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BRETT MICHEL

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Review: Betty Blue, The Director's Cut

Well-remembered arthouse film gains an extra hour
"I had known Betty for a week," a voiceover intones. The voice is that of Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade), an unpublished novelist, whom we see fucking Betty (Béatrice Dalle in a star-making turn) in the slow zoom that serves as the opening shot of Jean-Jacques Beineix's well-remembered contribution to erotic cinema.

By: BRETT MICHEL | September 09, 2009

Review: All About Steve

They should have called it "There's Something Insane About Mary"
How is it that the absolute worst "chick flicks" of the summer were written by women?

By: BRETT MICHEL | September 09, 2009

Review: Halloween II

Rob Zombie's newest bloody mess
Rob Zombie's remake of a sequel to a film he remade begins where his previous film left off.

By: BRETT MICHEL | September 02, 2009

First look at James Cameron's Avatar

Titanic Gamble
James Cameron captained the biggest box-office smash of all time, his Titanic having grossed nearly $2 billion worldwide. But that was 12 years ago, long before the recession appeared on anyone's radar.

By: BRETT MICHEL | August 26, 2009

Review: Lorna's Silence

A work of near-greatness
Are there many better young actors currently working in film than Jérémie Renier?

By: BRETT MICHEL | August 13, 2009

Bottle rocket

Charlyne Yi is a hot date
Who exactly is Charlyne Yi? Two years ago, she appeared — seemingly from out of nowhere — in a brief but memorable turn in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up. A closer look at Apatow's new Funny People , however, might provide a clue as to where he discovered her.

By: BRETT MICHEL | August 07, 2009

Love, truth and videotape

Paper Heart wears its heart on its sleeve
Is there anything more heartwarming than watching a little girl officiating at the marriage of two of her favorite dolls? Is there a purer form of love than the kind that a pre-pubescent might project onto the union of a plush Miss Piggy and a put-upon Kermit the Frog?

By: BRETT MICHEL | August 10, 2009

Review: Orphan

Delightfully gonzo
John (Peter Sarsgaard) and Kate (Vera Farmiga) don't have eight children to contend with, but after the miscarriage of their daughter, they adopt, bringing their brood to three. Perhaps they should have cut their losses.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 28, 2009

Review: Humpday

It ain't gay if it's art!
Ben's ovulating wife, Anna, does understand that this is something he needs to do, even if she can't quite understand why. I'm with her there.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 24, 2009

Review: Blood: The Last Vampire

An interesting experiment
Despite inserting a jumble of backstory into his live-action take on an action experiment, director Chris Nahon ( Kiss of the Dragon ) captures some of the visceral thrills of the nine-year-old anime .

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 08, 2009

Review: Jerichow

Disastrous, but unexpected
In Germany, as in America, it seems that the price of postage is rising.

By: BRETT MICHEL | July 02, 2009

Review: The Stoning of Soraya M.

Plays out like a TV movie
Unlike what happened to him in The Passion of the Christ , James Caviezel in this adaptation of a 1994 non-fiction book by Freidoune Sahebjam only hears about a grotesque martyrdom.

By: BRETT MICHEL | June 25, 2009

Interview: Pete Docter

3-D or not 3-D? That is the first question . . .
Pete Docter was only the third animator to come aboard Pixar when he joined up in 1990, and he's had a lasting effect at the computer-animation powerhouse.

By: BRETT MICHEL | May 21, 2009

Cross country trek

A two-day mission
A two-day mission

By: BRETT MICHEL | May 05, 2009

Review: Tokyo Sonata

An unexpectedly moving J-horror film
J-horror maestro Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) begins his timely, if atypical, tale with the downsizing of Japanese patriarch Ryuhei Sasaki from his administrative post.

By: BRETT MICHEL | May 06, 2009

Review: Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

McConaughey is less miser than sex-addicted shithead
Jon Lucas and Scott Moore must have a pathological hatred of the winter holidays.

By: BRETT MICHEL | April 28, 2009

Review: Battle for Terra

A computer-animated sci-fi epic in 3D
Say you want to produce an independent computer-animated sci-fi epic but you don't have the deep pockets of Pixar or DreamWorks — what to do? If you're director Aristomenis Tsirbas, you simplify.

By: BRETT MICHEL | April 28, 2009

Review: Trust Us This Is All Made Up

But should we trust them?
“Trust us, this is all made up,” begins TJ Jagodowski, addressing a capacity crowd at New York’s Barrow Street Theater.

By: BRETT MICHEL | April 16, 2009

Review: Mine

Watch, animal lovers, and be stupefied.
Early in Geralyn Pezanoski's documentary, a news clip shows George Bush proclaiming, "The world saw this tidal wave of disaster descend upon the Gulf Coast, and now they're gonna see a tidal wave of compassion."

By: BRETT MICHEL | April 15, 2009

Review: Invisible Girlfriend

Surreal
Does this documentary from David Redmon and Ashley Sabin exploit its subject? You'll be tempted to say yes.

By: BRETT MICHEL | April 15, 2009

Review: Crude

Quietly compelling
Joe Berlinger returns with a documentary that follows through on the promise of 1992's Brother's Keeper .

By: BRETT MICHEL | August 10, 2009

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