SAVE THE GREEN PLANET
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  Year Released: 2003 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 118 minutes |
IN THEATERS! Not so much science fiction as an ultra-black comedy/horror/thriller about science fiction, this first feature from South Korean writer/director Jun-hwan Jeong steals with insane glee, including blatant swipes and homages to, among many others, “The King of Comedy,” “Reservoir Dogs, “Psycho,” “E.T.”,
possibly “Sleuth,” “Sweeney Todd” and “Fight Club” and definitely “2001…”
Posted on April 18, 2005 by Bob Westal
THE EDUCATION OF SHELBY KNOX
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  Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 74 minutes |
SXSW DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 2005 REVIEW! And now, Film Threat’s first-ever political endorsement – Ms. Shelby Knox for President in 2030!
Posted on March 14, 2005 by Bob Westal
THE UPSIDE OF ANGER
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  Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 116 minutes |
IN THEATERS! Written, directed by comedian-turned-auteur Mike Binder, who also plays a sizeable role as an inappropriate boyfriend to one of Terry’s daughter, The Upside of Anger is a comedy-drama with plenty of sharply funny dialogue and uniformly good-to-excellent acting…
Posted on March 11, 2005 by Bob Westal
BILLY’S DAD IS A FUDGE-PACKER
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 10 minutes |
SUNDANCE SHORT 2005 REVIEW! …At the candy factory, actually.
Posted on February 4, 2005 by Bob Westal
NINE LIVES
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  Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 127 minutes |
SUNDANCE PREMIERE 2005 REVIEW! Written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia (“Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her”), “Nine Lives” is no stunt…
Posted on January 30, 2005 by Bob Westal
UN DIA EN LA VIDA
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  Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 10 minutes |
SUNDANCE SHORT 2005 REVIEW! There’s nothing wrong with conclusions that leave some questions unanswered, but to simply leave things as you start them is unacceptable…
Posted on January 29, 2005 by Bob Westal
KARE KARE ZVAKO – MOTHER’S DAY
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 30 minutes |
SUNDANCE SHORT 2005 REVIEW! It’s hard being a mom to three hungry kids in drought-stricken bush country, especially when Dad is a selfish, good-for-nothing layabout…
Posted on January 29, 2005 by Bob Westal
ONE WEEKEND A MONTH
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 11 minutes |
SUNDANCE SHORT 2005 REVIEW! In all the talk about the casualties of the ongoing war in Iraq, we don’t hear too much discussion of the disruption that the U.S. occupation creates for families of those sent overseas…
Posted on January 29, 2005 by Bob Westal
THE SAILOR’S GIRL
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 14 minutes |
SUNDANCE SHORT 2005 REVIEW! It might have all come together, but the violent conclusion is poorly motivated and not especially shocking or pithy…
Posted on January 29, 2005 by Bob Westal
IT’S LIKE THAT
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Year Released: 2003 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 7 minutes |
SUNDANCE SHORT 2005 REVIEW! The film mixes exquisite three-dimensional puppet animation with more experimental hand-drawn depictions…
Posted on January 29, 2005 by Bob Westal
CHOKED
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  Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 12 minutes |
SUNDANCE SHORT 2005 REVIEW! “Choked” doesn’t lack for drama, but the conflict within its central character lacks clarity…
Posted on January 28, 2005 by Bob Westal
TRUDELL
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Year Released: 2005 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 75 minutes |
SUNDANCE DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION 2005 REVIEW! If anyone has the right to “hate America” or to call for an end to Western Civilization as we know it, it’s an American Indian…
Posted on January 25, 2005 by Bob Westal
HUSTLE & FLOW
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  Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 114 minutes |
SUNDANCE DRAMATIC COMPETITION 2005 REVIEW! It’s “Superfly” meets “The Commitments”…
Posted on January 25, 2005 by Bob Westal
BULLETS IN THE HOOD: A BED-STUY STORY
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 22 minutes |
SUNDANCE SHORT 2005 REVIEW! Age eighteen and nineteen at the time of production, they were not yet skilled documentarians, but they were skilled enough to show us the pain expressed by family and friends…
Posted on January 24, 2005 by Bob Westal
ELKE’S VISIT
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Year Released: 2003 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 11 minutes |
SUNDANCE SHORT 2005 REVIEW! The worldwide trend of real hardcore sex popping up in films with real artistic pretensions continues with “Elke’s Visit…”
Posted on January 22, 2005 by Bob Westal