<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>washingtonpost.com - Michael O'Sullivan on Movies</title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><description>Michael O'Sullivan on Movies</description><language>en-us</language><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>washingtonpost.com</title><width>140</width><height>20</height><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com</link><url>http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/image/wp_web.gif</url></image><item><title><![CDATA[Not a Lot to 'Love']]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6936-2005Apr21.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6936-2005Apr21.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA["A LOT LIKE LOVE" starts with a bang and ends with a whimper.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA['Turtles Can Fly' Reaches High]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6937-2005Apr21.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6937-2005Apr21.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[BAHMAN GHOBADI'S third narrative feature, after "A Time for Drunken Horses" and "Marooned in Iraq," is far and away the Iranian Kurdish filmmaker's best work  --  and that's saying something. With the force of a boot to the stomach, "Turtles Can Fly" has the ability to render viewers not just speechless and breathless but in a kind of emotional free fall, in a way that his earlier work, stunning in its own right, only hinted at. It's a soaring achievement, without ever leaving the ground.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[This Old House of 'Horror']]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53132-2005Apr14.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53132-2005Apr14.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA["THERE'S NO BAD houses, just bad people," says Ryan Reynolds's character in the dumb but fun remake of "The Amityville Horror," that classic of the cheeseball thriller genre about a very, very bad house.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA['Voices':  Putting War  Into Words]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53133-2005Apr14.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53133-2005Apr14.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[A PICTURE, they say, is worth a thousand words.<br>Maybe.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA['Monsieur N.' Comes Up Short]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53134-2005Apr14.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53134-2005Apr14.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[THE DARK FLIP SIDE of 2001's fanciful "The Emperor's New Clothes"  --  which speculated about what might have happened had Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on the island of St. Helena to a life of middle-class anonymity by installing a look-alike in his place  --  "Monsieur N." takes a similar premise but treats it as a mystery of the dark-and-stormy-night variety, complete with Sherlock Holmesian intrigue, ponderous voiceover narration, flashbacks and cheesy old-age makeup. To the extent that it's able to not take itself too seriously, it isn't half bad.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Rich Drink of 'Water']]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16052-2005Mar31.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16052-2005Mar31.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Second-'Guess' This Comedy]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62991-2005Mar24.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62991-2005Mar24.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[THE SAME THOUGHT, slightly modified, occurred to me twice during "Guess Who," a race-reversal spin on "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" in which the white family of the 1967 film is now black and the daughter's closely scrutinized fiance is now white: It's never a good sign in a comedy when the characters laugh harder than the audience at their own jokes.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA['Antares':  A Subdued Bang]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62990-2005Mar24.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62990-2005Mar24.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[WITH ALL THE RAW, animalistic rutting that opens "Antares" (followed by fits of jealousy, betrayal, bigotry, screaming, lying, cursing, attempted suicide, vehicular mayhem, and physical and emotional bullying), there is something eerily calm about this strangely compelling film. Perhaps "calm" is not so much the word as "deadpan." It is the tension, in fact, between matter-of-fact presentation and volcanic emotional content that creates its perverse appeal.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA['Dot' Puts the 'I' in Bizarre]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43663-2005Mar17.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43663-2005Mar17.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[A DECEPTIVELY familiar story of a love triangle with one killer twist ending, "dot the i" satisfies and disturbs in just about equal measure. In other words, in the way it shamelessly teases and disappoints our expectations, it's as cruelly acidic as it is mushily romantic, which may leave you, dear viewer, strangely squeezed into a new, though not entirely uncomfortable, position.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA['Frankie' Is Truly Dear]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23682-2005Mar10.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23682-2005Mar10.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[I'M A SUCKER for daddy movies.<br>I can trace the onset of my hypersensitivity to such films (meaning I get misty-eyed and inarticulate anywhere near stories revolving around the relationship between a father and child, especially a boy) to the birth of my own son 5 1/2 years ago. The...]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Diary of a Bad 'Woman']]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50173-2005Feb24.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50173-2005Feb24.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[TO REVIEW "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" is really to review three different movies, none of which is very good.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ice Cube's Rocky Road Trip]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23759-2005Jan20.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23759-2005Jan20.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[UNLIKE ICE CUBE'S character, Nick, in "Are We There Yet?" -- a child-hating "playah" who learns to love his lady friend's (Nia Long) two bratty kids while trapped in a car with them during a long road trip -- I started out this journey actually liking children. By the end of the movie, I wasn't so sure.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA['In the Realms' of an Outsider]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60479-2005Feb3.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60479-2005Feb3.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[LIKE A MANTRA, the words "I don't know" are repeated, again and again, by unidentified speakers at the start of "In the Realms of the Unreal," filmmaker Jessica Yu's strange and fascinating documentary about the strange and fascinating Henry Darger, a reclusive retired Chicago janitor upon whose death in 1973 at age 81 was found to have written a 15,000-page illustrated novel about a rebellion led by seven young girls against armies of child-enslaving men. Over the course of the film, the phrase becomes a kind of shoulder-shrugging anti-theme. Yet despite the film's lack of clear answers -- Was Darger schizophrenic or merely "eccentric"? How about a pervert? Why are his prepubescent heroines often depicted naked, with penises? And how do you pronounce his name? -- "In the Realms of the Unreal" is a compelling glimpse, and for many, an introductory one, into one of the more bizarre and elaborate works of outsider art ever made.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item><item><title><![CDATA['Elektra': No Live Wire]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6523-2005Jan13.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6523-2005Jan13.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/movies/reviews/osullivan</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 3:20:21 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[THERE'S SOMETHING blurry and vague at the heart of "Elektra," and I'm not just talking about the climactic showdown between the superheroine of the title (Jennifer Garner, looking like she's auditioning for a spot on the next Victoria's Secret TV special) and her evil ninja nemesis, Kirigi (Will Yun Lee), who runs digitally smeared circles around her as a blizzard of white bed sheets swirls in the background.]]></description><author> Michael O'Sullivan</author></item></channel></rss>