AILEEN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A SERIAL KILLER
****
USA
A documentary on the final days of convicted serial killer Aileen
Wuornos, the subject of the same year's "Monster". Though not particularly well-constructed,
it's compulsive viewing, both fascinating and scarring, permanently
etching Wuornos' crazed, bulging eyes into your memory.
dir: Nick Broomfield, Joan Churchill
ALL THE REAL GIRLS
**½
USA
In a small mill town, a romance blossoms between
a young rough-neck and a virginal boarding school graduate.
Well-intentioned it is, but also angsty, air-headed, self-involved and
more than a touch precious. Perhaps it is an attempt to relate an
anonymous though clearly overwhelming sense of romance the maker and his
cast once witnessed without quite grasping its core. A film scholar's "Chocolat", if you like. A film scholar should know
better though.
dir: David Gordon Green
cast: Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel, Patricia Clarkson
AMERICAN SPLENDOR
****
USA
The life of comic-book writer Harvey Pekar.
A warm, amusing and moving mixture of documentary and fiction. An
exemplary biopic, expertly assembled, with excellent use of setting and soundtrack.
wr/dir: Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer Berman
cast: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, Judah Friedlander, James
Urbaniak
AT FIVE IN THE AFTERNOON
***½
Iran/France
A 20-year-old woman in Afghanistan directly after the fall of the Taliban
attends school against her father's wishes and dreams of becoming
president.
A fascinating, engrossing snapshot of contemporary Afghanistan, with
various political arguments - largely concentrating on women's rights -
that aren't necessarily novel - or subtle - but are certainly timely and
valid.
dir: Samira Makhmalbaf
wr: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Samira Makhmalbaf
ph: Ebrahim Ghafori, Samira Makhmalbaf
ed: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
cast: Aghele Rezaie, Abdolgani Yousefrazi, Razi Mohebi,
Marzieh Amiri
BAD SANTA
****
USA
A vulgar, alcoholic department
store Santa hides out in the house of a neglected, vulnerable child.
A jet black, subversive Christmas comedy that invites the viewer to
ponder how it ever managed to get away from Disney. Riddled with four letter words,
it works
even when it takes a shot at the heartstrings thanks to perfectly pitched
performances.
dir: Terry Zwigoff
cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Lauren
Graham, Lauren Tom, Bernie Mac, John Ritter, Cloris Leachman
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS
***½
Canada/France
A cancer-stricken history lecturer spends his
dying days among old friends and estranged family members.
Arcand collects his characters from "The Decline of the
American Empire" (1986) for an intelligent, absorbing, brilliantly
written exploration of tensions between ailing leftist ideologies and
consuming materialistic capitalism. However, he struggles to balance
emotion with intellect.
dir: Denys Arcand
cast: Rémy Girard, Stéphane Rousseau, Marie-Josée Croze,
Dorothée Berryman, Louise Portal, Dominique Michel, Yves Jacques, Pierre
Curzi, Marina Hands, Toni Cecchinato, Johanne-Marie Tremblay
THE BEST
OF YOUTH
****
Italy
Marco Tullio Giordana's much-acclaimed six-hour family saga, concentrating
chiefly on the choices made by two brothers very opposite in nature,
against the backdrop of some forty years worth of political turmoil in
Italy. The story abandons characters at will only to pick them up whenever
convenient and it isn't entirely above soap opera. But for six hours you
live and breathe the world of the Caratis and you gasp and soar according
to the vicissitudes of an entire nation's fortunes. Giordana's style is
professional more than masterful and polished more than organic. But it's
perfectly effective at reining in the talky, bounteous monster of a script
and never losing hold over the overarching objectives.
dir: Marco Tullio Giordana
wr: Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli
cast: Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Adriana Asti, Sonia Bergamasco,
Fabrizio Gifuni, Maya Sansa, Valentina Carnelutti, Jasmine Trinca, Andrea
Tidona, Lidia Vitale, Camilla Filippi, Paolo Bonnani, Riccardo Scamarcio,
Giovanni Scifoni
BIG FISH
***
USA
An estranged son is tired of his dying father's
famously colourful tales and wants to know the truth.
A sentimental mix of prime-time family pathos and Burton's real head.
Whereas each aspect lacks comfort and subtlety, the combination
itself is efficiently handled.
dir: Tim Burton
cast: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy
Crudup, Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Helena Bonham Carter, Steve
Buscemi
BON VOYAGE
***½
France
A movie star, a student activist, a pair of
escaped convicts, a professor and his scientific discovery struggle to
escape Nazi occupation.
Light, fast-paced drama with multiple characters and plot lines. It misses
many opportunities and often very nearly trips over itself, but
consistently provides lavish, old-style entertainment.
dir: Jean-Paul Rappeneau
cast: Gregori Derangere, Isabelle Adjani, Gerard Depardieu,
Virginie Ledoyen, Yvan Attal, Jean-Marc Stehle, Peter Coyote
BRIGHT FUTURE
***
Japan
A young factory worker is left to take care of his friend's jellyfish
after the latter is jailed for murdering their boss and his wife.
An offbeat drama with original observations and unexpected developments,
but also limp pacing and unattractive digital photography that detract
from the experience.
wr/dir/ed: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
cast: Jô Odagiri, Tadanobu Asano, Tatsuya Fuji, Takashi Sasano,
Marumi Shiraishi
CAFÉ LUMIERE
**½
Japan/Taiwan
A young Japanese woman's family is baffled by her plans to raise a child
on her own.
Intended as a homage to Yasujiro Ozu to mark 100 years since his birth.
Even at their most leisurely, Ozu's films were relatively absorbing. In
this particular picture though, most of the time there is nothing of
interest happening - no character observation, no local colour, no social
commentary - nothing. And on the rare occasion it ventures into exploring
family dynamics, it proves so incisive that the interminable stretches of
nothing in between end up all the more frustrating.
dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
cast: Yo Hitoto, Tadanobu Asano, Masato Hagiwara, Kimiko Yo, Nenji
Kobayashi
COFFEE AND CIGARETTES
***
USA
A collection of short films of
variable quality basically revolving around the vices of the title.
Few are remarkable, and some are embarrassing, but most are watchable.
wr/dir: Jim Jarmusch
ph: Tom DiCillo, Frederick Elmes, Ellen Kuras, Robby Müller
ed: Jim Jarmusch, Terry Katz, Melody London, Jay Rabinowitz
cast: Roberto Benigni, Steven Wright, Joie Lee, Cinqué Lee, Steve
Buscemi, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Joseph Rigano, Vinny Vella, Vinny Vella Jr.,
Renée French, E.J. Rodriguez, Alex Descas, Isaach de Bankolé, Cate
Blanchett, Mike Hogan, Jack White, Meg White, Alfred Molina,
Steve Coogan, Katy Hansz, Genius/GZA, RZA, Bill Murray, Bill Rice, Taylor
Mead
COLD MOUNTAIN
***½
USA
Towards the end of the Civil War, a
disillusioned soldier deserts to return to his Southern Belle.
There is an unevenness - particularly distracting in the opening scenes
- and miscasting as symptoms of the struggle to adapt such an episodic, epic story into a coherent whole. However,
even the under-conceived ideas hint at wholly honourable intentions and
despite the flaws, there is great feeling in the storytelling and a strong
disgust at the effects of war.
dir: Anthony Minghella
cast: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Donald
Sutherland, Brendan Gleeson, Ray Winstone, Kathy Baker, Philip Seymour
Hoffman, Eileen Atkins, Giovanni Ribisi, Natalie Portman
THE COMPANY
***
The chronicles of a Chicago dance company.
A plotless exposé of the world of ballet, with opulent stage productions
and spontaneous, irrelevant sketches that lead nowhere. The structure and
the stage personae - all of them vague or irritating or both - can
aggravate, but the backstage atmosphere comes off successfully.
dir: Robert Altman
cast: Neve Campbell, Malcolm McDowell, James Franco, The
Joffrey Ballet Company
THE COOLER
**
USA
A middle-aged loser in life, set up to bring bad luck to gamblers in a Las
Vegas casino, finds love.
A mediocre pseudo-noir addition to the loser-comes-good genre, with
superstition forced to account for most of the dramatic tension.
dir: Wayne Kramer
wr: Frank Hannah, Wayne Kramer
cast: William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello, Shawn
Hatosy, Ron Livingston, Paul Sorvino, Estella Warren
THE CORPORATION
****½
Canada
A superbly assembled, harrowing documentary indictment, drawing direct
parallels between the corporation as an entity and the behaviour of a
psychopath.
dir: Jennifer Abbott, Mark Achbar
COWARDS BEND THE KNEE
***
Canada
Hockey player Guy abandons his pregnant girlfriend when he falls for a
nymphomaniac hairdresser's murderous daughter.
Surreal, exaggerated, completely bizarre melodrama, presented as a
silent film. Also note, Maddin sells it as his autobiography.
wr/dir/ph: Guy Maddin
cast: Darcy Fehr, Melissa Dionisio, Amy Stewart, Tara Birtwistle,
Louis Negin
CRIMSON GOLD
****½
Iran
Jafar Panahi directs an Abbas Kiarostami script, which establishes how
parties are illegal in Iran, the disadvantaged are routinely humiliated
and the gap between the very poor and the very rich is distending. It's a
quiet, gently flowing and profoundly embittered piece of cinema,
demonstrating without redundant earnestness or hysteria how the most
inoffensive, inconspicuous, seemingly indomitable spirit can be smothered
by any casually unjust system.
dir: Jafar Panahi
wr: Abbas Kiarostami
cast: Hossain Emadeddin, Kamyar Sheisi, Azita Rayeji,
Shahram Vaziri, Ehsan Amani, Pourang Nakhael
DOGVILLE
****
Denmark/Sweden/France/Norway/
Netherlands/Finland/Germany/Italy/ Japan/USA/UK
During the Depression Era, a glamourous woman on
the run from the mob hides in a small town in the Rocky Mountains, seeking
to be accepted by its residents.
Little hope or faith in humanity is spared and the back story it opens
up is ultimately far too layered and fascinating to be merely spoken of by
the characters. But lo and behold the quintessentially cynical and obnoxious master
conducting a quintessentially audacious, compelling and confronting
experiment with human nature as betrayed by the acquisition of power. It's
played out as an allegory against a minimalist set - with houses and
streets denoted by chalk outlines - by an impeccable ensemble.
dir: Lars von Trier
cast: Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Stellan Skarsgård,
James Caan, Ben Gazzara, Philip Baker Hall, Patricia Clarkson, Bill
Raymond, Lauren Bacall, Chloë Sevigny, Harriet Andersson, Siobhan Fallon
Hogan, Zeljko Ivanek, Jeremy Davies, Blair Brown, Shauna Shim, Udo Kier,
Miles Purinton
voice of: John Hurt
DOWN WITH LOVE
***½
USA
In 1963 NYC, a playboy journalist poses as a
wholesome astronaut to seduce an internationally successful feminist
author threatening to ruin his life.
A stylish, spot-on send-up of the Hudson and Day vehicles of the 60s.
Simultaneously glossy, vulgar and cutesy on the surface, the wit and
insight beneath are often sadly underestimated.
dir: Peyton Reed
cast: Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor, David Hyde Pierce,
Sarah Paulson THE DREAMERS
**½
USA
An American tourist spends a few days in a Parisian apartment with a pair
of incestuous siblings.
A mix of nostalgia for Hollywood's golden age (and the French New Wave)
and graphic sex scenes with simple-minded subtext. The performances range
from barely adequate to inane and all of the highlights belong to other
pictures.
dir: Bernardo Bertolucci
cast: Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel, Anna
Chancellor, Robin Renucci
ELEPHANT
**
USA
An ordinary day at an American high school is
interrupted by violence.
There is no narrative to speak of - the camera floats after relatively
anonymous teenage characters and initially the mood proves absorbing.
Gradually the jarring inconsistencies in the naturalism it attempts begin
to obliterate the observations. The chronology is
interrupted for no good reason and all the stark meditating gives way to the vulgar
sensationalism it was originally set up to disguise.
dir: Gus Van Sant
cast: John Robinson, Elias McConnell, Alex Frost, Eric
Deulen, Jordan Taylor, Carrie Finklea, Nicole George, Brittany Mountain
ELF
***½
USA
A human orphan raised by Santa realises he's not just one of the elves and
travels to New York in search of his biological father.
An impending Christmas programming fixture that is genuinely warm and
funny. Ferrell is way too old for the part - and things get particularly
uneasy when he's courting Deschanel - but in the end, he does manage to
carry the picture off through sheer conviction.
dir: Jon Favreau
cast: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Zooey Deschanel, Mary
Steenburgen, Edward Asner, Bob Newhart, Daniel Tay, Peter Dinklage, Jon
Favreau, Amy Sedaris
FAR SIDE OF THE MOON
***½
Canada
A middle-aged astronomy student working as a telemarketer is jealous of
his brother, a a TV weatherman.
An entertaining and largely rewarding tragi-comic character study,
presented with imagination that overcomes its shaky focus.
wr/dir: Robert Lepage
ph: Ronald Plante
ed: Philippe Gagnon
m: Benoît Jutras
cast: Robert Lepage, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Marco Poulin,
Céline Bonnier
FATHER AND SON
***½
Russia/Germany/Netherlands/Italy
It begins with two spectacularly
built, seemingly naked men, embracing, thrusting, panting and professing
their love. But the director will call you sick for drawing the natural
conclusion. So, as you'd expect, the picture is artsy, and fartsy, and
frustratingly obtuse. But you forgive it for the striking settings, and
the hypnotic, dream-like feel - much indebted to Tchaikovsky.
dir: Aleksandr Sokurov
ph: Aleksandr Burov
cast: Andrei Shchetinin, Aleksej Nejmyshev, Aleksandr Razbash,
Fyodor Lavrov, Marina Zasukhina
FINDING NEMO
****
USA
A clown fish goes in search of his son, stuck in
the fish tank of a dentist near Sydney Harbour.
Maybe it's the shock of experiencing a computer-animated feature bereft of
snark or crass pop culture references, but there is something about this
typically warm and imaginative Pixar saga that feels like a revelation.
dir: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich
voices of: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander
Gould, Willem Dafoe, Geoffrey Rush, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, Austin
Pendleton, Stephen Root, Vicky Lewis
THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS
**½
Denmark/Switzerland/Belgium/France
Lars von Trier challenges Jørgen
Leth to remake his 1967 short film "The Perfect Human" five
times, devising a separate set of obstructions each time.
A brilliantly conceived and potentially fascinating experiment turned
into a pseudo-philosophical exercise in unrestrained wankerism.
dir: Jørgen Leth, Lars von Trier
THE FOG OF WAR
****½
USA
Interviews with Robert S. McNamara, who served as the US Secretary of
Defense during the Vietnam war.
His subject grows increasingly elusive, but Morris is a master at this
game. The film is separated in eleven chapters, each with a lesson of its
own, and none of them remotely as simplistic as these things tend to be.
Beyond the evil and destruction of war itself, the film goes a long way
into examining the human nature that gives way to it all. Although
particularly timely upon its original release, it's not likely that it
will ever be rendered irrelevant.
dir: Erroll Morris
FUSE
***½
Bosnia-Herzegovina/Austria/Turkey/France
A small Bosnian town is notified of an impending visit from President Bill
Clinton.
A low-key, beautifully observed tragicomedy, portraying a scarred
people with humour and heart.
wr/dir: Pjer Zalica
ph: Mirsad Herovic
ed: Almir Kenovic
m: Sasa Losic
cast: Enis Beslagic, Bogdan Diklic, Sasa Petrovic, Emir
Hadzihafizbegovic, Izudin Bajrovic, Jasna Zalica, Senad Basic, Admir
Glamocak
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING
***½
In 1665 Holand, respected painter Johannes
Vermeer is entranced by his seventeen-year-old maid.
An evocatively photographed speculation of circumstances behind the
creation of Vermeer's masterpiece. Rather limited in terms of both canvas
and imagination, but elegantly mounted.
dir: Peter Webber
ph: Eduardo Serra
cast: Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Essie Davis, Judy
Parfitt, Tom Wilkinson, Cillian Murphy, Alakina Mann
GOODBYE, LENIN!
***½
Germany
A devoted socialist lies comatose during the
German reunification and when she wakes up months after, her son goes to
great lengths to make sure she avoids every excitement, including news of
colossal political changes.
Warm, irrepressible tale of a son's devotion as well as a clever and
original treatise on a momentous period in German history, with a
fantastic but fragile central concept, which required tighter control.
dir: Wolfgang Becker
cast: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Maria Simon, Chulpan
Khamatova, Florian Lukas, Alexander Beyer, Burghart Klaussner
HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG
*½
USA
A depressed housecleaner is evicted from her
house and enters into conflict with its eventual buyer, an
Iranian immigrant and his family.
It's a credit to the actors that the most sincere characterizations
turn out to be those of the immigrant couple - since the script demeans
them most - in this overblown, exploitative melodrama,
directed without the basic discretion to let its powerful set-up evolve on
its own.
dir: Vadim Perelman
cast: Ben Kingley, Jennifer Connelly, Shohreh
Aghdashloo, Ron Eldard, Frances Fisher, Jonathan Ahdout, Kim Dickens
HULK
**½
USA
A geneticist accidentally develops the tendency
to turn into a raging green giant every time he goes under stress.
An ambitious comic book adaptation that delays most of the action to the last
third and wants to thrive on heavy
psychological underpinnings that just aren't there. The comic-style
split-screen techniques provide the only bit of fun.
dir: Ang Lee
cast: Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Nick Nolte, Sam
Elliott, Josh Lucas
INTOLERABLE CRUELTY
***½
USA
A star divorce attorney falls for his client's
ex-wife.
Aside from some labored patches, a classy and entertaining throwback to Hollywood's
Golden star couplings. Somewhat more marketing-friendly than previous Coen
offerings, but nevertheless familiarly peopled by eccentrics.
dir: Joel Coen
cast: George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Adelstein,
Geoffrey Rush, Edward Herrman, Cedric the Entertainer, Richard Jenkins,
Billy Bob Thornton, Julia Duffy KILL BILL, VOL. 1
*****
USA
A bride-that-didn't-get-to-be goes to seek
revenge on the international assassination squad that betrayed her.
A scrappy, gratuitous, kinetic ode to diva worship and homage to 70s
martial arts movies - and Samurai movies, and spaghetti Westerns - with
magnetic stars and multiplying geysers of blood. Half a movie, it might
be, and a pulpy ego-trip, but it boasts maybe the most ingenious, arresting
soundtrack ever designed. And the action is spectacularly showcased to
give you a visceral, supremely satisfying sense of exhilaration. It's pure, magnificent
cinema.
dir: Quentin Tarantino
cast: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, David Carradine, Sonny
Chiba, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Chiaki Kuriyama, Michael Madsen, Julie
Dreyfuss
KITCHEN STORIES
***
Norway/Sweden
In 1940s Norway, as part of an experiment, a Swedish researcher must
silently observe the kitchen habits of a cranky, unresponsive elderly
bachelor.
A slight, outlandish concept based on fact is treated with warmth and
practically earnest composure, focusing on the development of a
not-so-unlikely friendship, with limited insight and imagination.
dir: Bent Hamer
wr: Jörgen Bergmark, Bent Hamer
ph: Philip Øgaard
ed: Pål Gengenbach
m: Hans Mathisen
cast: Tomas Norström, Joachim Calmeyer, Bjørn Floberg,
Reine Brynolfsson
LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE
***½
Thailand/Japan
A suicidal Japanese librarian living in Thailand befriends a young woman,
after he witnesses her sister die in
a car crash.
A bittersweet, darkly comic story of the unlikely bonding of two
troubled, alienated outsiders. Breathtaking to look at.
dir: Pen-ek Ratanaruang
wr: Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Prabda Yoon
ph: Christopher Doyle
cast: Tadanobu Asano,
Sinitta Boonyasak, Laila Boonyasak, Yutaka Matsushige, Riki Takeuchi,
Takashi Miike
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
****
USA/New Zealand/Germany
The conflicts of Middle Earth rage on as Frodo
and Sam face further evil on their way to Mount Doom.
The landmark trilogy ends. Over and over again. And quite
embarrassingly. But the preceding
journeys and battles - both personal and geographical - are
captivating, ravishing and breathtaking. Basically, the first three hours
are consistently spectacular, then it goes downhill rapidly and
repeatedly.
dir: Peter Jackson
cast: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Miranda Otto, Orlando Bloom, Jonathan
Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Bernard Hill, John Noble, David Wenham,
Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Cate Blanchett, Ian Holm
LOST IN TRANSLATION
***½
USA
A washed-up American actor and a married, much younger Yale graduate share
an unlikely bond in Tokyo.
An indie piece that is obviously intended as a delicate, dreamy ode to
dislocation of both the geographical and emotional kind, except a lot of
the directorial strokes are vague and the stereotyping vulgar. The lead
performances though, and some of the one-liners, make you remember it
fondly.
wr/dir: Sofia Coppola
ph: Lance Acord
cast: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni
Ribisi, Anna Faris, Fumihiro Hayashi, Yutaka Tadokoro
|
LOVE ACTUALLY
*
UK/USA
A supremely simple-minded romantic comedy, utterly bereft of dignity and
credibility. In voiceover, Hugh Grant, playing a hip, single and lovesick
Prime Minister, announces that the post 9/11 world has been misrepresented
and is actually swarming with love. Supporting this thesis, an exhaustive
bunch (eighteen in total!) of lovably quirky, straight, white,
middle-class Brits (and one American equivalent) that have nothing to do
with anything (much less, each other) run around ponds and airports
professing love which is duly requited. None of them are given room for a
personality, development or even much of a storyline.
wr/dir: Richard Curtis
cast: Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson,
Bill Nighy, Laura Linney, Alan Rickman, Keira Knightley, Martine
McCutcheon, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rowan Atkinson, Billy Bob Thornton, Claudia
Schiffer, Denise Richards, Elisha Cuthbert
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
***½
USA
During the Napoleonic war, a British navy ship pursues a French warship
that almost sank it.
A vividly staged and well acted high-seas epic, borderline subversive in
its scarceness of plot and dramatic conflict. As a result, its grip over
the audience tends to falter, but it offers some memorable passages along
the way.
dir: Peter Weir
cast: Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Billy Boyd,
James D'Arcy, George Innes, Mark Lewis Jones, Robert Pugh, David Threlfall,
Edward Woodall
MATCHSTICK MEN
***½
USA
A con man with an obsessive compulsive disorder tracks down a 14-year-old
daughter he's never met before.
Despite jarring tonal shifts and a rushed closing act, this
plot-twist-driven dramedy becomes surprisingly touching as it settles into
a character lesson. Amusing, well acted and technically immaculate
throughout.
dir: Ridley Scott
cast: Nicolas Cage, Alison Lohman, Sam Rockwell
A MIGHTY WIND
***½
USA
Three well-known folk groups come together for a reunion concert in NYC.
Notably gentler than this ensemble's previous efforts and less developed
as the sheer number of characters relegates some comic geniuses to
regrettably brief cameos. Slightly below the team's usual standard, but
it's a high standard, and this still manages to provide some decent jokes
and a good time.
dir: Christopher Guest
cast: Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene
Levy, John Michael Higgins, Jane Lynch, Parker Posey, Ed Begley, Bob
Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, Fred Willard, Michael Hitchcock
THE MISSING
**
USA
When her daughter is kidnapped by Indians in pre-1900 New Mexico, a cattle
rancher is forced to seek help from her estranged father.
Solemn, inert drama. It's as
racist as any Western ever made, though it's likely the makers don't
realise this.
dir: Ron Howard
cast: Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones, Evan Rachel Wood, Eric
Schweig, Jenna Boyd, Aaron Eckhart
MONSTER
***½
USA
The story of serial killer prostitute Aileen
Wuornos and her romance with a shy younger woman in Florida.
A dark, unsettling adaptation of a gruesome true life story. Flawed but
harrowing, largely due to Theron's remarkable - both physical and
psychological - transformation.
dir: Patty Jenkins
cast: Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern,
Lee Tergesen
MY FLESH AND BLOOD
***½
USA
A documentary that follows a middle-aged
Californian woman who lives with her her biological daughter as well as 11
adopted children, each bearing a handicap of some kind.
A powerful portrait of a modern-day saint-with-an-asterisk that is
difficult to watch at times but carries a strong emotional impact.
dir: Jonathan Karsh
MY LIFE WITHOUT ME
****
Spain/Canada
A 23-year-old working-class mother of two discovers she has only a short
time to live but decides not to tell anyone.
It's sticky afternoon-TV-special material, but Coixet knows to pack
quirky humour where excess sentimentality tends to normally furrow its
ugly mug. The cast proves of great help, particularly Sarah Polley's
striking, fascinating, completely idiosyncratic presence.
wr/dir: Isabel Coixet
cast: Sarah Polley, Mark Ruffalo, Deborah Harry,
Scott Speedman, Leonor Watling, Amanda Plummer, Maria de Madeiros
MYSTIC RIVER
***½
USA
The paths of three childhood friends cross after
the brutal murder of a daughter of one.
An unsubtle but resolutely bleak and relatively solid exploration of
scarred individuals overwhelmed by a grief that opens up old wounds.
dir: Clint Eastwood
cast: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon,
Marcia Gay Harden, Laurence Fishburne, Laura Linney
OFF THE MAP
**½
USA
A comic-melancholic indie about a middle-aged hippie, her aggressively
precocious pre-teen daughter and a couple of depressed men they live with
in an isolated patch of New Mexico desert. Joan Allen plays the mother
with more grace and dignity than is granted to this kind of character -
she never drops into airy-fairy mode. She makes the picture watchable. But
otherwise too much of it is about quirky people being quirky.
dir: Campbell Scott
cast: Joan Allen, Valentina de Angelis, Sam Elliott, Amy Brenneman,
J.K. Simmons, Boots Southern, J.D. Garfield
ONG-BAK
**½
Thailand
In silly martial arts movies,
the story is irrelevant, the message half-assed, and the silliness just
part of the charm. It's the action scenes that matter. The action scenes
in this particular case aren't completely shabby, but so far below the
very high standard of recent Asian cinema that you wonder why this
particular film was selected for international release over other, better
titles.
dir: Prachya Pinkaew
cast: Tony Jaa, Petchtai Wongkamlao, Pumwaree Yodkamol, Suchao
Pongwilai, Wannakit Sirioput, Cumporn Teppita
OPEN WATER
**
USA
This was meant to be the next
Blair Witch. It's actually about a couple of yuppie tourist divers left by
their boat in the middle of the shark-infested ocean, but the budget is
similarly low and the approach is similarly minimalist. The main problem
though, is that the tension subsides every time the actors speak.
dir: Chris Kentis
cast: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis, Saul Stein, Estelle Lau,
Michael E. Williamson
OSAMA
****
Afghanistan/Netherlands/Japan/Ireland/Iran
During the Taliban rule, a young girl is forced to dress up as a boy and
become her family's breadwinner.
The first picture made in recently liberated Afghanistan: a
devastating, beautifully crafted drama with a haunting face at its centre.
wr/dir: Siddiq Barmak
cast: Marina Golbahari, Arif Herati, Zubaida Sahar,
Mohamad Nade Khadjeh, Mohamad Haref Harati
PETER PAN
***
USA
Classy, imaginative family entertainment, kid-friendly but very much
aware of all the sexual awakening underscoring the story.
dir: P.J. Hogan
cast: Jason Isaacs, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Jeremy Sumpter,
Olivia Williams, Freddy Popplewell, Harry Newell, Ludivine Sagnier, Lynn
Redgrave
PIECES OF APRIL
***½
USA
The black sheep of a family with a
cancer-stricken matron invites them to New York for Thanksgiving.
Exceptionally well written but lazily directed, and all by the same
man. Much of the biting humour and the general impact thankfully
survives all the same.
dir: Peter Hedges
wr: Peter Hedges
cast: Katie Holmes, Patricia Clarkson, Oliver
Platt, Derek Luke, Sean Hayes, Alison Pill, John A. Gallagher, Alice
Drummond, Sisqo
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK
PEARL
***
USA
An unlikely pirate and a righteous blacksmith
apprentice go in search of the governor's daughter, kidnapped by pirates
eager to break a horrific curse.
Awesome scenes of disintegrating ghost pirates capture the eye as
forced humour regularly trips over itself in demand for attention. Logic is a
non-issue and continuity never allowed to get in the way of a good time.
dir: Gore Verbinski
cast: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira
Knightley, Jack Davenport, Jonathan Pryce
PROTEUS
***
Canada/South Africa
In 18th century South Africa, a romance develops between two prisoners -
one African one Dutch.
A stylized, well-acted effort based on a true
story, with more imagination and style than most queer films but needing
some more still.
wr/dir: John Greyson, Jack Lewis
ph: Giulio Biccari
ed: Roslyn Kalloo
m: Don Pyle, Andrew Zealley
cast: Rouxnet Brown, Neil Sandilands, Brett Goldin, Tessa Jubber,
Jeroen Kranenburg
THE RETURN
***
A long-absent father takes his two young,
estranged sons on a trip.
Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, this sparse,
brooding and good-looking but dramatically thin fable sacrifices plot
development to mood, ambiguity and, eventually, mere vagueness.
Afterthought isn't kind to it.
dir: Andrei Zvyagintsev
cast: Vladimir Garin, Ivan Dobronravov, Konstantin
Lavronenko, Natalya Vdovina, Galina Petrova
THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD
***½
Canada
In Depression Era Winnipeg, a beer baroness
offers to pay $25,000 to the nation that brings the saddest music in the
world.
A psychedelic mélange of outlandish, absurd characters, images and
situations, presented as a faded 30s melodrama. Indisputably an acquired
taste, it goes overboard on style and kink to a somewhat distancing point,
but it's never less than outrageous and entertaining.
dir: Guy Maddin
cast: Mark McKinney, Isabella Rossellini, Ross
McMillan, Maria de Medeiros, David Fox
SARABAND
***½
Sweden
A continuation of Bergman's brilliant "Scenes from a
Marriage" (1973) where we find the original couple 30 years later,
dealing with a pair of new characters, who, although certainly complex,
just aren't as interesting. Every scene spent in their presence feels like
precious time taken away from Marianne and Johan. All the same, this may
very well be the final time the master announces his retirement, and this
picture serves as a worthy, fascinating swansong.
wr/dir: Ingmar Bergman
cast: Liv Ullman, Erland Josephson, Börje Ahlstedt,
Julia Dufvenius
SHATTERED GLASS
***
USA
Much envied young journalist Stephen Glass may
or may not be fabricating his articles.
Fascinating for the true story it tells and efficient for the most part
in the way it tells it, but there are clumsy interludes that stick out,
opening up facets that are then left unexplored and establishing subplots and
characters that go either nowhere or somewhere so obvious, it's a waste of
time that they were ever opened up at all. And it's never entirely clear whether it's
attempting to portray Glass as troubled, manipulative, both or neither.
dir: Billy Ray
cast: Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloë
Sevigny, Steve Zahn, Rosario Dawson, Melanie Lynskey, Hank Azaria
SINCE OTAR LEFT...
****½
France/Belgium
Three generations of a family of Georgian women is affected by a relative
who has left to work in Paris.
A touching, intimate, beautifully observed, superbly acted drama from the
rarely explored perspective of the family left behind by an immigrant.
dir: Julie Bertucelli
wr: Julie Bertucelli, Bernard Renucci
cast: Esther Gorintin, Nino Khomasuridze, Dinara Drukarova,
Temour Kalandadze, Roussoudan Bolkvadze, Sacha Sarichvili, Duta
Skhirtladze, Mzia Eristavi
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE
**
USA
A 63-year-old play-boy falls for the mother of
his much younger lover.
A thin, rarely convincing or enlightening take on December-December
romancing. The female lead is unnecessarily, insufferably shrill.
dir: Nancy Meyers
cast: Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Frances McDormand,
Keanu Reeves, Amanda Peet, Jon Favreau
SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER... AND SPRING
****
South Korea
A young monk comes of age learns about life at
an isolated Buddhist monastery.
A wise, contemplative meditation on spirituality, guilt and redemption. It never
abandons its serene setting as it portrays four major stages of a man's
life in
season-themed chapters.
wr/dir/ed: Kim Ki-duk
ph: Baek Song-hyeon
cast: Young-soo Oh, Kim Ki-duk, Young-min Kim, Jae-kyeong
Seo, Jong-ho Kim, Yeo-jin Ha, Jung-young Kim, Dae-han Ji, Min Choi
THE STATION AGENT
****
USA
A dwarf inherits an abandoned railway station in
rural New Jersey and is befriended by local eccentrics.
Warm, laidback, relaxing and intoxicating tale of three outsiders
sharing a common bond in their respective struggles. The whole movie
drifts by pleasantly to the point where you lose sense of running time and
the ending comes as a shock.
wr/dir: Tom McCarthy
cast: Peter Dinklage, Bobby Cannavale, Patricia
Clarkson, Michelle Williams, Raven Goodwin
THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL
***
Germany/Mongolia
A documentary about a nomadic Mongolian family and their camel, which
rejects her newborn colt. It's at least partly staged since the characters
often engage in mechanical, plot-advancing exchanges without acknowledging
the filmmakers and, as is the common case with these things, some of the
ethnic rituals portrayed here haven't actually been performed for a long
time in the absence of a camera. The picture's real problem however, is
that its crafting is very much pedestrian and the story needlessly
drawn-out, even if the life it depicts is indeed fascinating.
dir: Byambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni
SWIMMING POOL
***½
France/UK
An uptight British crime novelist rediscovers
creativity at her boss' home in the South of France until his reckless
daughter arrives.
A cunning study of the creative process, seething with sex and impending
menace. Ozon has a nonchalant way of setting up and discarding thriller
elements that will either frustrate or delight you.
dir: François Ozon
cast: Charlotte Rampling, Ludivine Sagnier, Charles Dance,
Marc Fayolle
TAIS-TOI
***
France
A French take on the buddy-action-comedy genre. Initially warm and
amusing, it gradually gets bogged down in tired convention.
dir: Francis Veber
cast: Gérard Depardieu, Jean Reno, Richard Berry, André
Dussollier, Jean-Pierre Malo
A TALE OF TWO SISTERS
**½
South Korea
After receiving treatment for a mysterious condition, two teenage sisters
return to their home and their estranged stepmother.
Occasionally intense but generally clichéd,
convoluted and anemic horror, based on a Korean folk tale.
wr/dir: Kim Ji-woon
ph: Lee Mo-gae
ed: Lee Hyeon-mi
m: Lee Byung-woo
cast: Yum Jung-ah, Lim Su-jeong, Kim Kap-su, Mun Geun-yeong
TARNATION
****
USA
A documentary essay of Jonathan Caouette's life, largely concentrating on
his relationship with his unstable mother.
Obviously a deeply personal project and inevitably a self-indulgent one
- the early scenes with Caouette sobbing in his NYC pad ring particularly
false. But the boy has a gripping story to tell thereafter and he's adept at
putting it together. His editing is remarkable. Originally produced for $218 and
principally cut on iMovie, the picture went on to become a massive festival hit.
Beware of imitations sure to pop up in underground scenes worldwide.
dir/ed: Jonathan Caouette
THIRTEEN
***
USA
The thirteen-year-old daughter of a recovering
alcoholic single mom spirals out of control upon befriending the popular
girl at school.
It's difficult to avoid the clumsy exclamation points when you tear a
script out of the diary of a thirteen year old girl and several scenes are
more laughable than confrontational. And yet, via the rawness of her performance,
Evan Rachel Wood excises some kind of truth out of what she's given to
work with and pushes the viewer
towards quite a hard-hitting emotional climax.
dir: Catherine Hardwicke
cast: Evan Rachel Wood, Holly Hunter, Nikki Reed,
Jeremy Sisto, Brady Corbet, Deborah Kara Unger, Kip Pardue
TIME OF THE WOLF
***½
France/Austria/Germany
A restrained deliberation over what might happen when something (what it
is, exactly, is never explained) causes the end of the world. It has a tendency to
pay more attention to little sideline events than they warrant; it isn't
as gripping as it should be. But it's absorbing nonetheless, if for no
other reason than for being so completely plausible and single-mindedly
sure of itself.
wr/dir: Michael Haneke
cast: Isabelle Huppert, Béatrice Dalle, Patrice Chéreau, Rona
Hartner, Maurice Bénichou, Olivier Gourmet
TOUCHING THE VOID
***½
A documentary of Simon Yates and Joe
Simpson's catastrophic attempt to climb the Siula Grande in 1985, with
dramatic recreations. More gripping than most fictional thrillers, it
provides fascinating insights into the human condition when the two
discuss what it was like to be faced with
almost certain death.
dir: Kevin Macdonald
THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE
***½
France/Canada/Belgium/UK
A Tour de France bike racer is kidnapped and his
mother goes in search of him.
A dark, eccentric, nearly dialogue-free cartoon feature, which starts to
drag towards the end but in the meantime boasts beautiful,
principally hand-drawn animation, an irresistibly catchy theme tune and a
bewitching vision of a world that resembles a mutated version of every
metropolis you know.
dir: Sylvain Chomet
voices of: Michèle Caucheteux, Jean-Claude Donda,
Mari-Lou Gauthier
TUPAC: RESURRECTION
***½
USA
Tupac is a recently deceased
cultural icon, so even when he is at his most self-righteous, pretentious
and hypocritical, the makers don't allow themselves to question his claims.
They don't even seem to have considered the option.
You're not
getting more than one side to the story here, but there are inevitably
hints and subtexts that seem to have slipped through the filters. So, if
you're willing, you are ultimately free to struggle and make what you will of this
troubled, troubling and fascinating figure, and you won't be bored for a
second.
dir: Lauren Lazin
21 GRAMS
***½
A dying professor, an ex-junkie and a reborn
ex-con Jesus freak are linked through a fatal car accident.
It's impossible to excuse the hacksaw assembling, but the film derives a
grueling power from the
situation it explores, as well as the haunting music and cinematography.
dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu
ph: Rodrigo Prieto
m: Gustavo Santolalla
cast: Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Benicio del Toro,
Melissa Leo, Charlotte Gainsbourg
TWIST
**
Canada
Dickens' "Oliver Twist" relocated to modern-day Toronto, with
male prostitutes replacing orphaned pickpockets.
Little creative effort is evident beyond a concept that considers
itself cleverer than it really is.
wr/dir: Jacob Tierney
ph: Gerald Packer
ed: Mitch Lackie
m: Ron Proulx
cast: Nick Stahl, Joshua Close, Gary Farmer, Brigid Tierney,
Stephen McHattie
THE WILD PARROTS OF TELEGRAPH HILL
***
USA
A slight but sweet documentary about a flock of wild parrots in San
Francisco and a homeless musician whose life revolves around them.
dir: Judy Irving
THE YES MEN
***½
USA
A documentary on Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum, two ordinary guys that
pose as WTO representatives at seminars worldwide.
A lot of the time it feels like a mockumentary, a particularly offbeat
one. Yes, it's a one-joke premise, but it's a very funny joke and the
heart is in the right place.
dir: Chris Smith, Sarah Price, Dan Ollman
YOUNG ADAM
**½
UK
A downbeat British drama about a randy, good-looking drifter hired to
work on a barge run by a married couple who don't have sex anymore. The
inevitable happens.
The picture goes down a road that will strike arthouse
patrons as terribly familiar and never arrives anywhere interesting. Ewan
McGregor screws a couple of women he shouldn't, feels a little guilty
about the death of his ex (he's indirectly responsible), screws another
woman who should know better, then feels a little guilty when an innocent
man stands trial for a murder he knows never happened. Then he screws
another woman.
There's a sense that director David Mackenzie knows a few
things about McGregor's troubled troubled soul but doesn't want to let you
in on the secret because it will make him look less cool.
wr/dir: David Mackenzie
cast: Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Emily Mortimer, Peter
Mullan, Jack McElhone, Therese Bradley, Ewan Stewart
ZATOICHI
***½
Japan
A blind samurai enters a town ravaged by corrupt
rival gangs.
An eclectic, confusing, but always entertaining variation on a popular
Japanese legend, interspersed with broad humour, much blood spurting and
bizarre dance numbers that come out of the blue.
wr/dir: Takeshi Kitano
cast: Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano, Michiyo Ogusu,
Yui Natsukawa, Guadalcanal Taka, Daigori Tachabana, Yuko Daike
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