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Movies / On DVD / 3 Needles
3 Needles

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3 Needles (2006)

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Reviews Counted:37

Fresh:13

Rotten:24

Average Rating:4.9/10

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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21 - 38 (sorted by date)
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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
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

[A] well-meaning misfire.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
11/30/06
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Provocative and ambitious.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
11/30/06
Jan Stuart
Jan Stuart
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Between the annoying voiceover and the detail-free storylines, 3 Needles is like a bad filmstrip you stumble onto at the library.

Full Review Source: Metromix.com | comment Comment
11/30/06
Matt Pais
Matt Pais
Metromix.com

Who wants to see anything as hopeless and cynical as this?

Full Review Source: Entertainment Insiders | comment Comment
11/30/06
Eric Lurio
Eric Lurio
Entertainment Insiders

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
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A gripping triptych of the HIV virus taking hold of every shred of human frailty in a tale of a pandemic both sexual and commercial.

Full Review Source: Monsters and Critics | comment Comment
11/28/06
Ron Wilkinson
Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics

Each of these stories is a hissy fit of heinous proportions, one progressively worse than the other: all end on a sickeningly satisfied note of irony, tied together with hectoring narration that suggests a yuletide story.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
11/07/06
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

Give me a little Sevigny and somehow the landscape of the heart and mind changes. For me, her qualities were all the salvation I needed. Without them, Purgatory, here I come!

Full Review Source: Cinema Signals | comment Comment
10/26/06
Jules Brenner
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals

The [AIDS] virus knows no boundaries, and chaos easily overcomes social order. With breathtaking cinematography by Thomas M. Harting, Thom Fitzgerald's take on this dilemma does not offer much hope.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
06/24/06
Susan Green
Susan Green
Boxoffice Magazine

While fraught with structural problems because it over-reaches, Thom Fitzgerald's film is still a wonder in terms of ambition and social relevance.

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
04/21/06
Bruce Kirkland
Bruce Kirkland
Jam! Movies

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

A powerful piece, 3 Needles ultimately fails to cohere as narrative, but there can be few more compassionate films playing at the festival this year.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Chris Tilly
Chris Tilly
Time Out

There are moments of sheer brilliance, but it's far too self-important and, ultimately, contrived.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
11/02/05
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

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
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
21 - 38 (sorted by date)
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