Paul Haggis

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Review: Answers to Nothing

Matthew Leutwyler's trite contraption
The baleful influence of Paul Haggis's multi-narrative Oscar-winner Crash (2004) continues with Matthew Leutwyler's trite contraption.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 29, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Review: The Next Three Days

Surprisingly instructive for those wishing to help break someone out of jail some day
More gripping and less pretentious than Crash (2004), Paul Haggis's remake of Fred Cavayé's Pour elle (2008) remains an implausible exercise in contrivance and bogus irony.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 16, 2010

Review: Paris

What's the French word for Crash ?
Cédric Klapisch's serendipitous interweaving of the lives of disparate characters in the title city never resorts to the contrivance and manipulation of Paul Haggis's Oscar winner, but there are some close calls.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 23, 2009

Review: Crossing Over

Slickly political, while still offering hugs and tears and gratuitous nudity.
Wayne Kramer's immigration melodrama fits into the glibly schematic, socially conscious multi-narrative niche usually filled by Paul Haggis.
By PETER KEOUGH | March 11, 2009

Quantum mechanic

Little Solace for Bond fans
Little Solace for Bond fans
By PETER KEOUGH | November 14, 2008

Battle in Seattle

A docudrama that overcomes it's obvious flaws
Like Paul Haggis’s Crash , the film mistakes stereotypes for archetypes, staging absurd coincidences with timely epiphanies so everyone can learn a lesson.
By JASON O'BRYAN | September 23, 2008

Crossword: ''And the last shall be first''

Or pretty close, anyway.
Or pretty close, anyway.
By MATT JONES | May 21, 2008

Persian gulf

Bridging it at the ‘Festival of Films from Iran’
Another “Festival of Films from Iran” opens at the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Bush Administration still hasn’t started bombing Tehran.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 07, 2007

In the Valley of Elah

A 90-minute Oscar wanna-be
Few will deny that the war dehumanizes, but Haggis’s suggestion that everybody who comes back is a sociopath won’t win many friends.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 12, 2007

War zones

Fall films face terror at home and abroad
The party’s over. Time for the lessons to begin.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 12, 2007

Everyday heroes

Alternative cinema lives at the Independent Film Festival of Boston
Despite the name, independent cinema has grown conventional.
By PETER KEOUGH | April 17, 2007

Flagging the truth

Clint Eastwood’s anti-heroic Fathers
His ongoing beatification notwithstanding, Clint Eastwood has never lined up behind traditional notions of the hero. Watch the trailer for Flags of Our Fathers (QuickTime)
By PETER KEOUGH | February 20, 2007

Doom, gloom and zoom

A year in film
Given the past year’s headlines, it can’t come as a surprise that some of the best films of 2006 had an edge of darkness to them.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 16, 2007

New to DVD: December, 20 2006

The Descent, Factotum, Jackass: Number Two
Plus the Black Dahlia and The Last Kiss .
By NEW TO DVD | December 19, 2006

Five-card stud

Daniel Craig delivers a meaty Bond
Every era gets the James Bond it deserves. Ours gets a Bond who’s strong and forceful but also reckless and arrogant, who blunders into tricky situations in Third World countries and makes a bloody mess of things. Watch the trailer for Casino Royale (QuickTime) Bond traders: Why Pierce got booted
By GARY SUSMAN | November 15, 2006