Brooklyn Rail. May 07.

"Whatever you think you know about Cubism, well, think again," writes Thomas Micchelli in the May issue of the Brooklyn Rail. "Picasso, Braque and Early Film in Cubism, which continues at PaceWildenstein's East 57th Street location through June 23rd, not only gathers together a staggering collection of masterworks from what is arguably the most important movement in modern art - it knocks a century's worth of received wisdom on its ear."

"All film genres have their rules, and that includes art movies. Despair, poverty, the downbeat epiphany—these are to art cinema what horses are to Westerns," writes Tessa DeCarlo. "[Andrea] Arnold, in her feature debut, is aiming squarely at the art-house audience, and more power to her. But Red Road's gratifyingly evolved yet not truly successful ending indicates that Arnold was perhaps too constrained by the conventions of the form. Too bad she didn't throw off the shackles of not only Hollywood but indie-hood as well."

In La Haine, Guy Greenberg sees "exceptional" cinematography and a "vivid depiction of B-boy culture," but also "a type of tourism in Banlieues that feels quietly like slumming."

David Wilentz: "In Brute Force's terse 90 minutes, the genius behind Naked City, Night and the City, Thieves' Highway and Rififi delivers the goods."

Naomi Daremblum reviews Machuca, set "in the months that precede the 1973 army-led and CIA-backed coup d'etat against President Salvador Allende... The vibe is all there - in the fashion, the music, the décor, the semi-decadent sexuality. And most tellingly in the politics."

"True Confessions demonstrates that great Catholics can only attain purity through mortification and crucifixion," proposes Karl O'Toole. "Only through self-realization can salvation be reached and self-realization is the true confession. But this is Noir and no good deed goes unpunished."

Posted by dwhudson at May 7, 2007 3:12 AM