Tuesday, May 22 2012
Hyper-Realism and Ultra-Feminism in Action: ‘Haywire’
Mallory Kane is a strong and principled woman immersed in a world of decadent masculinity.
Monday, May 21 2012
‘Appointment with Death’: Good Sunday Afternoon Matinee Material
A decade before Michael Winner's film career had its very own 'Appointment with Death', the controversial director made this passable adaptation of Agatha Christie's celebrated crime novel.
‘George Harrison: Living In the Material World’: The Definitive Statement on Harrison
This is a powerfully intimate portrait of a private man who led a very public life.
Thursday, May 17 2012
‘Albatross’: A Not-So-Weighty Coming-of-Age Meets Mid-Life-Crisis Film
The filmmakers very gently hew to recognizable formula in a way that suggests they’re not out to deliver anything greater than cinematic comfort food.
Wednesday, May 16 2012
Like a Jack London Story on Steroids: ‘The Grey’
A bleak, desolate setting full of bleak, desolate men: A group of oil workers survive a plane crash and have to fight a pack of wolves across the Alaskan wilderness.
Kate Beckinsale Shoots, Stabs and Blows Up Things in ‘Underworld: Awakening’
Even Selene's icy blue stare can't hypnotize us into having fun with this one.
Tuesday, May 15 2012
Painful Naïvety: ‘Albert Nobbs’
Albert Nobbs, the story of a woman living as a man in 19th century Dublin, is a film that quietly and subtly explores not only gender roles, but identity at its most basic level.
A Different Kind of Wilderness: ‘A Lonely Place to Die’
There are clever twists and surprises here, but we never connect with anyone enough to transcend the genre.
Monday, May 14 2012
Hard, Onerous, and Routinely Dangerous Work: ‘House of Pleasures’
This is an exquisite film set in the twilight of the high class Parisian brothel. It's languid, even sleepy, and yet utterly spellbinding.
‘The Man Nobody Knew’ Leaves Us Searching for Its Mysterious Titular Character
What could have been Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy meets My Architect, is instead The Fog of War meets 60 Minutes. But without much bite.
Friday, May 11 2012
A Neophyte and a Cosmopolitan Get Together and Create Magic: ‘David Lean Directs Noël Coward’
A beautiful chronicle of British life during the war, a perfect example of propaganda and a detailed examination of creative evolution, this boxset is sure to become a staple in film lovers' libraries.
Thursday, May 10 2012
Steerage: ‘A Night to Remember’
The ship of dreams as seen in Roy Ward Baker’s film is an angry, socialist piece about the unfairnesses that would strike British people in the years that came after the war.
‘Return’: A Movie About War, Defined by Silence
We come to see that Return doesn’t, finally, mean going home. It just means going back.
Wednesday, May 9 2012
A Religion Not of Benevolence, but of Egocentrism: ‘The Wicker Tree’
The Wicker Tree presents an unembroidered critic to dogmatic institutions.
Tuesday, May 8 2012
Nothing Shameful in ‘Shame’
Everyone involved in Shame, including the deservedly-praised Michael Fassbender, should be quite proud of their distressing product.
‘Cinema Verite’: A Family Under the Microscope
With An American Family, American society had gotten a good long look at itself, and what it saw made it very, very uncomfortable.
Monday, May 7 2012
True Grit: ‘Tom Palazzolo’s Chicago’
Tom Palazzolo uses his camera to capture the stories of Chicago not shown in glossy postcards.
Some Guests of This Hotel Never Checked Out: ‘The Innkeepers’
Two amateur ghost hunters get more than they bargained for when they set out to prove that a New England hotel is haunted.
Friday, May 4 2012
Three Films by Béla Tarr: ‘Almanac of Fall’, ‘Damnation’ and ‘Satantago’
In a period when cinema accelerated editing and prioritised visual effects that oversimplifed the narrative, Tarr downplayed story-development in favour of formal abstraction, which forced the audience to respond to and reflect upon the material on screen, rather than simply consume it.
The Truly Impenetrable ‘Sleeping Beauty’
Provocative and sophomoric in about equal measure, Sleeping Beauty is, like the best fairy tales, thrumming with nightmarish, subterranean dread—and is, like the worst, heavy-handed and damningly dull.
