The Book of Eli

The Book of Eli

Film review by: Witney Seibold

The Hughes Bros.’ post-apocalyptic thriller “The Book of Eli,” while having that markedly drab photography that has become a trademark stamp of the ‘00s, and that “gritty” style of acting and design that suggests realism, still feels a lot like those wonderfully farfetched punkrock post-apocalypse movies that were made in the wake of “The Road Warrior” back in the 1980s. It’s silly, it’s over-the-top, and it has the same incredulous and arbitrary plot twists and insanely violent fight scenes that you remember from nearly 30 years ago.

The Last Station

The Last Station

Film review by: Witney Seibold

It’s tempting, when making a film biography of an artist, singer or author, to show that their lives were very much like the works they produced. In Michael Hoffman’s “The Last Station,” we see how Tolstoyan the life of Leo Tolstoy was. When this film was released, I was in the middle of reading Anna Karenina, so seeing the film was a particularly rich experience, and the drama came to a level of stirring life. If you are familiar with the works and life of Leo Tolstoy, this film is a must-see. If you are not, I can still wholly recommend it.

An Education

An Education

Film review by: Witney Seibold

Lone Scherfig’s “An Education” is a sweet, intelligent film that knows the hearts and minds of young people better than they seem to know themselves.

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

Film review by: Witney Seibold

Like a lot of Terry Gilliam’s films, his latest, “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” is a strange and chaotic affair that is more interested in stuffing your eyeballs with endless circus-on-acid imagery than it is in a cogent narrative.

Bitch Slap

Bitch Slap

Film review by: Witney Seibold

I’m not exactly sure where to start with this one. Rick Jacobson’s “Bitch Slap” is a large, chaotic movie, crammed with innumerable tiny tributes and ripoffs to equally innumerable “B” films from the 1950s to the 1990s.