| Critic |
Review |
Quote |
Analysis |
This Week's Verdict |
Manohla Dargis,
The New York Times |
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford |
"If there was more to Bob's love, you won't find it here, despite a coy bathtub scene that finds James luxuriating in milky water while the younger man hovers uncertainly nearby. 'You want to be like me or do you want to be me?' asks James, casting his glance back at the man others would later brand Judas.
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Seriously, that is no way to play coy with a homoerotic subtext. If James is going to ask that question, he should ask it the right way.
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J Hoberman,
The Village Voice |
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford |
"It's a baffling caprice of the zeitgeist to have two studio westerns released in the same month, 30-odd years after the genre basically gave up the ghost. [...] The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a deeply, unsentimentally nostalgic movie — but nostalgic for what exactly?" |
Not really that baffling considering nostalgia tends to pop up at times when self-image and founding myths are challenged. Giddy-up folks.
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JArmond White,
New York Press |
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford |
"Dominik merely swoons over Pitt/Jesse, entrapped by macho mystique. This all might have worked had Pitt exuded more personality — like his sexy swagger in Fight Club or his romantic glow in Meet Joe Black. Pitt's not a strong enough actor to make the enigma of a pathological killer compelling." |
Looks like Armond White just insulted both the director and the star of this movie in one blow.
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Stephanie Zacharek,
Salon.com |
Into the Wild |
"The next he's in a remote corner of Alaska gnawing on a reddish, stiffened squirrel shape, its legs splayed in an approximation of a plea for mercy. In an admirable display of American self-sufficiency, Chris has shot, skinned and roasted the critter himself, proving there are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard, and thank God for that." |
Also in this review: mama and baby bears make narrow escapes, pet chickens get their heads bitten off. My god, the poor animals!
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Kenneth Turan,
L.A. Times |
Into the Wild |
"For this was the kind of paradigmatic young person it was possible to both extravagantly admire and deeply despair of, a stern intolerant moralist as well as a giddy, buoyant enthusiast, someone perhaps best viewed as a walking Rorschach test. Was he a foolish naif or a great, transcendent spirit? The Chris you saw depended on the one you wanted to see." |
Yes, yes we get it. People project stuff onto Chris.
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