• Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2010

    Google Baby (Frank, 2009)

    I’ll cop to my own biases here rather than try to slough them off on them film. I’ve long been puzzled (and maybe frustrated) by evangelical or fundamentalist Christians (or members of communities who identify themselves as such) who will oppose legalized abortion on demand or stem cell research with the zealous, absolute certainty of the righteous and yet turn around and willingly participate (as consumers or support) in forms of surrogate pregnancy that may include the transportation or destruction of fertilized eggs.

  • Reviews

    Hot Tub Time Machine (Pink, 2010)

    A few years ago I wrote in a review that in an age of fatwahs and culture wars, I was reluctant to the point of refusal to use the word “immoral” when describing a film. I tend to shy away from the word “offensive” for opposite but corollary reasons.

  • Reviews

    Offside (Panahi, 2006)

    In soccer (or football, as the non-American world stubbornly persists in calling it), there is a rule that states that an offensive player must have at least one defensive player between him and the goal (not including the goalie) when a pass is made. If an individual advances too far, too quickly, he is called offside, and play is momentarily suspended.

  • Reviews

    Gun Crazy (Lewis, 1950)

    If I had watched Gun Crazy (a.k.a. Deadly is the Female) a year ago...well, okay, I would not have watched it a year ago, but if I had, I doubt I would have gotten past the first ten minutes.

  • Reviews

    A Single Man (Ford, 2009)

    If George Falconer (Colin Firth) lacks some of the more obvious self-loathing qualities that normally mark period, gay protagonists, the film he occupies still has a chaste, skittish quality about it that feels a little dated in the post-Brokeback world