Out in the Street

by Justin Senkbile

“I had no plans to make a film like this,” says director Matt Porterfield. He's speaking from Los Angeles, where he's promoting his latest picture, Putty Hill, which has its Omaha premiere on Friday at Film Streams. It's his second feature, after Hamilton in 2006 (which will screen on Sunday), and it has gotten quite a lot of good attention lately, not least from Richard Brody of The New...

Brontë-saurus

by Ben Coffman

Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre gets around a lot.

I’m referring, of course, to the oft-told story of Jane Eyre. The chaste, highly moral character of Jane Eyre, created by Charlotte Brontë and first published in 1847, doesn’t get around at all; in fact, she yearns to be her own woman. But Jane’s story has legs — at least five film versions of Jane Eyre were released prior to 1930. Since then, dozens more...

Rope-a-Dopey

by Ryan Syrek

Sucker Punch

The tagline for Sucker Punch is “You will be unprepared.” Eh, not so much. Every trailer for the film showed copious slow-motion sequences of girls clothed as if nerd fetishists established a global dress code. The near-dialogue-free previews gave little-to-no impression as to how the hell these seemingly disconnected visual sequences, ripped from a hardcore gamer’s wet dreams, possibly fit...

L.A. Law

by Justin Senkbile

The Lincoln Lawyer

Based on the novel by Michael Connelly, The Lincoln Lawyer is one loud, swaggering showoff of a thriller. It is well-acted and decently written … but there's something about director Brad Furman's approach that invites us to ignore all of that and just revel in the surface excitement. Bursting at the seams with flashy photography, attractive people and the usual courtroom dramatics, this movie...

Where’s Whoopi?

by Ryan Syrek

The Last Lions

Throaty and sleepy, Jeremy Irons begins his narration of the wildlife documentary The Last Lions as if awoken from a crumpet-induced nap. Any electricity that’s felt by once more having Irons’ voice laid atop images of lions is blunted by a delivery that sounds like Irons is auditioning for a British sex chat line. His dulcet tones seem at odds with a surprisingly riveting story of survival;...

What Happens in Iowa…

by Justin Senkbile

Cedar Rapids

Just as Glengarry Glen Ross was for real estate agents, director Miguel Arteta's Cedar Rapids is an ode to the desperate, lonely life of the insurance salesman. Of course, there are a lot more jokes here than in David Mamet’s play, but there’s no avoiding that big melancholic heart beating at the center. And the feeling of defeat is easily sensed around these lively, ordinary people as they...

Black Hawk Clowns

by Ryan Syrek

Battle: Los Angeles

Amidst a sea of fallen comrades, facing almost certain death at the hands of an incomprehensible foe, Staff Sgt. Michael Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) gets inches from the face of Cpl. Jason Lockett (Cory Hardrict) and begins to bellow a five-minute rant without missing a single military cliché. Seemingly exhausted by covering every base from “good men died out there” to “Marines don’t quit,”...