entertainment
"The Woodsman" isn't too sturdy
By Emma Zachurski | Jan. 12, 2005, midnight | In Movies »
A movie completely devoid of redeeming qualities is tolerable in the sense that nothing seems wasted. However, "The Woodsman," is even more disappointing than such a film because it wastes a remarkably powerful and chilling performance from Kevin Bacon by not offering a worthy backdrop.
Not much below the surface of The Life Aquatic
By Pria Anand | Dec. 28, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
Idiosyncratic filmmaker Wes Anderson is constantly devoted to evoking new worlds for his audience to venture into, from the confused mind of a precocious 15-year-old in Rushmore to the off-the-wall dysfunction of The Royal Tenenbaums. In his latest and arguably most ambitious endeavor, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Anderson plumbs the depths of imagination to create an entire undersea kingdom.
Pleasant but shaky waters of "The Life Aquatic"
By Emma Zachurski | Dec. 18, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
Filmmaker Wes Anderson has set sail into new waters. His latest film, "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," is a goofball comedy that's chiefly concerned with bringing laughs.
Bridget Jones: unreasonably stale
By Nora Boedecker | Nov. 17, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
Bridget Jones
Movies are just as mediocre After the Sunset
By Kiran Bhat | Nov. 17, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
Take James Bond, turn him into a conniving diamond thief, grow him a bit of stubble, add an awkward archenemy, throw in a few curvy divas, put them all in the Bahamas and you get After the Sunset, a mediocre flick that is at times entertaining, and at others, stone cold dreadful.
"Tarnation" breaks boundaries to create art
By Emma Zachurski | Nov. 16, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
Documentaries are usually for informing only, but "Tarnation" goes beyond the simple genre to create an incredible work of true-life-cinema. Jonathon Caouette's innovative filmmaking debut, "Tarnation" makes sorrowful tales of family and life as entrancing as they are poignant.
"Arrested Development" is still delightfully captivating
By Emma Zachurski | Nov. 11, 2004, midnight | In Television »
Last season, "Arrested Development" proved to be one of the best comedies to grace network television in a long time. The show kept getting better and won an Emmy for best comedy thanks to its over-the-top humor and excellently written episodes. Based on the latest episode, it looks as though the second season of "Arrested Development" is going to be just as great as the first.
"DIG!" this
By Emma Zachurski | Oct. 26, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
Rock stars: something about their extravagant lifestyles and rebellious attitudes makes them fascinating to many. However, in the documentary "DIG!", there is another side of rock musicians shown, a human side, including their relationships and the highs and lows of their careers.
Team America falls victim to [expletive] [expletive]
By Kiran Bhat | Oct. 19, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
The only words that can describe Team America: World Police are too offensive to be printed. Never has a movie with such an ingenious satirical element been so ruined by extreme vulgarity.
Varekai: Cirque splendor
By Pria Anand | Oct. 13, 2004, midnight | In Plays »
Aerial gymnasts contorting fifty feet above the stage on a set composed of nothing more substantial than ropes and tenuous golden poles. A harlequin dancer spinning across the floor in a languid ballet performed on, of all things, crutches. Spangled, spiky-headed acrobats vaulting through the air from one swinging plank to another. As incongruous as they seem, all fit perfectly under one blue-and-yellow big top tent in Varekai, the latest offering from French-Canadian circus company Cirque du Soleil.
Friday Night Lights, Tuesday night triteness
By Armin Rosen | Oct. 13, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
It's halftime at the Texas state football championship game and the Permian-Odessa Panthers are down by a lot. As their coach (Billy-Bob Thornton) gives a fiery locker room speech, the camera cuts between the battle-scarred faces of the game-battered gridiron warriors, capturing the blood, the sweat, the tears of high schoolfootball at its highest level.
Tanner On Tanner, rehash on Sundance
By Armin Rosen | Oct. 13, 2004, midnight | In Television »
Of all the institutions in this pop culture of ours, there is nonemore insidious than the sequel. It constantly amazes and puzzles methat some of the finest directors and producers we've ever had are so eager to sacrifice their very souls at the altar of the sequel. They so eager to betray their original artisticvisions in order to score fat checks and box office buzz. From George Lucasthe world received the cinematic atrocities known as the Star Warssequels; from Francis Ford Coppola the laughingstock that was GodfatherPart III; from Steven Spielberg, a convoluted second visit to the world ofJurassic Park. But selling out is good business; Jurassic Park 2:The Lost World had what was at the time the highest grossing openingweekend in movie history.
Silver City is golden
By Armin Rosen | Sept. 23, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
In his book Worse than Watergate, former Nixon legal aid John Dean expresses surprise at George W. Bush's ability to run a secretive and dishonest administration. After all, Nixon had the sort of ruthless intellect that made him truly Nixonian, whereas Bush seems a little too preoccupied with basic pronunciation to control a political machine anywhere near as frightening as his predecessor's.
Silver City doesn't even take bronze
By Pria Anand | Sept. 21, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
Silver City is like the unholy lovechild of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Erin Brokovich, some outlandish, ineffectual combination of thinly veiled satire and underdeveloped champion-of-justice drama that begs the question, did writer/director John Sayles (Sunshine State, Passion Fish) watch his latest endeavor all the way through before unleashing it on us?
Festival Express: A long, strange trip...through Canada
By Armin Rosen | Sept. 12, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
I suppose I like Festival Express because it is something of a throwback. It's a throwback to the wonderful pre-Fahrenheit 9/11 days of documentary filmmaking when documentaries, as the name suggests, documented. Popular documentaries are today so mired in political rhetoric that I briefly feared for the survival of the genre, what with audiences appearing to favor the malicious (Michael Moore accosting senators on the street) over the meaningful (when was the last time you watched Frontline, PBS's Oscar-nominated documentary program?). For a glorious hour and a half my fears were almost totally allayed, as the film simply documents the six-day drinking binge that was The Band, The Grateful Dead, and Janis Joplin's
Björk grows her roots in "Medúlla"
By Emma Zachurski | Sept. 6, 2004, midnight | In Music »
There seems to be nothing that Björk cannot accomplish. Since her start as an Icelandic jazz singer at the age of 12, she's explored and broadened her musical style countless times without ever failing to amaze or surprise fans and skeptics alike. Her latest record, "Medúlla," is no different, taking vocal innovation to a whole level of creativity.
Woodlands has got game
By | Aug. 17, 2004, midnight | In Restaurant Reviews »
Woodlands, a "pure south Indian vegetarian restaurant” - as indicated by the glowing neon sign on one of its windows - lies tightly fitted into a corner of one of Gaithersburg's many strip-malls. A friendly looking comic figure just next to the restaurant's illuminated logo accurately predicts the restaurant environment.
Catwoman not up to purr
By | Aug. 14, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
Singing into the hearts of the French
By Nora Boedecker | Aug. 2, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
"Uh Huh Her": not an album to forget
By Emma Zachurski | June 27, 2004, midnight | In Music »
"Uh Huh Her" is possibly singer songwriter P.J. Harvey's most diverse and musically accomplished work since her 1995 blues-rock, organ-backed, hard-hitting "To Bring You My Love." Breaking away from the almost completely pop-polished style of her previous album, "Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea," "Uh Huh Her" is less of an image album and more of a creative project, that aims for and delivers complete music bliss. In "Uh Huh Her," Harvey merges her previous trademark musical specialties, which range from haunting lyrics and deep growling vocal tracks to falsetto moans and a never ending palette of mixed emotions that grace each track in an unforgettable manner.
The Passion: whose gospel is it?
By Samir Paul | March 4, 2004, midnight | In Movies »
The full moon casts an eerie glow over the light fog that permeates Gethsemane. A man, wrought with fear, rebukes his closest friends for falling asleep in his time of greatest need. Moments later, he is bound in chains, being prodded along by a band of soldiers. His friends have fled, and he is alone. This? The long-awaited Messiah?
The top music of 2003
By | Jan. 31, 2004, midnight | In Music »
Silver Chips Online writers pick the best albums and songs from 2003.
We found 1405 results.