David DeCoteau and Matthew Jason Walsh’s twisty tale of bad behavior among the dirty sexy money crowd is a throwback to b-movie erotic thrillers of the 1980s, complete with faded star — ’80s golden girl Susan Anton — and attractive young things who know they look terrific in their underwear. Read more>>

Chuck Palahniuk is notorious for writing unlikeable books about unsympathetic people, so it’s no big shock that “Choke,” his latest story to hit the big screen, centers around a total nimwit. What is surprising, however, is that a film about a scheming, soul-searching sex addict named Victor (Sam Rockwell) could be quite so tedious. Read more>>

AWFJ highlights films made by and about women Read more

It might not be possible to review Hounddog without commenting on the controversy – Sundance screenings, committees of concerned parents, online petitions, the list could continue - but I am going to try. The film was written and directed by relative newcomer and genuine talent Deborah Kampmeier. It tells the story of Lewellen, a young girl who lives in a world where fantasy overtakes reality. Read more

The rape itself is not horribly graphic, although it is difficult to watch, but it’s equally discomfiting watching Fanning, throughout the film, run around costumed in a skimpy undershirt and panties, writhing and wriggling her hips and fanny seductively as she imitates Elvis Presley’s dance style. The point, I suppose, is that up until the rape Lewellen is play-acting innocently with no intent to be sexually provocative, and the way in which the rape happens takes that away from her, and Fanning’s performance saves that aspect of the film from being wasted.

http://www.cinematical.com/2007/01/25/sundance-review-hounddog/

Actor-turned-filmmaker Ed Harris’ tone-deaf adaptation of Robert B. Parker’s novel involves a marshal-for-hire, his deputy, a dusty southwestern town, a damsel in distress and a ruthless capitalist willing to kill anyone standing between him and his God-given right to make a lot of money. Read more>>

Hollywood has been making Westerns for more years than there was a Wild West. Almost all of them take place in the years between the Civil War and the end of the 19th century–and “Appaloosa” continues the tradition. Read more

Is it my fault if “The Duchess” isn’t as ‘all that’ as it thinks it is? Read more>>Read more>>

Lady Diana Spencer was the direct descendant of glamorous, trend-setting Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, who was famously painted by Gainsborough. Fittingly, Georgiana’s story begins in 1774 at Althorp, the family estate on which the late Princess of Wales is buried. Read more

The trouble with Howard Deutch and first-time screenwriter Jordan Cahan’s sniggering comedy of modern romance isn’t that it’s relentlessly vulgar, coarse and juvenile. It’s that it lacks the courage of its swinish convictions, and abruptly acquiesces to bland rom-com clichés three-quarters of the way to its appointed end. Read more>>