SWEENEY TODD Directed by Tim Burton. In Wide Release.
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Mr. Burton's film adaptation of Mr. Sondheim's musical, is as dark and terrifying as any motion picture in recent memory, not excluding the bloody installments in the "Saw" franchise. Indeed, "Sweeney" is as much a horror film as a musical: It is cruel in its effects and radical in its misanthropy, expressing a breathtakingly, rigorously pessimistic view of human nature. It is also something close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme - I am tempted to say evil - genius."
THE SINGING REVOLUTION Directed by James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty. In Limited Release.
"Imagine the scene in Casablanca in which the French patrons sing "La Marseillaise" in defiance of the Germans, then multiply its power by a factor of thousands, and you've only begun to imagine the force of The Singing Revolution."