With “Stop Loss” being released in US theaters today, the Los Angeles Times has posted a very insightful review on the film. Four thousand Americans and counting have died in Iraq, and the litany of unsuccessful films about that part of the world – “The Situation,” “Redacted,” “Rendition,” “The Kingdom,” “In The Valley of Elah” among others – is growing as well. Do not add “Stop-Loss” to that list. “Stop-Loss” is a film that does it right. The story of a young American soldier played by Ryan Phillippe who resists an order to return to Iraq, “Stop-Loss” covers some of the same territory as those other features. The difference here is a quality of propulsive emotional intensity that pushes us over rough spots as it drives us insistently forward. An intensity that must be credited to director and co-writer Kimberly Peirce. The full review can be read here.