In a world … where hype … can precede … a big release … by months, sometimes reputations are hyped and backlashed before the audience has made it through the previews. Thanks to Cannes, Clint Eastwood’s Changeling has already begun the climb to saturation, while lukewarm notices put the Indy sequel firmly in backlash the week before it came out. (As for Steven Soderbergh’s Che, some critics wanted to send it straight from the Croisette to the reedit woodshed.) Meanwhile, a few kind words about James Frey’s first bona fide novel can’t help but lift him up (where else was there to go?), while Tony juggernaut In the Heights now promises to leave theatergoers kind of disappointed.

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• Archive: “Movie Features”
• Articles by Boris Kachka
• Table of Contents: Jun 2, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!