Hustle and FlowDirected by: Craig Brewer(Paramount)A caustic urban drama, the picture gave everyone in it the best roles of their careers and made a star out of Terrence Howard as DJay, the Memphis pimp who becomes a rapper to get off the streets. As music industry ironies abound, the grit in the story won’t wipe […]
Carsten Knox
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Kinsey
Published December 08, 2005. Kinsey Directed by: Bill Condon (20th Century Fox) The best biopic of 2004 (Ray wasn’t even close) is of the infamous sex researcher (Liam Neeson) and the unorthodox experiments he conducted with the help of his wife and colleagues. Laura Linney and Peter Sarsgaard soar in their roles, and the making-of […]
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Layer Cake
Published September 15, 2005.Layer CakeDirected by: Mathew Vaughn(Sony Pictures Classics)Matthew Vaughn produced all of Guy Richie’s films: he certainly knows his way around this new brand of British crime movie. He’s got the chiselled, unnamed lead (Daniel Craig), a businessman in a world of drug dealing, a guy who wants to make his money and […]
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Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull StoryDirected by: Michael Winterbottom(Alliance/Universal)Long thought of as unadaptable, Laurence Sterne’s classic The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman—a bawdy, self-reflexive novel—is now a bawdy, self-reflexive film. Steve Coogan (24 Hour Party People, Happy Endings) plays the titular Shandy, who narrates his own story from birth, frequently jumping about […]
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Sam Peckinpah’s The Legendary Westerns Collection
Sam Peckinpah’s The Legendary Westerns CollectionDirected by: Sam Peckinpah(Warner Home Video)Hard drinking director Peckinpah will always be known for his stories of men with guns. Here are his best, including the elegiac Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, which gives what is considered one of the classic modern westerns, The Wild Bunch (also included in […]
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Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
Published December 08, 2005. Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself Directed by: Lone Scherfig (Sundance) Danish director Lone Sherfig’s follow-up to Italian for Beginners, this is the story of two Scottish brothers, one of whom is terminally depressed. Beginning as a black comedy it becomes a sweetly affecting love triangle. Don’t be put off by the […]
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The complete Thin Man Collection
The complete Thin Man Collection(Warner Home Video)When critics grouse about how modern movies miss the art of repartee, when they whinge about an absence of chemistry between the leads and bemoan a lack of intelligence in the script, this is the film series they’ll most likely point to as having the best combination of those […]
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Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1
Absolute Sandman, Vol. 1Neil GaimanDC/VertigoThe much-adored Neil Gaiman-penned series has never been out of print and is still available in a variety of smaller, less fetching collections, but they just won’t impress like this Absolute edition. The first of a four-volume series of oversized reprints each in a slip-cased hardcover, this “box set” holds the […]
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Born Into Brothels
Published December 08, 2005. Born Into Brothels Directed by: Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman (Thinkfilm) This year’s Academy Award winner for best documentary, Born Into Brothels reveals the lives of children of prostitutes living in North Calcutta. It’s a film both grim and joyful, and gives a sense of the children’s potential beyond their circumstances, without […]
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Flight of the Conchords: The Complete First Season
Flight of the Conchords: The Complete First SeasonHBONew Zealanders Bret MacKenzie and Jermaine Clement try to make it big in show biz while scraping by in New York City. Where they kill is in the musical segments: the note-perfect Pet Shop Boys pastiche, “Inner City Pressure,” and their folk-rap combo, “Hiphopopotamus vs Rhymenocerous.” Carsten KnoxCategories: […]
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A Love Song for Bobby Long
A Love Song for Bobby LongDirected by: Shainee Gabel(Lion’s Gate Films)In this remarkably assured second film from director Shainee Gabel, the audience is treated to a long, lazy trip into the deliciously rotting side of New Orleans. Heavily romantic, in all the positive and negative connotations of that word, A Love Song for Bobby Long […]
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James Bond The Ultimate Collection Volumes 1 & 2
James Bond The Ultimate Collection Volumes 1 & 2Directed by: Guy Hamilton(Fox Video)For the completist, the deluxe DVD editions of 10 of the 007 movies, five per set. It’s an arbitrary grouping, so there’s no skipping on, say, the Dalton entries, but there’s plenty to enjoy in all the extras, crammed on one bonus disc […]
