NYC Film Critic

Women Without Men
Directed by Shirin Neshat
Starring Pegah Ferydoni, Arita Shahrzad, Shabnam Tolouei, Orsi Toth
**1/2

Women Without Men is the kind of movie I always feel slightly guilty about not liking more.  A beautifully filmed, richly allegorical picture set against the backdrop of the 1953 coup that replaced Iran’s Prime Minister with the Shah, the film has clearly been crafted with care as well as an intensely critical eye, which is more than you can say for most slapdash big-budget vehicles like, say, The Bounty Hunter, or even an enjoyable indie diversion like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

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Greenberg
Directed by Noah Baumbach
Starring Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans
***1/2

After the disappointing critical and commercial response to Margot at the Wedding (a movie that I actually liked quite a bit), it would have been completely understandable had Noah Baumbach chosen to bounce back by accepting a work-for-hire gig on an upbeat tweenybopper romance or a madcap buddy picture…you know, something lighthearted and fun starring characters that viewers actually like.

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Waking Sleeping Beauty
Directed by Don Hahn
***

Since it was produced and distributed by Walt Disney Studios, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the new documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty essentially plays like a traditional Disney animated picture.

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Reviews of the new documentaries Kimjongilia and Ghost Town

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The Bounty Hunter
Directed by Andy Tennant
Starring Jennifer Aniston, Gerard Butler, Jason Sudeikis and Christine Baranski
*

If you’ve seen the trailers for The Bounty Hunter then you’ve already seen the movie because those two-minute spots encapsulate everything that happens during the film’s 110-minute runtime.

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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Directed by Niels Arden Oplev
Starring Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Lena Endre and Sven-Bertil Taube
**1/2

If 2009 was the year of the animated film–with such stellar romps as Up, Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox delighting critics and audiences–2010 is shaping up to be the year of the thriller.

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The Runaways
Directed by Floria Sigismondi
Starring Kristen Stewart, Dakota Fanning and Michael Shannon
***

Most rock-star biopics tend to focus on the larger-than-life personalities of their subjects rather than the places and times from which they emerge.  That’s not to say that movies like Ray and Walk the Line don’t pay attention to period details; all the era-appropriate hairstyles, fashions, cars and even magazine covers are always carefully placed in the frame and every now and then a character will either witness or make a comment about some major historical event to convince the audience that, yes, this really is 1963 or 1972.

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Green Zone
Directed by Paul Greengrass
Starring Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson and Amy Ryan
***

Arriving in theaters the week after The Hurt Locker dominated the Oscars, picking up six trophies including Best Director and Best Picture, Paul Greengrass’ Iraq War-themed action drama Green Zone is in something of a tight spot.

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She’s Out of My League
Directed by Jim Field Smith
Starring Jay Baruchel, Alice Eve, T.J. Miller, Lindsay Sloane
**½

Were it not over-edited and over-scored to within an inch of its life, She’s Out of My League could have been a very charming and very down-to-earth romantic comedy.  As it is, League offers a few modest pleasures, but it’s hard not to spend the majority of its 105-minute runtime picturing the movie it might have been with more conviction and a lot less studio-enforced gloss.

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Mother
Directed by Bong Joon-ho
Starring Hye-ja Kim, Bin Won, Ku Jin and Yoon Jae-Moon
***½

Like the best genre filmmakers, South Korean director Bong Joon-ho understands that a genre picture doesn’t just have to provide solid entertainment–it can also function as incisive social commentary.

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