Arts+ Selects
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Wondering what else is in theaters this weekend? Here are two films recommended by The New York Sun’s critics that you can still catch around town.
ALPHA DOG
R, 117 minutes
Somehow, Nick Cassavetes’s “Alpha Dog” manages to be both a funnystoner film and a brutal antidrug opus, an unlikely buddy tragedy that encourages us to identify and sympathize with — and condemn — a clique of young gangster wannabees as they make the biggest mistake of their lives.
It’s a complicated mix of emotions, yet the movie draws us in with deceiving ease, inviting us along on the aimless, carefree romp of four teenage potheads. Silly, occasionally idiotic early party scenes create an interesting social foundation for the tragedy to follow. Unlike so many drug films — like “Blow,” also written by Mr. Cassavetes — which follow the smalltime dealer as he traverses the standard greedy arc of the rich kingpin, “Alpha Dog” is less about wanting money than wanting to be macho.
– S. James Snyder (January 12)
PAN’S LABYRINTH
R, 114 minutes
Since his sensational feature debut, 1993’s “Cronos,” Guillermo Del Toro has made a string of horror and fantasy films evincing a rich and capable visual imagination.
“Pan’s Labyrinth,” which made its American debut at the New York Film Festival in September and is produced in the director’s native tongue by Mr. Del Toro and “Children of Men” director Alfonso Cuarón, has more on its mind than vampire hunters. As in his last Spanish-language outing, “The Devil’s Backbone,” here Mr. Del Toro achieves and sustains a remarkable level of film savvy and visual sophistication.
– Bruce Bennett (December 29)
