Film & TV
Paradise is not lost
Director Hany Abu-Assad has created a masterpiece in Paradise Now, the story of Said (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), two Palestinian friends preparing for a suicide bombing in Tel-Aviv.
My kippah's cooler than yours
You may not know it, but you and the Hasids have a lot in common. At least that's part of the message of Israeli director Giddi Dar's latest film, Ushpizin. The film tells the story of Moshe Bellanga (played by Shuli Rand), an Israeli who has recently adopted the lifestyle of a sect of Hasidic Jews known as Breslevers. As the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot approaches, Moshe and his wife Malli are penniless and unable to prepare for the seven-day holiday.
This movie...how do you say...ah, yes...blows
Despite a dramatic opening, golden Z's and a suspenseful score, The Legend of Zorro never reaches an ultimate climax.
This is not a superhero Movie
The focus of Shopgirl is Mirabelle Buttersfield (Claire Danes), a quiet, insecure glove saleswoman at Saks, an ingenue from Vermont living alone in her L.A.
Holy crap -- Uma Thurman is on j-date?!?
In Prime, Meryl Streep portrays the Jewish Mother rather convincingly as Lisa Metzger, a therapist who discovers her patient (Uma Thurman), who's 37, divorced and definitely not Jewish, is dating her 23-year-old son (Bryan Greenberg). Sure, she'd rather her son be a CPA or a lawyer than follow his true calling as an artist and worries about the religion of her future grandchildren over a pastrami on rye, but Streep refrains from beating the stereotype to death.
The Future of 'Star Wars'
They are the words that aspiring Jedi Masters and Sith Lords have dreaded for years: "This is it. We've done Episode I through Episode VI and there won't be anymore films at all.
I see dead people (in the audience)
What results from combining The Sixth Sense and Fight Club and then subtracting the good acting and violence?
Hold me closer, famous director
This week, Street talks to Academy Award-winning filmmaker Cameron Crowe about his latest work, Elizabethtown, and the highs and lows of his illustrious career.
Doomed to suck
Doom, starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Sarge and Karl Urban as John Grimm, promises very little from the onset -- and keeps its promise.
If Pacino were a deli meat
Two for the Money's greatest strength is clearly its originality. Honestly, whoever thought to cast Al Pacino as an aging, cynical, battle-hardened mentor alongside a handsome, naive idealist is a fucking genius.
Fee fie foe fum
Gosford Park scribe Julian Fellowes' new film Separate Lies almost hits the nail on the head but falls short.
We aren't waiting for godot
Novice director Rob McKittrick's new film Waiting... signals yet another addition to the "frat pack" genre.
Cameron diaz gets ugg-ly
Though not exactly star-studded, In Her Shoes certainly boasts an interesting cast of characters: there is Rose (Toni Collette), a lawyer who cannot seem to find a boyfriend but has a killer shoe collection; Maggie (Cameron Diaz), Rose's trampy sister who can't hold a job; and Ella (Shirley MacLaine), the sisters' long-lost grandmother.
Destination: claymation
Call Nick Park old-fashioned, but in an era dominated by computer-generated animation, he still likes working with clay.
Finally...
Jonathan Safran Foer is not a writer, he is a collector. As played by Elijah Wood, Foer is a vegetarian, an American, and a descendant of a Holocaust survivor, obsessed with mapping the details of his Jewish heritage.
Into the poo
Into the Blue, starring teen heartthrobs Paul Walker and Jessica Alba, pretty much unfolds as one would expect.
Two thumbs down
What is the meaning of life? Based on the book by Walter Kirn, the new film Thumbsucker tries, but fails, to provide an answer to this often-asked question.
Toilet water, with a twist
Although Roman Polanski's newest movie, Oliver Twist, at first seems to have a winning formula, it falls short in the end.
"Serenity now," the universal execs said
Serenity, the long-awaited film adaptation of director Joss Whedon's (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) cult-favorite TV series Firefly, has all of the components of a typical sci-fi action film, and little more.
