It feels dangerous territory to criticize the Coen brothers. Without a doubt, they are intelligent and extremely well-versed in the language of cinema. Even when they misstep, it is only in the eyes of the viewers.

I’m going to say this right off the bat: if you’re not considering buying this box set, there’s going to be an emptiness in your music collection, thus making the rest of your collection worthless without it.

Mott The Hoople is one of those bands that people hear the name, know the name, and recognize them for the tune “All The Young Dudes” and maybe, just maybe the rockin’ song “All The Way From Memphis.” This DVD may get you to actually search the interweb or go on the YouTube to [...]

Tiburon Filmes/Punto Guion Punto Producciones
95 min., dir. by Sebastián Silva, with Catalina Saavedra, Claudia Celedón, Andrea García-Huidobro, and Mariana Loyola
The Maid is a film made with seemingly limited resources that accomplishes a great deal. It uses only a few locations, employs a relatively small cast, and is shot on video.
Raquel has worked as a maid [...]

Sony Pictures Classic
92 min., dir. by Woody Allen, with Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Patricia Clarkson, and Ed Begley, Jr.
The New Beverly Cinema in West Hollywood recently showed Woody Allen’s latest film from a few months back, Whatever Works. The film received mixed reviews upon its release; however, I was sorry that I didn’t get [...]

Miramax Films
92 min., dir. by Mike Judge, with Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, and Ben Affleck
With “King of the Hill” coming to a close after a long run of 13 seasons, fans of Mike Judge had little time to mourn the end of the Hill family’s adventures when the animation icon released his fourth feature film [...]

Factory 515
17 min., dir. by Jeff Krulik and John Heyn
Time capsules allow us to relive the past through artifacts preserved in time and space. Someday a DVD and an iPod will represent life in the 21st century and will be laughed at by those who will create the technologies of tomorrow. Fashions of 2009 will [...]

Universal Pictures
153 min., dir. by Quentin Tarantino, with Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, and Til Schweiger
The hype of Inglourious Basterds has many people saying it marks Quentin Tarantino’s best film in years. After seeing the movie for myself, I have only one question to those making that statement: How can you tell?
Not to say that this [...]

Key Creatives
112 min., dir. by Neill Blomkamp with Sharlto Copley, William Allen Young, and Vanessa Haywood
According to the film’s trailer, “There are many secrets in District 9.” But what’s not a secret is that this movie is the must-see hit of the summer, with both critics and audiences agreeing that District 9 is a science [...]

Criterion/Rialto Pictures
140 min., dir. by Jean-Pierre Melville, with Alain Delon, Gian-Maria Volonte, and Yves Montand
This is my first article for Verbicide and I can’t think of a better film to start with than Jean-Pierre Meville’s Le Cercle Rouge. I blogged about it a few months back, but it just played again at the Aero in [...]

Karbo Vantas Entertainment
92 min., dir. by Nacho Vigalondo, with Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernández, and Bárbara Goenaga
Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes) is a Spanish science fiction film which operates on an unthinkably low budget, relying instead on a tight script rather than flashy effects. Like all good sci-fi, Timecrimes puts its main character in tough ethical situations. Hector [...]

Warner Bros. Pictures/Dark Castle Entertainment
123 min., dir. by Jaume Collet-Serra with Peter Sarsgaard, Vera Farmiga, and Isabelle Fuhrman
There are plenty of imperfect films out there that I enjoy for the simple reason I am able to ignore their flaws, as they are usually few and far between. But for one to enjoy Orphan, the film [...]

Universal Pictures/Apatow Productions
146 min., dir. by Judd Apatow with Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann
Whether you’re able to catch Funny People in the theater or wait for its release on DVD, my advice remains the same: watch the movie, laugh your guts out, and then never think about the film ever again. Perhaps [...]

Mirage Enterprises
124 min., dir. by Stephen Daldry, with Kate Winslet, Jeanette Hain, and Ralph Fiennes
As an Oscar contender, The Reader couldn’t have been more of a long-shot. It tells the tale of a young man (played by David Kross in his youth and Ralph Fiennes in middle age) who becomes involved with a mysterious older [...]

Originally published in Verbicide issue #25
Entertainment Films
100 min., dir. by David Schwimmer, with Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton, and Hank Azaria
Upon this film’s release, a lot of critics pulled no punches in giving this comedy a bad review. After my own viewing of Run Fatboy Run, I’m convinced these so-called “experts” were only expressing their disappointment [...]