| Critic |
Review |
Quote |
Analysis |
This Week's Verdict |
Manohla Dargis,
The New York Times |
Lust, Caution |
"The Motion Picture Association of America, that tireless, cheerless band of Comstocks who regulate all things sexual and few things violent on behalf of the major studios, has saddled the film with an NC-17 rating [...] because of 'some explicit sexuality.' The horrors of female nudity (unshaven armpits!) and the vigorous pantomime of coitus apparently offended the sensibilities of the M.P.A.A., which routinely bestows R ratings to movies in which characters are tortured to death for kicks.
" |
Arise ye critics from ye slumbers/ Arise ye prisoners of want/ For reason in revolt against the M.P.A.A. now thundersÉ
|
|
Stephanie Zacharek,
Salon.com |
The Darjeeling Limited |
"Or it may be that it's simply impossible not to feel protective toward Owen Wilson right now, particularly since his character here shows the wounds and scars of what we can assume was a suicide attempt." |
Wilson 's life imitates art, and the impulse to feel maternal toward the wounded butterscotch stallion overrides initial irritation with the movie.
|
|
JArmond White,
New York Press |
The Darjeeling Limited |
"Casual moviegoers might grumble that Anderson's vision is 'quirky' and doesn't allow for the mass hypnosis of self-reflexive trash like Superbad or Ocean's Thirteen." |
Casual movie-watching is opiate for the masses. Philistines, take note.
|
|
J. Hoberman,
The Village Voice |
The Kingdom |
"There's a hard-bodied, no-nonsense chick (Jennifer Garner), a wise-guy Jew (Jason Bateman), and a good- natured good ol' boy (Chris Cooper). Can you guess which of the three will be abducted and made the subject of a throat-slit video? And here's another puzzler: Are there any good Saudis — and, if so, who are they?" |
The first question is trickier than it may seem at first glance. The second is occupying large parts of the state department and a small army of think tanks as we speak.
|
|
Kenneth Turan,
L.A. Times |
The Kingdom |
"Also off-putting is the film's determination to blatantly play on our emotions, to shamelessly exaggerate the good and evil in all of its plot elements. The Kingdom is in many ways a film that doesn't want us to think, doesn't trust us to feel on our own and is more than willing to strip everything of nuance as if it were a disease." |
Un-nuanced division of people into good and evil in a film about American soldiers in the Middle East? Where do they get their ideas?
|
|
