LOVERBOY
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  Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 85 minutes |
IN THEATERS! Miraculously, six year-old Paul (Dominic Scott Kay) is not a spoiled basket case, but a smart, otherwise ordinary kid who wants to grow up…
Posted on June 19, 2006 by Bob Westal
ELLIE PARKER
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  Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 95 minutes |
IN THEATERS! It’s a hilarious tour de force performance by the now-world-famous Ms. Watts, a knowing and clever send-up of life in the lower rungs of L.A.’s showbiz ladder, and way too sloppy…
Posted on November 8, 2005 by Bob Westal
THE DYING GAUL
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  Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 105 minutes |
IN THEATERS! “The Dying Gaul” owes something to classic tales of Hollywood depravity like “Sunset Boulevard,” “In a Lonely Place,” and “The Player,” but it’s much closer to, yes, “Closer”…
Posted on November 4, 2005 by Bob Westal
BALLETS RUSSES
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  Year Released: 2005 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 120 minutes |
IN THEATERS! The Ballet-Russe, we are told, played an instrumental role in the birth of the modern ballet…
Posted on October 27, 2005 by Bob Westal
PROTOCOLS OF ZION
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 90 minutes |
IN THEATERS! While “Protocols of Zion” does give a fairly interesting, concise, and commendably non-hysterical history of anti-Semitism, and many of director Levin’s encounters are revealing, the film does not really say much of anything new…
Posted on October 21, 2005 by Bob Westal
LOGGERHEADS
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  Year Released: 2005 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 90 minutes |
IN THEATERS! With a very strong ensemble cast and what appears to be an intelligent screenplay, Loggerheads could have been a moving tale of dissolving families and redemption…
Posted on October 15, 2005 by Bob Westal
THUMBSUCKER
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 94 minutes |
IN THEATERS! As written and directed by TV commercial/rock video veteran Mike Mills, “Thumbsucker” benefits from a goofy yet incisive sense of humor and some extremely strong performances…
Posted on September 16, 2005 by Bob Westal
JUNEBUG
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 102 minutes |
IN THEATERS! The film is impeccable in its ensemble acting and most of its aesthetic choices. Yet it’s not clear to me that its “contemplative” approach does much to reward the audience’s attention…
Posted on August 8, 2005 by Bob Westal
THE ARISTOCRATS
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 92 minutes |
IN THEATERS, JULY 22ND! Directed by comedian Paul Provenza, “The Aristocrats” is a brilliant solution to the eternal problem of how to discuss the creative process behind comedy without becoming boring…
Posted on July 28, 2005 by Bob Westal
9 SONGS
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 69 minutes |
IN THEATERS! The idea of making a contemporary love story where events just naturally continue into hardcore sex, instead of the usual brief simulated lovemaking followed by a discrete fade-out, remains an intriguing idea, though perhaps not an advisable one…
Posted on July 23, 2005 by Bob Westal
RIZE
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 84 minutes |
IN THEATERS! Clown make-up or no, there’s something almost disturbing in clowning and krumping’s spasmodic mock violence, but that’s just a reflection of the war torn environment that created it…
Posted on June 24, 2005 by Bob Westal
SHELBY KNOX EDUCATES FILM THREAT
SHELBY KNOX FIRES BACK! It all started when I favorably reviewed “The Education of Shelby Knox,” an entertaining documentary look at a young woman’s involvement in the fight to end “abstinence only” sex education in Texas high schools…
Posted on June 22, 2005 by Bob Westal
SHELBY KNOX EDUCATES FILM THREAT
Corey said that the antipathy between you two started when you threw a tennis ball “with great accuracy” at “a place no man should get hit.” What happened? ^ My friends and family would be shocked to think I could throw anything “with great accuracy”! In fact, I was more shocked than anyone else when [...]
Posted on June 22, 2005 by Bob Westal
COREY NICHOLS SPEAKS ON “EDUCATION”
Okay, so let’s get this one out of the way. What was your response to my little crack about “pathological slickness”? Tell me why I’m a big jerk….I can take it! ^ It was that crack actually which prompted me to contact you. I believe the comment was too harsh. After all, I was re-elected [...]
Posted on June 21, 2005 by Bob Westal
COREY NICHOLS SPEAKS ON “EDUCATION”
DOCU-COUNTERPUNCH! We movie critics tend to forget that, unlike the characters in fictional films, the people in documentaries are real human beings. If we prick them with our words, they may bleed. They may also decide to drop us a line. So, I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear from Corey Nichols…You see, I had written some things about him in my review of “The Education of Shelby Knox”…
Posted on June 21, 2005 by Bob Westal
