The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (2008)

Peter Sarsgaard, left, and Jon Foster in Rawson Marshall Thurber’s “Mysteries of Pittsburgh.”
April 10, 2009
A Stockbroker in Training Has Turns in His Journey
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: April 10, 2009

If, after Greg Mottola’s charming “Adventureland,” which opened last week, you find yourself in the mood for another tale of a recent college graduate’s coming of age in Pittsburgh one crazy summer in the 1980s, you may be in luck. Or not, since even the most passionate fan of Pittsburgh-in-the-’80s-crazy-summer-coming-of-age stories is likely to be disappointed by “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,” a clumsy and confused adaptation of Michael Chabon’s 1988 novel. More

Lymelife (2008)

Rory Culkin and Emma Roberts as neighbors in Derick Martini’s “Lymelife.”
April 8, 2009
Ticks, Ennui and (Sigh) the Dream Girl Next Door
By MANOHLA DARGIS
Published: April 8, 2009

Sometime late in “Lymelife” the director Derick Martini cuts to a close-up of a weeping teenager with a shot so tightly framed you can see the glistening curves of the tears clinging to the boy’s eyelashes. It’s an unexpectedly moving image, a reminder that the close-up, in its ability to bring us near to the poetry of the human face, remains one of cinema’s most potent if often squandered techniques. (Television has largely helped us forget just how potent.) Those tears transform the teenage character, Scott Bartlett (Rory Culkin): they briefly strip away the clichés encrusting him and offer us a glimpse of the real. More

The Pope's Toilet (2007)

César Troncoso in “The Pope’s Toilet” at MoMA.
April 8, 2009
Humble Hope in Hard Times
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS
Published: April 8, 2009

Inspired by the visit of Pope John Paul II to Uruguay in 1988, “The Pope’s Toilet” cloaks religious critique in the scrappy tempo of irremediable poverty and irrepressible enterprise. More

Pot/Kettle

Hollywood to Bollywood: Spare ‘Benjamin Button’