Julia Wallace
Movies reviews only
Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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A Very British Gangster (2007) |
It would have been nice to hear a small something about Noonan's very British victims. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jul 16, 2008
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Holding Trevor (2007) |
Such an anomie-filled nothing of a movie that it wouldn't even be a pleasure to savage it. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jul 01, 2008
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Meet Bill (2007) |
It tries hard to mimic the arch tone of the best suburban tragicomedies (American Beauty, et al.), but a surfeit of stock characters, double-wide plot holes and heavy-handed symbolism ruins the effect. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jun 12, 2008
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On the Rumba River (2007) |
As a filmmaker, Sarasin has an extraordinarily light touch. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jun 04, 2008
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Before the Rains (2007) |
Director Santosh Sivan imparts a vastness and a sense of wonder to the film, qualities reminiscent of a Thomas Cole painting: They remind you why the Brits thought conquering India was a good idea in the first place. - Village Voice
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| Posted May 08, 2008
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What Happens in Vegas (2008) |
The stars, despite having only a fraction of the charm and talent of classic sparring-but-meant-for-each-other duos, know how to mug for the camera and well up on cue, and somehow that turns out to be enough to carry this trifle. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted May 08, 2008
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Savage Grace (2007) |
The lurid plot, based on a very true story, isn't the problem here...stilted dialogue), and not nearly enough coaxing Moore out of her habit of clenching her face at the camera. - Village Voice
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| Posted Apr 23, 2008
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Four Minutes (2006) |
Although the tone of the film drifts precariously toward the self-serious, writer/director Chris Kraus redeems himself with snatches of dark jailhouse humor and a quiet attentiveness to minute gradations of human feeling. - Village Voice
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| Posted Apr 16, 2008
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The Dhamma Brothers (2008) |
There's no doubt that the Brothers are a compelling bunch, but their story isn't well served here. - Village Voice
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| Posted Apr 08, 2008
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Beyond Belief (2007) |
What started as an exercise in essentialism is quickly revealed to be just the opposite, and this film would have been more interesting had Murphy delved into the complexity of the Afghan women's lives rather than focusing on the Americans' generosity. - Village Voice
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| Posted Feb 27, 2008
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City of Men (2007) |
Paulo Morelli directs capably, with a heavy dash of MTV-generation flair: hyper-saturated colors, close-ups of skin glittering with sweat, and a constant patter of gunfire that undergirds the soundtrack like a steady heartbeat. - Village Voice
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| Posted Feb 27, 2008
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Praying With Lior (2007) |
This doc is a hardcore tearjerker. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jan 29, 2008
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Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006) |
I'm sure the pot-laced antics of these trashy dudes are, like, totally hilarious on Canadian TV, but they don't translate well to America or the big screen. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jan 22, 2008
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Alice's House (2007) |
Alice's House is an utterly average foreign art-house film, with all the strengths and flaws that label implies. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jan 22, 2008
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Summer Palace (2006) |
Combines flashes of insight and scintillating cinematography -- grainy, fumbling, light-blinded -- with stretches of inscrutable mediocrity. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jan 15, 2008
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The Business of Being Born (2007) |
Epstein and Lake have crafted an absorbing, thought-provoking inquiry into what modern birth has become and how to make it better. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jan 08, 2008
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The Bucket List (2007) |
[Nicholson and Freeman] are skilled at squeezing emotion from a cheeseball script (as is Reiner, who, knowing the score, doesn't try to rein them in). - Village Voice
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| Posted Dec 18, 2007
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Flakes (2007) |
Despite a few good one-liners, the dialogue is overwritten. - Village Voice
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| Posted Dec 18, 2007
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The Perfect Holiday (2007) |
The actors distinguish themselves mainly by their ability to make the material, directed and co-written by Lance Rivera, seem even more painfully awkward and unfunny than it already is -- which is very. - Village Voice
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| Posted Dec 11, 2007
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Dirty Laundry (2006) |
Cheesy crockpot of a film. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Dec 06, 2007
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Undoing (2006) |
[Director Chris Chan] Lee tries to innovate, but he relies on so many tricks -- woozy overexposures, rapid-fire slideshows -- that his movie looks like the product of a teenager playing with the camera on his new MacBook. - Village Voice
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| Posted Dec 04, 2007
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Billy the Kid (2007) |
I have seen more than 25 documentaries this year, and after a while they all start to run together, both structurally and thematically. Billy the Kid is utterly original in both respects. - Village Voice
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| Posted Dec 04, 2007
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Who Is Norman Lloyd? (2007) |
I'm still not convinced that Norman Lloyd "should" be a household name. - Village Voice
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| Posted Nov 28, 2007
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Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding (2004) |
The not-exactly-long-awaited movie version is here, trading in stereotypes just as ineptly as the original. - Village Voice
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| Posted Nov 27, 2007
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Everything's Cool (2007) |
Gratingly condescending toward its audience and sorely lacking in any substantive information about the problem or the solution. - Village Voice
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| Posted Nov 20, 2007
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What Would Jesus Buy? (2007) |
This production is slick, well-paced, and tremendously entertaining. - Village Voice
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| Posted Nov 13, 2007
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Total Denial (2006) |
Total Denial is intelligent and brimming with what can only be called heart. - Village Voice
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| Posted Oct 26, 2007
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(undefined) |
Total Denial is intelligent and brimming with what can only be called heart. - Village Voice
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| Posted Oct 23, 2007
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Bella (2006) |
I won't spoil it, except to say that it manages to be utterly predictable without making any sense at all. - Village Voice
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| Posted Oct 23, 2007
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Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) |
In Danish director Susanne Bier's first American effort, the camera lingers so long and lusciously on its lead actress's perfect little pores that it quickly starts to resemble a Neutrogena commercial. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Oct 18, 2007
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Feast of Love (2007) |
For a film that purports to be an epic consideration of Love in Our Time, Feast is strikingly unthoughtful and uninterested in any but the most obvious kind of romantic love. - Village Voice
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| Posted Sep 26, 2007
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Adrift in Manhattan (2007) |
You can't build a movie around lingering, soulful shots of the No. 1 train zooming up and down the West Side. - Village Voice
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| Posted Sep 25, 2007
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Silk (2007) |
Silk isn't just bad. It's utterly mad. - Village Voice
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| Posted Sep 18, 2007
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The Unknown Soldier (2006) |
The film eventually becomes one long therapy session for the German nation as it struggles to understand how its brave and good soldiers could have done such bad, bad things. - Village Voice
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| Posted Sep 18, 2007
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Ira and Abby (2006) |
Annie Hall called, and it wants its plot back. - Village Voice
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| Posted Sep 11, 2007
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Helvetica (2007) |
Helvetica keenly distills the eternal aesthetic battle between the classical and the baroque and explores what happens when a revolution goes mainstream. - Village Voice
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| Posted Sep 11, 2007
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The Inner Life of Martin Frost (2007) |
What starts out as a clever exploration of consciousness quickly descends into underplotted folly. - Village Voice
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| Posted Sep 04, 2007
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Deep Water (2006) |
Given that the tedium of months on the open seas could and did drive a man insane, co-directors Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell have done a commendable job of making Deep Water... well, not boring. - Village Voice
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| Posted Aug 21, 2007
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Primo Levi's Journey (2007) |
Primo Levi's Journey is almost willfully opaque about the actual circumstances of Primo Levi's journey. Who exactly was this man we're meant to be paying homage to, and why did it take him so long to get home? - Village Voice
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| Posted Aug 14, 2007
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Sunflower (2005) |
Sunflower plays less like the epic it aspires to be than an episode of Full House: Beijing. - Village Voice
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| Posted Aug 14, 2007
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Dans Paris (2006) |
The film is a domestic love story of the first order, but it is also a semi-abstract series of quiet, intense moments -- a slap, a phone call, a hug in the bathtub -- that tiptoe up to a climax both spectacularly and subtly emotional. - City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
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| Posted Aug 07, 2007
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The Willow Tree (2005) |
A series of glistening tone poems. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jul 31, 2007
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Live-In Maid (2004) |
A film of startling insight and grace. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jul 17, 2007
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Summercamp! (2006) |
Although it's hard to be too churlish about such a good-hearted film, Summercamp! manages to make watching kids have fun surprisingly tedious. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jul 17, 2007
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Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox (2006) |
Although the segments featuring Bronner's son, Ralph, veer uncomfortably toward hagiography, director Sara Lamm balances out the love fest by exploring the dark side of being a soap-hawking prophet and the toll that ALL-ONE-FAITH took on Bronner's family. - L.A. Weekly
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| Posted Jul 12, 2007
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Colma: The Musical (2006) |
This is a potentially brilliant scenario, so it's unfortunate that Colma pays so little attention to Colma; it may as well be set anywhere. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jul 05, 2007
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Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman (2006) |
In the end, Flying is a gentle monstrosity, swollen and silly, but shot through with some wonderful stories. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jul 05, 2007
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The Real Dirt on Farmer John (2005) |
At times, the film plays like an extended infomercial for John's new company, Angelic Organics, but the agrarian fantasy is so compelling here that the revitalization of the American family farm begins to seem not just possible, but probable. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jun 20, 2007
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Unborn in the USA: Inside the War on Abortion (2006) |
The camera's shakiness and inability to focus on anything gave me a raging headache before 10 minutes had elapsed. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jun 13, 2007
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Strike (2006) |
This is Iron Curtain porn at its most shameless -- a rousing industrial rock song plays in the background every time [director] Schlndorff wants to invoke the Spirit of Labor -- but [actress] Thalbach's Agnieszka is irresistible. - Village Voice
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| Posted Jun 13, 2007
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