WFIU: Movie Reviews Podcast

Snow Angels is the fourth film from 32-year-old wunderkind David Gordon Green. It has been carefully adapted by Green, in a style like that of Todd Field of In the Bedroom, from a book by Stewart O'Nan. The film follows several characters as they try to make sense of their lives and relationships in the drab and frozen suburban wastes of an un-named northern state.

Martin Scorcese's direction on his new movie, a Rolling Stones concert filmed in large format Imax, is largely utilitarian. It's all he can do to keep up.

WFIU Movie Critic Peter Noble Kuchera reviews "In Bruges."

Michael Haeneke's film "Funny Games" is 98 percent a superbly crafted (and crafty) art house horror film. It is also 2 percent a deconstruction of itself. The problem is, the 2 percent is like a sliver; you pick at it, crippling your reaction to everything else.

WFIU Movie Critic Peter Noble Kuchera reviews "Be Kind, Rewind."

If you're going to mount a major production, give it to someone less literal, with a proven track record in image-making. And make sure he isn't afraid of the dark.

The closest thing American films had to a self-conscious masterpiece, in 2007, was Paul Thomas Anderson's picture There Will Be Blood. But in that film, Anderson's ambition exceeded his command of technique and social criticism. On the other hand, Romanian director Christian Mungiu has accomplished it, creating a period piece that seems to stand outside of time. It's called 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days. It's the real deal, all right - one for the ages.

WFIU Movie Critic Peter Noble Kuchera reviews "Rambo 4."

How many films can you name that explore the lives of adult children, who are equipped neither financially nor emotionally, trying to care for a failing parent? How about the ignominy of bed pans and adult diapers, of your father thinking you're one of the help, of sterile, ugly nursing homes where the old cry out in pain and confusion? Hollywood doesn't go there because they think we wouldn't want to look.

WFIU Movie Critic Peter Noble Kuchera reviews "Persepolis."

WFIU Movie Critic Peter Noble Kuchera reviews "Charlie Wilson's War."

When Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd" bares its teeth, which it does with disarming frequency, the music works better. The more gothic and Grand Guignol Burton takes it, the more arterial spray spatters the screen, the more falling bodies land right on their exploding heads - the more his vision coheres, and the possibilities of Sondheim's book drip like precious rubies. Here, film and musical theater actually bring out the best in each other; it's altogether inspired.

WFIU Film Critic Peter Noble Kuchera reviews the "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead."

WFIU Film Critic Peter Noble Kuchera reviews the IMAX version of "Beowulf."

Some books practically cry out from the shelves, "film me." Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men is one of those. It's a lean novel, all plot, with spare dialog coiling through it like a sidewinder in the desert.

WFIU Film Critic Peter Noble Kuchera reviews "Beowulf."

Some books practically cry out from the shelves, "film me." Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men is one of those. It's a lean novel, all plot, with spare dialog coiling through it like a sidewinder in the desert.

Some books practically cry out from the shelves, "film me." Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men is one of those. It's a lean novel, all plot, with spare dialog coiling through it like a sidewinder in the desert.

Some books practically cry out from the shelves, "film me." Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men is one of those. It's a lean novel, all plot, with spare dialog coiling through it like a sidewinder in the desert.

Some books practically cry out from the shelves, "film me." Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men is one of those. It's a lean novel, all plot, with spare dialog coiling through it like a sidewinder in the desert.

Some books practically cry out from the shelves, "film me." Cormac McCarthy's No Country For Old Men is one of those. It's a lean novel, all plot, with spare dialog coiling through it like a sidewinder in the desert.

WFIU Film Critic Peter Noble Kuchera reviews "Darjeeling Limited."