COMING TO MY SENSES
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  Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 9 minutes |
Diane wakes up one morning to discover her senses have begun to heighten…
Posted on September 7, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
ATLANTIC CITY EXPRESSWAY
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  Year Released: 2005 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 38 minutes |
Despite an enthusiastic cast, “Atlantic City Expressway” is too deeply rooted in genre conventions we’ve seen a thousand times before to truly impact the audience…
Posted on September 7, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
RUSH NIGHT
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  Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 90 minutes |
Few films have close to matching either the brains or laughs provided by “Animal House”. Yet another riff on an already worn out formula is Zac Adams’ “Rush Night”…
Posted on August 27, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
SEX IS COMEDY (DVD)
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  Year Released: 2002 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 92 minutes |
“Sex is Comedy” is an insightful glance at the world of filmmaking and the tensions that lie within…
Posted on August 26, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
SMITHEREENS (DVD)
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  Year Released: 1982 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 90 minutes |
While Seidelman has been all over the map throughout her career directing both successful projects and failures, her first feature is a rough gem and a true inspiration to indie filmmakers…
Posted on August 25, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
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  Year Released: 2005 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 127 minutes |
IN THEATERS, AUGUST 31! Following the international success of the epic “City Of God” and the follow-up television series “City of Men,” Fernando Meirelles’ newest film, “The Constant Gardener,” is in many ways a departure from his previous efforts, both quieter and subtler but still able to maintain the humane spirit present in all of his work…
Posted on August 19, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
SIDE EFFECTS
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Year Released: 2005 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 98 minutes |
Attempting to sound the alarm against the pharmaceutical industry for which she worked for years, Kathleen Slattery-Moschkau’s “Side Effects” is a well meaning but flawed examination of the behind the scenes workings of one of our country’s most successful and dangerous businesses…
Posted on August 16, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
GRAND SLAM (DVD)
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  Year Released: 1967 MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 119 minutes |
Not exactly high art, “Grand Slam” is nevertheless a fun crime film…
Posted on August 15, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
MISSING JANE
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 100 minutes |
I’ll admit that for the first five minutes of “Missing Jane” I had a bad feeling. CGI war footage of American bombers fighting off German planes seemed well and good for a video game but in a feature length live action film?
Posted on August 8, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED AT QUICK MART
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 10 minutes |
In the case of David Yarovesky’s hilarious short “A Funny Thing Happened at Quick Mart” the punchline is a classic…
Posted on August 7, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
DOOMED TO FAILURE
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 7 minutes |
DJ Summit’s “Doomed to Failure” adequately sums up in seven minutes the inherent frustrations of shooting a short when you are new to the film world…
Posted on July 23, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
NOVEMBER
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 78 minutes |
IN THEATERS! Perhaps the easiest way to describe Greg Harrison’s “November” is it’s “Run Lola Run” meets “Pi” with a splash of “Seven”…
Posted on July 22, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
SEANCE (DVD)
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Year Released: 2000 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 95 minutes |
The key to “Seance” is the slow build, the film reveals its sinister motive over time allowing the audience to grow attached to the lifestyle of Sato and Junko…
Posted on July 16, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
YES
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 90 minutes |
Sally Potter’s “Yes” explores the issue of racial stereotyping within the context of an affair between an unhappily married molecular scientist and a former Middle Eastern surgeon now reduced to working as a chef since moving to England…
Posted on July 8, 2005 by Greg Bellavia
THE FOREST FOR THE TREES
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Year Released: 2004 MPAA Rating: Unrated Running Time: 81 minutes |
LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL 2005 REVIEW! Painfully awkward. Those would probably be the best two words to describe the uncomfortable character study present in Maren Ade’s “The Forest for The Trees”…
Posted on June 26, 2005 by Greg Bellavia