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DVDish

Boy Trouble

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: January 9, 2008

Joshua (Fox) George Ratliff's movie, a sort of satirical take on Rosemary's Baby , came and went upon its release; seems no one got the joke about how parents (Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga,...

Film

Revenge of the Nerds

Judd Apatow's pretty good year

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: January 2, 2008

Absolutely, unequivocally, 2007 was The Year of the Apatow. Judd got Knocked Up to the tune of $150 million (at the box office alone); the super-okay Superbad , which he produced, grossed...

DVDish

Black Russian

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: January 2, 2008

Eastern Promises (Universal) David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen are becoming a Bizarro World Alfred Hitchcock/Cary Grant combo, and the world is a better (and bloodier) place for it....

Feature

Hit List

The top movies of 2007

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: December 26, 2007

It's that time of year again. Our six critics don't always (or often) agree, but we've combined their top 10 lists (allowing for ties) to pretend they do! So without further ado, the 10 (or 15)...

Feature

Doc Block

Nonfiction continues its ascent onscreen

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: December 26, 2007

An acquaintance who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq says he has no use for documentaries about George W. Bush's bungling of the War on Terror. He has not and will not see a single one of the...

DVDish

Pause & Rewind

The best DVDs of '07 made old movies feel new again.

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: December 26, 2007

Blade Runner: The Final Cut (Warner Bros.) — It's the collector's-set briefcase that seals the deal, a gunmetal-gray case that all but shouts "Completist dork!" Also: There's...

Film

Moolah for Mullahs

All aboard the '80s way-back machine for Mike Nichols' good-time Charlie

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: December 19, 2007

Hell of a thing, getting Mike Nichols to adapt the yer- kiddin' -me story of Charlie Wilson, the congressman from Lufkin, Texas, who damned near single-handedly helped the Afghans kick out the...

DVDish

Singular Sensation

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: December 19, 2007

Once (Fox) Easily the year's most perfect pop album — damned good movie too, the finest "musical" of the past 20 years. The disc's making-of refers to it as a "modern...

Film

Knocked Up

Teen pregnancy, hilarious and sweet, in the indie-licious Juno

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: December 12, 2007

Juno marks the second film for director Jason Reitman and the first for screenwriter Diablo Cody, author of the Pussy Ranch blog, which, surprisingly, has very little to do with baby kittens....

DVDish

Killer Climax

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: December 12, 2007

The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal) The final installment in the Bourne-again trilogy is the one in which the CIA assassin's true identity is revealed. It's the origin story in reverse...

DVDish

Cellar Beware

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: December 5, 2007

The Girl Next Door (Anchor Bay) If the horror of Saw was a poblano pepper, this here is the habañero. Derived from Jack Ketchum's infamous novel, sometimes word-for-word, The...

DVDish

Bender’s Big Score, Hot Rod, Waitress - New DVDs reviewed

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: November 28, 2007

Hot Rod (Paramount) Andy Samberg, best known for stuffing his dick in a box on Saturday Night Live , is Rod Kimble, a wannabe stuntman with very little "man" in him. He lives with his...

Film

What a Toad

Fairy-tale land and the real world collide to no good end in Enchanted

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: November 21, 2007

Hard to believe that it's been 20 years since the release of The Princess Bride , if only because it hasn't aged a day — the mark of something truly, blessedly timeless. Bereft of the...

DVDish

New DVDs -- Heart of Darkness, Nosferatu , Unrated Die Hard

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: November 21, 2007

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (Paramount) At last available on DVD, Eleanor Coppola's 1991 documentary about her husband's tumultuous trek downriver remains, easily, the...

FilmCap

Love in the Time of Cholera

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: November 14, 2007

This is easily the worst adaptation of a major novel by a Nobel Prize–winning author. Easily. Director Mike Newell ( Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ) and writer Ronald Harwood have...

DVDish

New DVDs: The Princess Bride, Killer of Sheep, Innocence, La Vie en Rose

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: November 14, 2007

The Princess Bride: 20th Anniversary Edition (MGM) As far as anniversary-edition DVDs go, The Princess Bride is crushingly disappointing: no Rob Reiner commentary track, no outtakes,...

DVDish

New on DVD -- Sesame Street, Chinatown Collector's Edition, Sicko Collector's Edition

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: November 7, 2007

Sesame Street: Old School Volume 2 (Genius) On the heels of the Electric Company boxed sets, which were at once educational and groovy as all get-out, comes the latest in greatest hits from...

Film

John Cusack's Martian Child Phoney, Predictable, Pedestrian

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: October 31, 2007

John Cusack, who more or less began his career sneaking a peek at Molly Ringwald's panties in Sixteen Candles , has finally become an onscreen daddy — which only took, what, 23 years?...

Film

'Bee' Embarasses Jerry Seinfeld

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: October 31, 2007

After making a mint off a series about nothing, Jerry Seinfeld apparently decided his first feature film ought to be about something — in the case of Bee Movie , the enslavement and torture...

DVDish

Talk to Me, Twin Peaks, No End in Sight : DVDish

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: October 31, 2007

No End in Sight (Magnolia) Charles Ferguson's debut doc, easily the most important in a year full of notable fact-gathering films, assembles some of the key players behind the invasion and...