Circular Dread: The Narrative Pleasures of Damages

Sean Kennedy - 1.28.2010 | 1

Nominally a legal drama, the Damages' serpentine plotting and titrated flashes of violence make it a first-rate thriller, and Glenn Close plays her quasi-villain to the hilt.

Sean Kennedy - 1.28.2010 | 1

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Notable Articles Screening Room

Nobody Wants to Go Home: A Unified Theory of Reality TV

Patrick Brown - 1.26.2010 | 10

The only non-game show reality shows left are about people who were most decidedly unreal. Somewhere along the line, somebody decided that we only wanted to watch people do nothing if we'd already watched them do something.

Patrick Brown - 1.26.2010 | 10

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Screening Room

The Girl Who Played Bestselling Literary Heroines

Emily Colette Wilkinson - 1.13.2010 | 2

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Screening Room

Pandora’s Box: Avatar Sparks Debate in China

Ben Dooley - 1.12.2010 | 5

The film has provoked both praise and criticism from Chinese viewers, who see parallels between the movie's plot and one of the nation's most prominent social issues: the forced removal of Chinese citizens from their homes for government development projects.

Ben Dooley - 1.12.2010 | 5

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Screening Room

Avatar: Dances with Clichés

Lincoln Michel - 1.8.2010 | 20

If this was a screen saver, you’d have to say James Cameron did one heck of a job. Unfortunately, it is a film and all the other aspects feel glossed over.

Lincoln Michel - 1.8.2010 | 20

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Screening Room

Holiday Film Review: The Road As Incarnation

Sonya Chung - 12.18.2009 | 1

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Screening Room

The Holy Trinity: Three Iraq War Films Define a New Apolitical Aesthetic

James Kaelan - 12.10.2009 | 5

For the last five years, movies about America’s various Middle East conflicts have been, broadly speaking, polemical, didactic, and forgettable. Then came The Hurt Locker, The Messenger, and now Brothers.

James Kaelan - 12.10.2009 | 5

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Screening Room

Precious and Pain

James Kaelan - 11.13.2009 | 4

Precious is much more than an exposé of poverty or an argument against government aid. It earns its optimism, if only because the labors necessary to achieve that hope are so awful.

James Kaelan - 11.13.2009 | 4

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Screening Room Torch Ballads & Jukebox Music

This Is Michael Jackson

Sonya Chung - 11.6.2009 | 12

What could be more compelling than film footage of the King of Pop so clearly not meant for our eyes?

Sonya Chung - 11.6.2009 | 12

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Screening Room

One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: A Review

Lydia Kiesling - 11.6.2009 | 5

The promise of this foul enterprise lurked in every high school year book page, in every reference to the mad ones and the roman candles and the burning sensation.

Lydia Kiesling - 11.6.2009 | 5

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Quick Hits Screening Room

Where the Wild Things Are: The Best Short Film of 2009

Jeff Martin - 11.4.2009 | 13

Spike Jonze says that this is a film about childhood, not necessarily a film for children. If he is talking about the trailer, he is absolutely right.

Jeff Martin - 11.4.2009 | 13

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Screening Room

Birdie’s the Word: Mad Men’s Pop Culture References

Catie Disabato - 9.11.2009 | 3

The characters in Mad Men react emotionally to the media they consume, just like we do in real life.

Catie Disabato - 9.11.2009 | 3

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Screening Room

Inglourious Basterds: Les Neiges d’Antan en Feu

Noah Deutsch - 8.28.2009 | 2

Neutrality is not an option.

Noah Deutsch - 8.28.2009 | 2

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Inter Alia Screening Room

Inter Alia #18: Julia Child and the Ethical Appeal

Garth Risk Hallberg - 8.19.2009 | 5

It's not often we think of recipes as a form of literature, but they are as formally exacting as the Spenserian stanza. And, as anyone who's ever ruined $40 worth of lamb knows, the stakes are higher. So Julia Child turns out not only to have been a kind of unfussy feminist; she was also a terrific writer.

Garth Risk Hallberg - 8.19.2009 | 5

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Screening Room