Uninvited Taken in Town (Weekly Links)

Links to the reviews I wrote for the Herald this week:

Waltz with Bashir. “There’s no Oscar category yet for animated documentary….”

Taken. “Liam Neeson is built for handing out whuppings.”

The Uninvited. “This one is actually restrained.”

New in Town. “This film about corporate insensitivity and bedrock American values was filmed in Winnipeg.”

Were the World Mine. “The idea worked for Shakespeare.”

Movie Diary 1/26/2009

Bitter Victory (Nicholas Ray, 1957). Spare antiwar movie, with Richard Burton and Curt Jurgens as the British officers sent on a mission in North Africa, with issues of cowardice and jealousy much to the fore. The widescreen black-and-white photography is especially eerie in the desert night scenes, with Ray adding the kinds of touches (the look on Burton’s face when he knifes a man, for instance) that make his movies so wrought with trouble.

Were the World Mine (Tom Gustafson, 2008). Teen in drama class mixes an elixir described in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, spritzes it around, and the homophobic small town turns gay. Hey, it’s a better plot than High School Musical 3. (full review 1/30)