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3 Needles

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3 Needles (2006)

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Reviews Counted:15

Fresh:3

Rotten:12

Average Rating:4.5/10

Consensus: In getting its message about the AIDS epidemic across, the film unfortunately sacrifices story and character.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 2 hrs 7 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Dec 1, 2006 Limited

Synopsis: Canadian writer-director Thom Fitzgerald's sweeping 3 NEEDLES journeys across several continents to show just how widespread HIV/AIDS has become in our modern world. Three distinct stories are... Canadian writer-director Thom Fitzgerald's sweeping 3 NEEDLES journeys across several continents to show just how widespread HIV/AIDS has become in our modern world. Three distinct stories are loosely linked by the narration of Olympia Dukakis, whose character appears in the film's final sequence. In the first, Lucy Liu is a pregnant Chinese woman who makes her living as a blood smuggler. Things turn sour when several donors begin to get sick and die. The second story, set in Montreal, follows a porn actor (Shawn Ashmore) who fakes his blood tests in order to keep working in the industry. But when his scheme is exposed, he is shamed and humiliated. His heartbroken mother (Stockard Channing) takes out an insurance policy and embarks on a darkly comic mission to contract the HIV virus as well. South Africa is the setting for the final tale, where three nuns (Chloe Sevigny, Sandra Oh, and Dukakis) have arrived to help out in the community. But in order to get a local plantation owner to assist one of her patients, Sevigny's character must make the most shameful sacrifice of all. 3 NEEDLES is an ambitious drama featuring beautiful cinematography by Tom Harting. Fitzgerald boldly eschews a more traditional tonal approach by combining seemingly disparate elements of black comedy, graphic content, and straight drama. The result is a broad, expansive commentary on a genuinely tragic situation that has no end in sight. [More]

Starring: Shawn Ashmore, Lucy Liu, Stockard Channing, Olympia Dukakis

Starring: Shawn Ashmore, Lucy Liu, Stockard Channing, Olympia Dukakis, Chloe Sevigny, Sandra Oh, Ian Roberts, Gary Farmer, Sook-Yin Lee

Director: Thom Fitzgerald

Director: Thom Fitzgerald
Producer: Thom Fitzgerald
Composer: Christophe Beck, Trevor Morris

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Release:

Apr 3, 2007

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Reviews for 3 Needles

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Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
08/22/07
V.A. Musetto
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
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If nothing else, [director Thom] Fitzgerald has demonstrated how huge a challenge the AIDS epidemic is on a worldwide scale, and how it will take a concerted, intelligent effort to solve it. It'll take a lot more than throwing money around.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
12/01/06
G. Allen Johnson
G. Allen Johnson
San Francisco Chronicle
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Only the African story feels complete, while the Chinese story is gloomily hopeless and the Montreal story is just a bad idea. 3 Needles is not about AIDS; it's about the exploitation of it.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
12/01/06
Jack Mathews
Jack Mathews
New York Daily News
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Broad in scope and at times visually stunning, [director Thom] Fitzgerald's project is ambitious but lacks cohesion.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
12/01/06
Teresa Budasi
Teresa Budasi
Chicago Sun-Times
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It's hard to know what exactly the movie means with a lot of the choices it makes, even if, ultimately, it means well.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
12/01/06
Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris
Boston Globe
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Though not as coherent as it might be, 3 Needles, with its stunning cinematography by Thomas M. Harting, is never less than engaging and suggests powerfully the myriad reasons why AIDS, after a quarter of a century, remains so difficult to combat.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
11/30/06
Kevin Thomas
Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times
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Had it taken a more hard-headed approach, 3 Needles might have been to the AIDS epidemic what Traffic was to the drug trade.

comment Comment
11/30/06
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
New York Times
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[A] well-meaning misfire.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
11/30/06
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
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Provocative and ambitious.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
11/30/06
Jan Stuart
Jan Stuart
Newsday
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It sometimes produces moments of unexpected power. It also produces a bizarre and fatally uneven movie, veering from black comedy to maudlin religiosity, which seems to have been made in total defiance of both narrative conventions and emotional logic.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
11/29/06
Andrew O'Hehir
Andrew O'Hehir
Salon.com
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By the time the movie returned to Africa, it had lost me despite its talented cast and its noble intentions.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
11/29/06
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
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As a movie, 3 Needles amounts to unclean entertainment at best.

Full Review Source: Village Voice | comment Comment
11/28/06
Rob Nelson
Rob Nelson
Village Voice
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The results can be gripping, but also difficult to follow in some places -- and difficult to swallow in others.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
04/21/06
Kate Taylor
Kate Taylor
Globe and Mail
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Sprawling from Montreal to South Africa to China, Thom Fitzgerald's 3 Needles is a great discussion tool for World AIDS Awareness Day that never achieves coherent shape as a three-paneled drama.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
10/06/05
Dennis Harvey
Dennis Harvey
Variety
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The film is unfocussed and listless. Fitzgerald has the ideas; what he needs more than anything is a ruthless editor.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
09/09/05
Peter Howell
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
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