peter keough

Latest Articles

Review: One for the Money

TV director Julie Anne Robinson's insipid adaptation of this first volume in Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series has more in common with Young Adult than with the average gumshoe yarn.
Julie Anne Robinson's insipid adaptation
By PETER KEOUGH | February 03, 2012

Review: Big Miracle

Taking a tip from the oil industry, Hollywood has started exploiting Alaska. Following in the tracks of The Grey is Ken Kwapis's take on a true story from 1988 about an effort to save gray whales trapped in the Arctic ice. Surprisingly, the film offer
Ken Kwapis's take on a true story from 1988
By PETER KEOUGH | February 03, 2012

Review: Man on a Ledge

Pablo F. Fenjves might not be Sidney Lumet, but his clever if absurd heist film does acknowledge its debt to the late, politically inclined director's Dog Day Afternoon .
Clever if absurd heist film
By PETER KEOUGH | January 27, 2012

Interview: Wim Wenders takes 3D one step further

Some are surprised that Wim Wenders, like fellow veteran of the '70s New German Cinema Werner Herzog, has embraced something as newfangled as 3D.
Pina envy
By PETER KEOUGH | January 20, 2012

Review: Contraband

True to its name, this standard heist thriller is a composite of knock-offs, but when Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America is among the sources ripped off, the quality is pretty high.
A high-quality composite of knock-offs
By PETER KEOUGH | January 20, 2012

Review: Young Goethe in Love

In Philipp Stölzl's fanciful portrait of the artist as a young scamp, the future genius (Alexander Fehling) introduces himself as "Goethe with an 'oe'," earning a reputation as a pratfalling screw-up.
Philipp Stölzl's portrait of the artist as a young scamp
By PETER KEOUGH | January 20, 2012

Review: The Iron Lady

Meryl Streep's two films with Phyllida Lloyd, Mamma Mia and this silly biopic, demonstrate that even when the world's greatest actress is at the peak of her powers — whether dramatic, comic, or musical — it's not enough.
Streep's not enough to save this one
By PETER KEOUGH | January 13, 2012

Review: Carnage

As befits someone with jail time hanging over his head, Roman Polanski does his best work in close quarters. From Knife in the Water , to Repulsion , to The Tenant and The Pianist , he's a master of claustrophobic close encounters, and as such has
Claustrophobic close encounters
By PETER KEOUGH | January 13, 2012

Review: Dreileben

Taking a cue from Kieslowski's Three Colors by way of the British Red Riding series, this TV trilogy from three German directors of the Berlin School starts out with a creepy aura of dread and mystery and ends with contrived and unsatisfying resolut
TV trilogy from three German directors
By PETER KEOUGH | January 13, 2012

Review: Pariah

Compared to the non-stop trauma of Precious , or even Gun Hill Road , Dee Rees's first feature plays like an episode of The Cosby Show .
Dee Rees's first feature
By PETER KEOUGH | January 06, 2012

Review: A Dangerous Method(1)

Perhaps the three characters in David Cronenberg's handsome, eloquent dramatization of the birth and near demise of psychoanalysis represent the parts of the psyche that the movement would eventually hypothesize.
Cronenberg's dramatization of the rise of psychoanalysis
By PETER KEOUGH | December 23, 2011

Review: The Adventures of Tintin(1)

I don't know how fans of the title hero are going to take this adaptation, since I'm not familiar with the classic Hergé comic strip on which it's based, but followers of Steven Spielberg might regard it as a second-rate, animated Indiana Jones.
Spielberg's second-rate animated Indiana Jones
By PETER KEOUGH | December 23, 2011

Review: Shame

Director Steve McQueen has only made two films, but in them he explores two extremes of human experience.
Fassbender is a winner in the Shame game
By PETER KEOUGH | December 09, 2011

Review: Outrage

When it comes to ruthlessness, the yakuzas in Takeshi Kitano's slick bloodbath make the Corleones look like the Brady Bunch.
Ruthless yakuzas
By PETER KEOUGH | December 09, 2011

Review: New Year's Eve

Lately Garry Marshall has shown a certain genius for turning miserable holidays into terrible movies.
Feast of forced fun
By PETER KEOUGH | December 09, 2011

Review: Answers to Nothing(1)

The baleful influence of Paul Haggis's multi-narrative Oscar-winner Crash (2004) continues with Matthew Leutwyler's trite contraption.
Matthew Leutwyler's trite contraption
By PETER KEOUGH | December 02, 2011

Review: The Color Wheel

Alex Ross Perry's self-consciously coy indulgence reminds me of the work of Diablo Cody, but slighter and more irritating.
A black-and-white road movie
By PETER KEOUGH | December 02, 2011

Review: Happy Feet Two

Lovely to look at despite the 3D, and sometimes bordering on the psychedelic, this crack-brained morality tale blends the sublimely weird and the cloyingly awful as it preaches once again the paradox that you should be true to yourself as long as you a
Crack-brained morality tale
By PETER KEOUGH | November 18, 2011

Review: Into the Abyss

From the abyss of time in Cave of Forgotten Dreams , Werner Herzog turns to the abyss of capital punishment in today's America.
Werner Herzog turns to the abyss of capital punishment
By PETER KEOUGH | November 11, 2011

Review: All's Faire In Love

It seems that before actually performing in a Renaissance Faire, actors first have to appear in a movie about one.
Scott Marshall's Renn Faire stinker
By PETER KEOUGH | October 28, 2011

Review: The Three Musketeers

Despite an inspired climax, it's all for fun, but not fun for all.
Paul W.S. Anderson's gimcracky adaptation
By PETER KEOUGH | October 28, 2011

Review: The Mighty Macs

Based on a true story, but drawing on every underdog sports movie ever made, Tim Chambers's tale of Immaculata College's 1971 championship women's basketball team had me going — up to the regional semi-finals.
A study in stereotypes
By PETER KEOUGH | October 21, 2011

Review: Puncture

Though drawn from a true story, Adam and Mark Kassen's drama falls into the pattern of films like The Verdict in which a crapulous barrister gets a second chance by taking on a case of David-versus-Goliath injustice.
Facing down fat cats
By PETER KEOUGH | October 21, 2011

Review: Take Shelter

Shannon's got the crazy bit down pat, and director Jeff Nichols has an eye for turning everyday items — a pile of trash, a clear sky, a barking dog — into signs of immanent doom.
Mid-life breakdown
By PETER KEOUGH | October 21, 2011

Review: Blackthorn

This is one sequel superior to the original — if the original were Butch and Sundance: The Early Days .
Mateo Gil's prequel to Butch and Cassidy's tale
By PETER KEOUGH | October 14, 2011

Review: The Women on the 6th Floor

Philippe Le Guay's '60s-set Parisian upstairs/downstairs, a kind of European version of The Help , has all the ingredients necessary for US consumption: political correctness, platitudes, saucy comedy; and a romance between a middle-aged bourgeois reac
A kind of European version of The Help
By PETER KEOUGH | October 14, 2011

Review: Love Crime

Love Crime deconstructs the genre by showing how to put together a mystery in order to deceive and manipulate those who would try to take it apart.
A deconstruction of the mystery genre
By PETER KEOUGH | October 07, 2011

Review: Littlerock(1)

Two young Japanese tourists, siblings Rintaro (Rintaro Sawamoto) and Atsuko (Atsuko Okatsuka), get stranded when their car breaks down in the California backwater of the title.
Altogether original
By PETER KEOUGH | October 07, 2011

Review: 50/50

In 50/50 , Jonathan Levine, whose The Wackness (2008) showed a talent for sardonic comedy, makes a halfhearted attempt to raise Will Reiser's script (partly autobiographical) above clever stereotype.
An edgy concept, and a fine cast
By PETER KEOUGH | September 30, 2011

Review: Abduction

Taylor Lautner plays characters with mysterious origins and makes them boring.
Beautiful but boring
By PETER KEOUGH | September 30, 2011

Friends' Activity

Popular