Nick Pinkerton

WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS: A MAN WITHIN In Yony Leyser's documentary hagiography — which ends with John Waters nominating its subject for iconoclast-artist sainthood — William Seward Burroughs' literary efforts are of secondary interest, noted for their influence on rock lyrics and band names. In the main, celebrity talking heads have......

OUTSIDE THE LAW Rule of law scarcely discourages the endless reprisals in Rachid Bouchareb's Algerian War–era family-ties drama Outside the Law, which shows the FLN's militant campaign for Algerian independence, as fought on French soil, through the experiences of three brothers. Reuniting in a Nanterre shantytown, this tattered family brings......

THE TAQWACORES There are all the elements of a terrific spoof in The Taqwacores, which follows a year in the life of a house of Muslim punk/hardcore college-age kids living in Buffalo, New York. Overlapping two such rulebook-, sellout-obsessed groups, with all the contradictory dictates of scene-policing and Islamic law,......

VISION The fifth collaboration of director Margarethe Von Trotta and actress Barbara Sukowa, Vision continues the proto-feminist canonization of Blessed Hildegard von Bingen (Sukowa), 12th-century Benedictine magistra, scientist, visionary composer and literal receptor of visions. Cloistered at age 8, Hildegard grows into hardball politicking in the Holy Roman Empire as......

FAIR GAME Adapted from Valerie Plame's and Joseph C. Wilson's memoirs, the unsurprisingly validating Fair Game begins as a time-line-hopping international thriller of the countdown months to the Iraq War. Covert CIA operative Plame (Naomi Watts) and ex-ambassador husband Wilson (Sean Penn) are proverbial ships passing in the night, shuttling......

RED HILL Patrick Hughes' feature debut starts out promisingly enough, setting the table for a square-meal genre picture. Relocated big-city cop Shane Cooper (Ryan Kwanten) reports for his first shift as deputy in Red Hill, a sleepy hick town in Australian hill country, and hell isn't long in breaking loose......

NORA'S WILL José (Fernando Luján) has been divorced from Nora for 20 years. They were married at least as long. Now he keeps an apartment across from hers; she keeps binoculars. And when, just before Passover, she succeeds after decades of suicide attempts, José is convinced she planned for him......

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 The prequel-sequel bookend of last year's studio ATM, Paranormal Activity 2 picks up with Kristi (Sprague Grayden), sister of the first film's Katie, bringing home her firstborn son. That the child is named Hunter should give a fairly good idea of the class of home it is,......

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 The prequel-sequel bookend of last year's studio ATM, Paranormal Activity 2 picks up with Kristi (Sprague Grayden), sister of the first film's Katie, bringing home her firstborn son. That the child is named Hunter should give a fairly good idea of the class of home it is,......

MY SOUL TO TAKE This is the first 3-D picture from Master of (Mediocre) Horror Wes Craven. I know it's in 3-D not because of any additional depth of field detectable in the image, but because I do not usually wear glasses, nor pay $17.50 for a movie. The conversion......