| Critic |
Review |
Quote |
Analysis |
This Week's Verdict |
Stephen Holden,
New York Times |
Blades of Glory |
"The Van Waldenbergs have a potentially great comic moment near the end of the movie that is all but thrown away. In their breathtakingly tasteless routine at the movie's version of the Winter Olympics, they impersonate John F. Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe as lovers on ice. Alas, all the movie gives us is about 30 seconds of what might have been a classic, Borat-worthy sketch." |
What Stephen Holden learned from Sacha Baron Cohen: Comedy lies in the uncomfortable place and beyond.
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J, Hoberman,
The Village Voice |
Killer of Sheep |
"In retrospect, it can be seen that the two great independent features of the late '70s were Killer of Sheep and Eraserhead. Perhaps when someone writes the reception history of American independent cinema, it will be explained how and when Killer of Sheep — which had its original screenings at museums and underground showcases — came to be considered not just a good but a great movie, placed on the Library of Congress's National Film Registry in 1990." |
This is a fairly interesting review of what is no doubt a very good movie, but then J. Hoberman goes and ruins it with this statement. Was Eraserhead really the best independent feature of the '70s? Can't we all just agree to get over that fetish — please? |
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Armond White,
The New York Press |
The Lookout |
"It's no accident that Scott Frank's plot twist — the nerd turns avenger — merely validates rich kid Chris' deep sense of privilege. That's what indie card-calling movies like this are all about. The Lookout is so fatuously contrived it is the first movie that actually made me pine for the loss of Robert Altman; fearing we'll never see real-life observation on the screen again." |
After two weeks of rather friendly reviews it is nice seeing Armond White back to his cantankerous old self. The review begins with an elaborate battering of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It ends with a backhanded compliment to Robert Altman and Armond's thoughts on indie movies as vehicles intended to validate the sense of privilege of killer rich-kid nerds. Clearly The Lookout didn't take Armond to his happy place. Maybe he'd feel better if he went and saw Eraserhead and Killer of Sheep?
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Stephanie Zacharek,
Salon.com |
Blades of Glory |
"Blades of Glory doesn't seem to know whether it's sending up homophobia or cuddling up to it. On the one hand, it asks the rhetorical question, 'So what's wrong with the idea of a guy-guy pairs team?' On the other hand, Jimmy's butt-strutting in that peacock suit, his mincing walk, play right into the stereotypes that boneheads everywhere love to laugh at." |
You can always rely on Salon to break things down for you along "Women & Gender Studies 101" lines. Nothing we haven't seen before, but you've got to appreciate that someone has taken it upon herself to pose the most obvious question about Blades of Glory. |
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Kevin Crust,
The LA Times |
Blades of Glory |
"Although the film makes comic fodder of these two extreme opposites on the chain of masculinity, there's not much to it beyond the obvious sight gags and innuendo. The filmmakers may be making some generic point about the warring masculine and feminine aspects within every male, but they were far more interested in the high-concept idea of two men flinging each other across the ice." |
Kevin Crust is certainly no Stephanie Zacharek. Not sure how high-concept the idea of two men flinging each other across the ice is. The "chain of masculinity" sounds intriguing though. |
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