Kansas City Movie Reviews - Kansas City Movies Guide

Movie Reviews

A Serious Man

The Yiddish shtetl shtick that opens Joel and Ethan Coen's new movie — a Jewish peasant stumbles on an old Hasid who may be a Dybbuk... More>>

By ELLA TAYLOR

Published: October 29, 2009

The Baader Meinhof Complex

Founded by self-described urban guerrillas Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof, Germany's Red Army Faction was the Weather... More>>

By J. HOBERMAN

Published: October 29, 2009

The Burning Plain

Oregon restaurant manager Charlize Theron, prone to submissive promiscuity and self-inflicted violence, sits naked in bed next to her lover. A... More>>

By Aaron Hillis

Published: October 22, 2009

More Than a Game

More Than a Game follows Akron's Fab Four (later Five) kids on the basketball court, from their "Shooting Stars" traveling youth team to high... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: October 22, 2009

Ong Bak 2

You're not always entirely sure what is happening in Tony Jaa's new movie, but there certainly is a lot of it. In this sequel in name only, the... More>>

By Nicolas Rapold

Published: October 22, 2009

Where the Wild Things Are

Directed by Spike Jonze from a 400-word children's picture book first published in 1963, Where the Wild Things Are may be the toughest adaptation... More>>

By J. HOBERMAN

Published: October 15, 2009

Law Abiding Citizen

The movie wastes no time: Before the opening credits, a man watches two home invaders slaughter his wife and daughter — we don't even know... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: October 15, 2009

No Impact Man

The bold environmental project that Colin Beavan began in Manhattan in the fall of 2006 — to expunge his carbon footprint by giving up... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: October 15, 2009

The Boys Are Back

In the Oscar derby for Best Actor, is it better to die or to grieve? Clive Owen opts for the latter route in this strained, sentimental... More>>

By Brian Miller

Published: October 08, 2009

Bronson

The inmate who renamed himself after a Hollywood action star has been incarcerated for all but a few months of the past 34 years — 30 of... More>>

By J. HOBERMAN

Published: October 08, 2009

Capitalism: A Love Story

The ushers at a packed screening of Michael Moore's latest movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, came proudly decked out in T-shirts bearing such... More>>

By ELLA TAYLOR

Published: October 01, 2009

Cold Souls

Sophie Barthes' clever metaphysical comedy Cold Souls has been dubbed "Being Paul Giamatti" more than once since its Sundance 2009 debut. But if... More>>

By Anthony Kaufman

Published: October 01, 2009

In Search of Beethoven

In Search of Beethoven plays like a good, if necessarily condensed, critical biography. Drawing from archival letters, interviews with... More>>

By Andrew Schenker

Published: October 01, 2009

In Search of Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gets lionized — and somewhat embalmed — in this solemn Festschrift by British filmmaker Phil Grabsky. At two... More>>

By ELLA TAYLOR

Published: October 01, 2009

The Invention of Lying

The Invention of Lying's plot hook sounds like a pileup of Jim Carrey–Tom Shadyac concept comedies. The assumption is that there isn't much... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: October 01, 2009

Whip It

Drew Barrymore, making her directorial debut, is blunt about her inspirations for this tale of an anguished debutante-turned-roller grrrl. The... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: October 01, 2009

Zombieland

The zombie movie — that evergreen vessel for all manner of social and political allegory — gets stripped down to its "Holy shit!... More>>

By SCOTT FOUNDAS

Published: October 01, 2009

Art & Copy

Since his 1996 grunge-rock documentary Hype!, Doug Pray has become an even more adept assembler of polished images. And where else would that... More>>

By Brian Miller

Published: September 24, 2009

Bright Star

Set in the bucolic suburbs of early 19th-century London, Jane Campion's Bright Star recounts the love affair between a tubercular young poet and... More>>

By J. HOBERMAN

Published: September 24, 2009

The Informant!

It's a hell of a tricky thing turning real-life pulp into floss sugar, as evidenced by The Informant! The story of Mark Whitacre, the Archer... More>>

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: September 17, 2009

A few choice finds at the Kansas International Film Festival

Discovery is at the heart of moviegoing, especially when a filmathon like the Kansas International Film Festival wants you to moviego and go and... More>>

By Alan Scherstuhl

Published: September 17, 2009

The Burning Plain

Oregon restaurant manager Charlize Theron, prone to submissive promiscuity and self-inflicted violence, sits naked in bed next to her lover. A... More>>

By Aaron Hillis

Published: September 17, 2009

Cloudy With a Chance
of Meatballs

Written and directed by Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, who adapted the script from the popular children's book, Cloudy With a Chance of... More>>

By Ernest Hardy

Published: September 17, 2009

Lorna's Silence

Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne emerge once more from their lower depths. Describing one of their movies describes them all. Their... More>>

By Nick Pinkerton

Published: September 17, 2009

Youssou N'Dour: I Bring
What I Love

Senegalese superstar Youssou N'Dour couldn't have expected his 2004 album Egypt — proudly devout, musically uncharacteristic and released... More>>