Nashville Movie Reviews

Movie Reviews

Nashville filmmaker explores subculture where everyone is Abraham Lincoln

Maybe this sounds strange to say of a haggard, bewhiskered man who hasn't been seen walking the planet in seven score and three years, but Elvis... More>>

By Jim Ridley

Published: November 13, 2008

This week in local theaters

QUANTUM OF SOLACE Daniel Craig's second outing as James Bond is as frustrating, sloppy and brusque as its predecessor was engaging, sleek and... More>>

Published: November 13, 2008

'Quantum of Solace': New 007 Shaky, Not Stirring

Those of us who adored Casino Royale, the 2006 reboot of the haggard, self-parodic James Bond franchise, had some trouble trying to decide where... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: November 13, 2008

Blues Brother

Soul Men pays fitting tribute to the late Bernie Mac

If the dream of every comic is to have his humor live on long after he's left the stage, then the late Bernie Mac has exited this world on a high... More>>

By Chuck Wilson

Published: November 06, 2008

Wave of Mutilation

Chabrol has spry, nasty fun with A Girl Cut in Two

From the standpoint of 2008, the French new wave that broke half a century ago is a towering monument to a particular moment—a solitary... More>>

By J. Hoberman

Published: November 06, 2008

Clockwork Oranges and Doomsday Devices

A complete Stanley Kubrick retro hails one of the movies' most polarizing talents

No director seems less likely to inspire consensus than the late Stanley Kubrick, who would have turned 80 this year. He left behind a body of... More>>

Published: October 30, 2008

This week in local theaters

RACHEL GETTING MARRIED A reminder of why people first fell in love with Jonathan Demme's unpredictable yet unfailingly generous human comedies... More>>

Published: October 30, 2008

City of Devils

Angelina Jolie takes on a serial killer and the crooked LAPD in Clint Eastwood's latest

On a double bill with L.A. Confidential, Chinatown or just about any film made after 1970 about institutional corruption in Los Angeles, Clint... More>>

By Ella Taylor

Published: October 30, 2008

Rent-a-Cop

Pride and Glory is as dull as police drama gets

Pride and Glory doesn't make any effort to disguise precisely what it is: a barely held together string of vignettes lifted from every cop movie... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: October 23, 2008

This week in local theaters

FLOW: FOR LOVE OF WATER One of those charming little documentaries that make you question whether the human race is really worth preserving,... More>>

Published: October 23, 2008

Holy Land Over Hollywood

Nashville Jewish Film Festival focuses on Israel, with unusually strong results

This year the Nashville Jewish Film Festival has two milestones to celebrate: its own eighth birthday, and the 60th anniversary of the founding... More>>

Published: October 23, 2008

House of No Pain

Nashville's IBFF takes the post-Madea pulse of African-American film

Something funny happened between the start-up of the International Black Film Festival of Nashville and this year: Tyler Perry. In 2006, as the... More>>

By Jim Ridley

Published: October 16, 2008

Short Takes

W. As much edited as it is directed, Oliver Stone's psycho-historical portrait of George W. Bush has all the queasy appeal of a strychnine-laced... More>>

Published: October 16, 2008

The Son Also Rises

Oliver Stone on W. and the President Who Would Be John Wayne

Sitting in the back of the restaurant at New York's überchic Royalton Hotel in an orange polo shirt and khakis, Oliver Stone looks out of... More>>

By Scott Foundas

Published: October 16, 2008

Parent Trap

Azazel Jacobs successfully (and emotionally) mines his childhood in Momma's Man

Thirtyish guy—bit of a schlub but married, with a newborn baby—comes back from California to visit aging parents in New York and,... More>>

By J. Hoberman

Published: October 16, 2008

True Lies

Ridley Scott's ripping thriller makes push-button war scarily credible

A new kind of war movie for a new kind of war, Body of Lies is about the War on Terror as it is being waged on the ground, in the air, but most... More>>

By Scott Foundas

Published: October 09, 2008

Billy, Don't Be a Hero

Nashville-shot Graham biopic drowns in its own great-man worship

The Billy Graham biopic Billy: The Early Years runs just 99 minutes; there's all the proof you need of a merciful God. Sanctimonious, zealously... More>>

By Jim Ridley

Published: October 09, 2008

This week in local theaters

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE While it may seem an odd choice to kick off a month of classic horror movies, is there a scarier movie to watch in an... More>>

Published: October 09, 2008

The Devil's Advocate

Bill Maher makes an adolescent case against religion

Redolent of Roman decadence and authority gone mad, the title Religulous rolls pleasingly off the tongue. But Bill Maher's one-man stand-up... More>>

By J. Hoberman

Published: October 02, 2008

Short Takes

BATTLE IN SEATTLE Written and directed by actor Stuart Townsend, Battle in Seattle reanimates the recent past—namely the late-1999 street... More>>

Published: October 02, 2008

Buy the Books

Two mediocre adaptations by directors who really should have known better

There are copious ways to link How to Lose Friends & Alienate People and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Both are based on feather-light... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: October 02, 2008

High Water Everywhere

Hurricane Katrina blows away the past century in a remarkable new documentary

Hurricane Katrina may have driven off a large segment of New Orleans' African-American population, the providers of much of the city's character.... More>>

By Jim Ridley

Published: September 25, 2008

This week in local theaters

MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA You've got to hand it to Spike Lee for managing to secure the financing for this big-budget, three-hour World War II epic,... More>>

Published: September 25, 2008

Minor Miracle

Spike Lee's WWII drama is an epic bore

On some level, you've got to hand it to Spike Lee. There are probably less than a handful of directors working in Hollywood today who could put... More>>

By Scott Foundas

Published: September 25, 2008

Your Friends and Neighbors

Racial tension, above and below the surface, in Neil LaBute's Lakeview Terrace

Earlier this year, when I found myself assigned to jury duty on a drug-related trial at the Los Angeles Superior Court, our jury foreman turned... More>>

By Scott Foundas

Published: September 18, 2008