The Whole Shootin' Match, Eagle Pennell, 1979

Finally available on DVD, Pennell's film is somewhat less focused than the masterful Last Night at the Alamo, but the director nonetheless mounts scene after scene of disarming authenticity and unfettered intimacy.

Gomorra (Gomorrah), Matteo Garrone, 2008

The closest antecedent for Garrone's film might well be David Simon's HBO series The Wire, as the themes of hardship, corruption, violence, and the pollution of youth so perfectly elucidated in that show's five seasons are mirrored here in the Italian director's nightmarish Neopolitan tapestry.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, Peter Sollett, 2008

Sollett's indie rock romance is overstuffed with longing glances between teens who are at once awkward and fantastically precocious, but nonetheless finds enough moments of Ferris Bueller borne whimsy to mostly overcome its twee bedrock.
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Changeling, Clint Eastwood, 2008

Eastwood's true crime period piece is relatively effective in managing the details of its heroine's near unbelievable saga. In the relation of all that plot, however, very little dramatic tension arises, leaving the film utterly and unfortunately flat.

Burn After Reading, Joel & Ethan Coen, 2008

The Coen Brothers' A-List farce is a curious blunder, with its more than capable cast stumbling through an aimless series of madcap scenarios more silly than screwball.

Che: Part Two (Guerilla), Steven Soderbergh, 2008

Covering Guevara's ill-fated Bolivian insurrection, part two of Soderbergh's work is, owing to the context of part one, relatively more focused than its Cuban counterpart, if similarly unfulfilled.

Che: Part One (The Argentine), Steven Soderbergh, 2008

In the first act of his sprawling, two-part epic, Soderbergh struggles mightily to elucidate the exposition and execution of the Cuban revolution as well as his hero's precise role in that action.