, FILM CRITIC  Still lingering around in area theaters is Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 novella The Mist, a film intriguing enough that it would be underselling it to say it is merely the best King adaptation in years.  The End Days come to a small town Maine supermarket when an eerie mist descends the hills, obscuring a multi-tentacled beast that has jumped dimensions to terrorize the imprisoned shoppers.  All manner of giant bugs and slimy vagina-like creatures lay waste to the All-American crew cowering among […]

ATONEMENT (2007, directed by Joe Wright, 130 minutes, U.K.) BY DAN BUSKIRK, FILM CRITIC What would the holiday season be like without another stuffy European period piece designed for a matinee with your granny? They’d be much the same for those of us who do our best to avoid the never-ending string of Merchant Ivory-style costume weepies made to sate the appetites of the blue-haired denizens of the art houses. Still, like a bad restaurant with a convenient location, I find myself occasionally checking in on the repressed sex and waistcoats genre, usually coming to the conclusion that I shouldn’t […]

STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING (2007, directed by Andrew Wagner, 111 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC The actor Frank Langella’s name is always afforded the greatest respect by serious watchers of theater, although the genius he has shown on stage has seldom been visible in his film work. Langella made his big screen splash in 1979, recreating his stage role in John Badham’s Dracula (poorly-received it was quickly dubbed “Disco Dracula” by wags because Badham previously directed Saturday Night Fever and from then on, you’d be hard pressed to find an actor of his reputation who has appeared […]

WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY? (2007, directed by Rob Van Alkemade, 91 minutes, U.S.) BY DAN BUSKIRK FILM CRITIC It’s hard to reconcile what has become the modern American version of Christmas and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at Luke 12:15, where the man they called Christ warns against covetousness, “for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” I don’t know if real pastors are preaching such anti-materialist messages this holiday season, but performance artist Bill Talen ponders the question of Christ’s capitalist instincts under the guise of “Reverend Billy” in this diverting new documentary produced […]