It's flawed but no less fascinating for its mood of simmering tension on the fringes of the American dream.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 28, 2006

The third entry lacks the subtle power of the previous two efforts.

Full Review | Jul 13, 2006

The talent is still there, the film better than most. It just needs less crime, more love.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 13, 2006

A skeeter noir bogged down in the unconvincing pulp of a melodrama without conviction.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 16, 2006

Proves that while Ulee's Gold was an exceptional movie, it wasn't a fluke. Nuez just needs to search past the Panhandle for fresh material.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 16, 2006

The stuff of pulp, seriously at odds with what the writer-director has always done best. That is, show the inner workings of people, their needs, their fears, their small dreams.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 9, 2006

Nunez's fans will appreciate his ability to evoke a palpable atmosphere. But there's just not enough spark in his scorched setting.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 2, 2006

Nunez's multidimensional character development, with fine performances by Olyphant, Brolin, Wynter and Angela Bettis as one of Sonny's old flames, lends weight to the schematic plot points.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 31, 2006

[The love triangle] plays more like canned heat than blazing inferno...

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | May 31, 2006

It's a heartfelt movie that could have used a zigzaggier undercurrent, though Olyphant, in the sort of role that Paul Newman used to swagger through, has a star's easy command.

| Original Score: B | May 31, 2006

As they say, two out of three ain't bad, and we look forward to more winners by Nunez.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 31, 2006

Sometimes it's best to leave those old scripts in the trunk, a view borne out by Coastlines,a melodramatic step backward for writer-director Victor Nunez after his last two pictures.

| May 30, 2006

Enough of the ingredients for a sultry downscale noir are in place in Coastlines, that once the film turns perversely goody-good, it leaves you feeling vaguely disgruntled.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | May 30, 2006

Nuez's idea of the characters' ordinariness translates to flavorlessness, and he lights and shoots his scenes with a high schooler's care, often not even bothering to match up sight lines.

Full Review | May 30, 2006

The filmmaker's laconic pacing becomes a hindrance to any intended measure of suspense, just as his dedication to crafting a tangible sense of place comes at the expense of fleshed-out characters and motivation

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 29, 2006