Articles by Travis Mackenzie Hoover

Captivity

Roland Joffé

PUBLISHED Oct 26, 2007

Captivity was so critically reviled when it opened earlier this year that I had to question how bad it could actually be. Surely a film tha...

MGM Holiday Classics Collection

PUBLISHED Oct 26, 2007

Ah, Christmas: the time of year when we turn our thoughts to peace on Earth, family togetherness and tepid whimsy on television. The three...

Sleuth

Kenneth Branagh

PUBLISHED Oct 25, 2007

I don’t particularly care for the original Sleuth, a Broadway/West End concoction far less clever than it would have you believe. Still, I...

My Kid Could Paint That

Amir Bar-Lev

PUBLISHED Oct 18, 2007

Prodigy or pretence? That’s the question surrounding four-year-old Marla Olmstead and her alleged genius for abstract expressionist paintin...

Gone Baby Gone

Ben Affleck

PUBLISHED Oct 18, 2007

I somehow doubt that Ben Affleck’s melancholy directorial debut will change his flagging fortunes, but it’s not for lack of ability. Althou...

Things We Lost in the Fire

Suzanne Bier

PUBLISHED Oct 18, 2007

It's no surprise that Things We Lost in the Fire is a pompous piece of Oscar bait invested in some terribly banal ideas. What is a surprise...

Death at a Funeral

Frank Oz

PUBLISHED Oct 12, 2007

For no useful reason, it’s become apparent to me that Frank Oz’s films deal with deception and identity. From the con/reverse-con intrigue...

American Venus

Bruce Sweeney

PUBLISHED Oct 12, 2007

Canadian Psycho would have been a better title — that’s apparently who made this singularly misguided, supremely nonsensical and utterly un...