Movie Reviews

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Young at Heart

By Sue Katz, Consenting Adult. May 6, 2008.
Movie Mix: Young@heart, a film about a choir of elders whose repertoire includes the Ramones and the Clash, proves that rock n' roll will never die.

Gitmo Injustices Get Satirical Treatment From Harold & Kumar

By Eileen Jones, AlterNet. April 26, 2008.
Rights and Liberties: The iconic teens come face to face with the injustices at Gitmo -- and young audiences are going to eat it up.

'Stop Loss': Patriotic Bluster Dressed up As a Protest Movie

By Eileen Jones, The eXile. April 2, 2008.
Movie Mix: 'Ah signed up thinkin' Ah was goin' there fer mah country.' Hayseed accents can't hide the film's glamorization of war.

No War for Old Men

By James Rocchi, Huffington Post. March 26, 2008.
Movie Mix: No Country for Old Men is a striking metaphor for the challenges faced by our democracy.

'Miss Pettigrew': A Hollywood Gem Among the Cultural Ruins

By Dorothy Woodend, The Tyee. March 25, 2008.
Movie Mix: Frances McDormand and Amy Adams star in a fun, mad dash of a film.

Girls Rock!

By Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters. March 20, 2008.
Movie Mix: Girls Rock! joyfully makes the case that girls can sweat, shout, and rock as hard as any boy.

Sundance Docs Showcase Activist Agendas

By Pat Aufderheide, In These Times. March 5, 2008.
Movie Mix: This year's Sundance Film Festival featured a host of political documentaries promoting activist causes.

"Taxi to the Dark Side": How Did America Become a Country That Tortures?

By Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters. February 22, 2008.
Movie Mix: Alex Gibney's Oscar-nominated film documents the Bush Administration's reckless disregard for human rights and the rule of law.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days: A Profoundly Affecting Film About Illegal Abortion

By Stuart Klawans, The Nation. February 8, 2008.
Reproductive Justice and Gender: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days is a stunning critique of totalitarianism in Communist Romania.

Persepolis: Life in Iran During the Islamic Revolution

By Chuleenan Svetvilas, AlterNet. January 19, 2008.
Movie Mix: An animated coming-of-age story offers a personal look at a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution.

Iraq's Insurgents Are Ordinary People

By Emily Wilson, AlterNet. January 11, 2008.
War on Iraq: A new film delves inside Iraqis' reasons for getting involved in the violent resistance movement.

Tom Hanks' Charlie Wilson Movie: An Imperialist Comedy

By Chalmers Johnson, Tomdispatch.com. January 8, 2008.
Movie Mix: Charlie Wilson's War is a truly dangerous piece of pro-war propaganda from Hollywood.

What If America Were Invaded and Occupied?

By Dahr Jamail, The Progressive. December 21, 2007.
War on Iraq: "Unembedded" journalist Dahr Jamail reviews Meeting Resistance. With video.

Tom Hanks Tells Hollywood Whopper in 'Charlie Wilson's War'

By Melissa Roddy, AlterNet. December 21, 2007.
Hollywood wants to avoid a key truth about 9/11.

Will Smith Tries to Find the Cure for Loneliness

By Steve Burgess, The Tyee. December 18, 2007.
Movie Mix: I Am Legend puts Will Smith in a desolated Big Apple.

The Kite Runner: A Stirring Tale of Redemption

By Laura Flanders, AlterNet. December 15, 2007.
Khaled Hosseini's moving novel and film hits on all the right themes for a tale about the West and Afghanistan.

'Giuliani Time': Just When You Thought You Knew How Evil He Is

By Lisa Gray-Garcia, AlterNet. December 4, 2007.
Rights and Liberties: As the film "Giuliani Time" reveals, rarely has one man so successfully harnessed the hatred and ignorance of the U.S. public for poor people and people of color.

The Commercialization of Christmas: What Would Jesus Buy?

By Emily Wilson, AlterNet. November 23, 2007.
MediaCulture: A camera crew followed the Reverend Billy across the country as he preached against our shopping-hungry culture. His message is just in time for the holiday frenzy.

In Defense of Robert Redford's 'Lions for Lambs'

By Adam Howard, AlterNet. November 20, 2007.
Movie Mix: The critics hate it, audiences have rejected it, but it deserves to be seen.

Man From Plains: The Film That Might Make Jimmy Carter a Movie Star

By Adam Howard, AlterNet. November 5, 2007.
Movie Mix: Man From Plains is a moving, redemptive portrait of a president and a presidency that has been unfairly maligned and reduced to a punchline for far too long.

The Anti-Choice Movement's Bag of Dirty Tricks

By Jeanine Plant, AlterNet. November 1, 2007.
The documentary Unborn in the USA: Inside the War on Abortion offers a tough lesson: that rational, scientific appeals pale in comparison to the blood-and-guts emotionality of the anti-choice movement.

Haunted House Films Are Really About the Nightmares of Gentrification

By Sam J. Miller, PopPolitics.com. October 31, 2007.
Movie Mix: The plots of haunted house films frequently portray gentrifiers as innocent victims and the people they have displaced as monsters.

Sex Toys and the Technology of Orgasm

By Rachel Kramer Bussel, AlterNet. October 4, 2007.
Sex and Relationships: A new documentary offers up a disturbing history of the first vibrators and shows that sex toys aren't just for pleasure -- they're political.

'Resident Evil: Extinction' Flick Based on Racist Video Game Series

By Roberto Lovato, AlterNet. September 22, 2007.
Movie Mix: As they pack into theaters to watch Resident Evil: Extinction this weekend, moviegoers may first want to play one of the many blockbuster video games on which the film is based, which display nakedly racist overtones.

'Brave One' Puts Wrong Weapon in Women's Hands

By Sandra Kobrin, Women's eNews. September 21, 2007.
Movie Mix: The Brave One's plot is a perverted fantasy of women's actual relationship to guns and violence.

The Animal Kingdom Storms Reality TV and the Documentary Industry

By Alicia Rebensdorf, AlterNet. August 27, 2007.
Movie Mix: With the rise of "reality" TV shows like Meerkat Manor and the explosion of animal documentaries such as Arctic Circle, wildlife is finding new popularity in Hollywood -- but so is the dangerous idea that nature exists to entertain us.

New "Mad Men" TV Show Uses the Past to Reveal Racism and Sexism of Today

By Bernie Heidkamp, PopPolitics.com. August 24, 2007.
Movie Mix: AMC's new TV show Mad Men uses the overtly sexist and racist atmosphere of a 1960 New York advertising office to talk about persisting issues that we're too "polite" to talk about openly.

ShowTime's Weeds: Suburbia, Drugs and Mary-Louise Parker’s Ass

By Sheerly Avni, Las Vegas Weekly. August 13, 2007.
Movie Mix: ShowTime's Weeds, one of the smartest shows on TV, puffs its way to a third season, with the premiere airing on Monday night.

J-Lo's Roots Don't Show in 'El Cantante' Flick

By Roberto Lovato, New America Media. August 9, 2007.
Movie Mix: El Cantante is supposed to be about salsa legend Hector Lavoe, but the movie dotes on Jennifer Lopez, who seems totally out of touch with Latin culture, and says little about the Puerto Rican community that inspired the music.

'Talk to Me': A Political Movie that Lacks Politics

By David Corn, AlterNet. July 17, 2007.
MediaCulture: Don Cheadle's new film, Talk to Me, about Petey Greene forgets Greene's most important accomplishment: He was a community activist who railed against poverty and racism.

'Knocked Up' Flick Didn't Knock Me Out

By Katha Pollitt, TheNation.com. June 29, 2007.
Movie Mix: According to director Judd Apatow's family values, beautiful women drag men into adulthood. Then what?

Plot Takes Back Seat to Jolie's Star Power in A Mighty Heart

By David Corn, AlterNet. June 27, 2007.
War on Iraq: A Mighty Heart, the real life story of Danny Pearl, a journalist killed by al Qaeda jihadists, unfortunately was not designed to tell this important story. Rather, it was custom-built to showcase Angelina Jolie's talent.

SiCKO Is Michael Moore's Best and Most Powerful Documentary

By David Corn, TheNation.com. June 23, 2007.
Movie Mix: Michael Moore's new movie is a dead-on dissection of America's sick healthcare system. Funny, sad and moving, it's the best of his films.

Tony Soprano's Final Ride Down the New Jersey Turnpike

By Max Fraser, The Nation. June 11, 2007.
Movie Mix: After the 86th and final episode, The Sopranos has come a long way since it burst into our collective consciousness in 1999 -- and along with it the iconic role the mob has in the American imagination.

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