Welcome to the Author Archive for Phillip Stephens
Pedro Almodóvar's films are often compared to soap operas, in form if not function. He relishes interpersonal politics -- secrets and lies, hidden relationships, connections whose intricacies unfurl in emotional confrontations. Almodóvar fools us by spooning out low-minded intrigue that...
Tulpan Sergei Dvortsevoy created an impressive coming-of-age tale with this majestic treatment of life on the Kazakh steppe, following the return of Asa, a young sailor eager to make a place of his own in the traditional nomadic lifestyle. But...
When I saw Hayao Miyazaki's newest feature Ponyo a year ago (a subtitled copy burgled from the internets) I was disappointed, mostly for unfair reasons. I've made no bones around here about my unrepentant enthusiasm for all things Miyazaki, but...
Tommy Wirkola's Dead Snow heavily relies on the past, far too content to stack homage upon homage than to forge something unique. The film is little more than a formula larded with references to Wirkola's favorite films, making Dead Snow...
The title of Götz Spielmann's film, Revanche, can be construed simply as a synonym for revenge, which is certainly a facile motivation for this dark neo-noir, but doing so misses an important political dimension in the word. Revanchism also refers...
12 Angry люди
We Will Not Compromise on This
Push Review
Gran Torino Review
The Best Books of 2008
The Last Airbender Gets a Cast
Man on a Wire Review
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Review
Nightmare Before Christmas
Happy-Go-Lucky
Max Payne
Quarantine
Flash of Genius
Fireproof
Death Race
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Edge of Heaven, The
Meet Dave
Hancock
Arkansas
Badlands
Onion Movie
Sling Blade
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Diary of the Dead
Frontier(s)
In the Bedroom
Forbidden Kingdom
Smart People
Farscape, Season Three
Ruins, The
Stop-Loss
Shutter
Bank Job, The
Paranoid Park
Spiderwick Chronicles
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Meet the Spartans
Le Samourai
Taxi to the Dark Side
Persepolis
The Year's Best Fiction
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Water Horse: The Legend of the Deep
Control
Tree of Smoke
Golden Compass, The
Bender's Big Score
Hitman
Beowulf
P2
Things We Lost in the Fire
Fearless
Seeker: The Dark Is Rising, The
Resident Evil: Extinction
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
D-War
Hatchet
Halloween
Black Narcissus
War
10 Sci-Fi Films You Should See (But Probably Haven't)
Skinwalkers
Underdog
This is England
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Sunshine
Transformers
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
DOA: Dead or Alive
Mr. Brooks
Shrek the Third
28 Weeks Later
Condemned, The
Vacancy
Disturbia
Wind That Shakes the Barley, The
Reaping, The
Battle of Algiers, The
Meet the Robinsons
Hills Have Eyes 2, The
TMNT
Premonition
Lives of Others, The
Astronaut Farmer, The
Bridge to Terabithia
Messengers, The
Blood and Chocolate
Primeval
Freedom Writers
Night at the Museum
Eragon
Apocalypto
Turistas
Adolescent Cartoons for a Post-Adolescent World
Let's Go to Prison
Return, The
Flushed Away
Saw III
Flags of Our Fathers
Marine, The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning, The
Flyboys
Gridiron Gang
Frontiers: A Look at the Films of Terrence Malick
Accepted
Step Up
Covenant, The
Descent, The
Miami Vice
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Little Man
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, The
See No Evil
Poseidon
American Haunting, An
United 93
Silent Hill
Wild, The
Flight of the Phoenix
Alien vs. Predator
40-Year-Old Virgin, The
Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D, The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Greatest Game Ever Played, The
Get Rich or Die Tryin'
Exorcism of Emily Rose, The
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
Dawn of the Dead
Land of the Dead
Son of the Mask
Perfect Man, The
Kingdom of Heaven
Lord of War
Howl's Moving Castle
Take the Lead
Devil's Rejects, The
King's Ransom
Transporter 2
Napoleon Dynamite
Sky High
Roll Bounce
Stay Alive
Oliver Twist
Jacket, The
Honeymooners, The
Collateral
Unleashed
Hostage
Madagascar
BloodRayne
Sahara
Zathura