Screen
Patrick Z McGavin
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Afghan Star
27-Jan-2009
Dir. Havana Marking. UK/Afghanistan. 2008. 88mins. -
Motherhood
26-Jan-2009
Dir/scr: Katherine Dieckmann. US. 2009. 90mins. -
World's Greatest Dad
26-Jan-2009
Dir/scr: Bobcat Goldthwait. US. 2009. 98 mins. -
Shrink
22-Jan-2009
Dir: Jonas Pate. US. 2009. 105mins. -
Arlen Faber
20-Jan-2009
Dir/scr: John Hindman. US. 2009. 95mins. -
Taking Chance
18-Jan-2009
Dir: Ross Katz. US. 2009. 80mins. -
Moon
17-Jan-2009
Dir: Duncan Jones. UK. 2008. 97mins. -
The Human Contract
29-Oct-2008
Dir/Scr: Jada Pinkett Smith. US. 2008. 106mins -
In Focus: Criterion puts classics on Blu-ray
3-Oct-2008
The first time Joseph Cotton's war correspondent Holly Martins discovers his presumed dead friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), in postwar Vienna, the moment packs a powerful punch. -
Profile: Music Box Films
26-Sep-2008
At the end of summer 2007, William Schopf, Ed Arentz and Brian Andreotti had a drink in the bar of a dazzling Chicago Loop skyscraper for a low-key launch of their new distribution concern. -
Gigantic
16-Sep-2008
Dir: Matt Aselton. US. 2008. 96mins. -
One Week
16-Sep-2008
Dir/Scr: Michael McGowan. Canada. 2008. 94mins. -
The Secret Of Moonacre
14-Sep-2008
Dir: Gabor Csupo. UK. 2008. 103mins. -
Nothing But the Truth
9-Sep-2008
Director: Rod Lurie. US. 2008. 107mins.A dramatic fictionalization thatconflates the political scandal of former covert intelligence officerValerie Plame and controversial journalist Judith Miller, Rod Lurie's Nothing But the Truthis a miscalculated piece damaged by poor direction, mediocre writingand performances ... -
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
7-Sep-2008
Dir. Peter Sollett. US. 2008. 89mins.The highly anticipated second feature of the New York-based independent Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas) valiantly attempts to both enliven and subvert the tendencies and predictability of the teenage romantic comedy - although the whole never quite registers ... -
Dean Spanley (2008)
6-Sep-2008
Dir. Toa Fraser. New Zealand/UK. 2008. 99mins.New Zealand director Toa Fraser’s Dean Spanley overcomes an uncertain and sketchy opening section to register as a moving and visually wondrous evocation of magic and imagination. The movie’s tonal shifts are fairly abrupt and the first third is frustratingly undeveloped dramatically, but the director holds the whimsy ... -
Journey to the Third Dimension
1-Aug-2008
In 1953, studio chief Jack Warner implored Alfred Hitchcock to work in the new format of 3D for his film Dial M For Murder. Hollywood had just introduced the colour stereoscopic photographic technology to fend off the pervasive reach of television. But by the time of the release, the 3D phenomenon had largely passed. Outside of a few major markets, Hitchcock's film was shown in the traditional two-dimension format. -
New Projects - Strength in depth
1-Aug-2008
Avatar -
The lowdown - How does 3D work'
1-Aug-2008
The 3D projection formats introduced in the 1950s were cumbersome, labour-intensive and required two cameras projecting onto the same screen, making synchronisation difficult. Today, there are three far more sophisticated 3D digital projection technologies in the theatrical market: RealD, Dolby Digital Cinema and Imax 3D. -
United States - A one-shot deal
25-Apr-2008
On a sombre late March morning in Chicago before dawn breaks, it is day four of shooting on Helix, the first feature from the Beverly Hills-based production company Windward Entertainment. -
Grandmother's Flower
27-Mar-2008
Dir: Mun Jeong-hyun. South Korea. 2007. 90mins. -
Motherland (La Terramadre)
19-Feb-2008
Dir: Nello La Marca. Italy. 2008. 120mins. -
Everything is Fine (Tout est parfait)
15-Feb-2008
Dir: Yves Christian Fournier. Canada. 2008. 118mins.Quebec director Yves Christian Fournier's first feature, Everything is Fine, is a sombre, frequently moving portrait limning the emotional and social aftermath of a tragedy. Fournier's reach sometimes exceeds his grasp, but his complicated and nuanced study of sorrow and loss is sharpened by an impressive visual expression and some very fine performances.Adapted from a first script by ... -
Jerusalema
15-Feb-2008
Dir/scr: Ralph Ziman. South Africa. 2008. 118mins.The third feature of Ralph Ziman, the new South African action movie Jerusalema is reportedly drawn from actual events. More accurately it is inspired from the watching of a lot of movies, combining and cannily poaching parts of the original Scarface, Superfly, GoodFellas, New Jack City and American Gangster. It's well made and engagingly played, but it is finally much too derivative and cartoonish ... -
Awards Countdown - People - Awards People
15-Feb-2008
UK director Paul Greengrass is renowned for his dynamic and visceral style that puts the audience in the centre of the action. Editor Christopher Rouse, who worked with Greengrass on United 93 and also cut The Bourne Supremacy, shares the director's aesthetic sensibilities. -
Just Anybody (Le Premier Venu)
10-Feb-2008
Dir/Scr: Jacques Doillon. Fr/Belg 2008. 122mins. -
The Guitar
1-Feb-2008
Dir: Amy Redford. US. 2008. 93mins.The suggestive metaphor of loss and emotional trauma as divine liberation is treated awkwardly between the outrageous and obscene in Amy Redford's debut feature The Guitar. Saffron Burrows is commanding as a distraught woman who finds a novel way to cope with tragedy, but the movie constantly subverts realistic detail with the fantastic in waysthat are not dramatically satisfying. -
Phoebe in Wonderland
31-Jan-2008
Dir/scr: Daniel Barnz. US. 2008. 96mins.In the lyrically compelling though dynamically flawed Phoebe in Wonderland, first-time feature director Daniel Barnz excites and frustrates in equal measure. His story of a dazzlingly smart young girl's personal liberation through her exposure to the Lewis Carroll masterpiece has moments of awe and wonder though it ends so shockingly compromised and safe that much of the impressive work feels cancelled ... -
Blind Date
31-Jan-2008
Dir: Stanley Tucci. US/Belgium/Holland. 2008. 85mins.The second of a planned trilogy of English-language remakes of films by the murdered Dutch provocateur Theo van Gogh, Stanley Tucci's Blind Date, about a man and woman who stage elaborate games in order to conceal the pain of a horrifying loss, is a fitfully interesting stylistic failure. -
The Merry Gentleman
31-Jan-2008
Dir: Michael Keaton. US. 2008. 110mins.In his directorial debut The Merry Gentleman, Michael Keaton reveals some of the same flair for the off-beat, moody and unconventional he has acutely demonstrated as an actor. He summons a wonderful performance by Kelly Macdonald and strong character distinction to the secondary players, but otherwise his movie works only in fragments.Keaton's own performance is quite frankly a part ... -
Assassination of a High School President
29-Jan-2008
Dir: Brett Simon. US. 2008. 98mins.Brett Simon's Assassination of a High School President is a small and pleasant surprise. It's a mostly energetic satire of the sexual, social and political hierarchies of contemporary high school reconceived, like Rian Johnson's Brick, as a postmodern noir. Its throwaway accessibility makes it go down very easily. -
The Brøken
29-Jan-2008
Dir/scr: Sean Ellis. UK/France. 2008. 88mins.In his second feature The Brøken the talented British director Sean Ellis (Cashback) traffics in a melange of styles and historical references that range from the poetic horror works of Jean Cocteau (Orpheus) to the social malaise and extreme alienation of Roman Polanski (The Tennant), Stanley Kubrick (The Shining) and David Lynch (Eraserhead). -
The Deal
29-Jan-2008
Dir: Steven Schachter. Canada. 2008. 98mins.Completing an informal trilogy of Sundance titles about the making of movies (following Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind and Barry Levinson's What Just Happened'), Steven Schachter's The Deal is erratic and paper thin. Not a moment of it rings particularly true, and it never gathers the fluency and bounce of the best screwball farces. -
The Escapist
28-Jan-2008
Dir: Rupert Wyatt. UK/Ireland. 2008. 105mins.In his debut feature The Escapist director Rupert Wyatt animates the virtues of the B-movie thriller - direct expression, taut construction and a stripped down psychology-with a more conceptually unorthodox narrative design that collapses time and space. -
Sugar
24-Jan-2008
Dir/scr: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. US. 2008. 117minsIn a word, Sugar is extraordinary. The second feature of Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden deepens the promise and talent they exhibited on their debut Half Nelson. A singular examination of sports, class and the American social fabric refracted through the perspective of a gifted young Dominican baseball player, Sugar has a novelistic density and formal precision that immediately marks these very talented ... -
Choke
24-Jan-2008
Dir: Clark Gregg. US. 2008. 89mins -
What Just Happened?
21-Jan-2008
Dir. Barry Levinson. US.2008.112mins. -
Be Kind Rewind
21-Jan-2008
Michel Gondry. US.2007. 101mins -
The Yellow Handkerchief
21-Jan-2008
Dir. Udayan Prasad. US. 2008. 103mins. -
United States - Sayles talk
16-Nov-2007
In John Sayles' new film Honeydripper, Danny Glover stars as a huckster artist, a barnstorming pianist who conceives a wild and daring plan to revive the economic fortunes of his struggling juke joint in 1950 Alabama by importing a young guitar virtuoso to headline there. -
Honeydripper
11-Oct-2007
Dir/scr: John Sayles. US. 2007. 123mins. -
Glass
24-Sep-2007
Dir: Scott Hicks. Australia . 2007. 122mins.The critical relationship of subject to filmmaker is the tipping point for most documentary portraits. It is the primary distinction between a probing and objective analysis and hagiography. In Scott Hicks' Glass, the composer Philip Glass has allowed the director unmediated exposure to his life and work, and it is particularly disappointing that Hicks in turn is so timid and apparently unwilling to ... -
Shadows
19-Sep-2007
Dir/Scr: Milcho Manchevski. Macedonia 2007. 120mins.A ghost story that draws on the irrational to explore the historical and cultural redress of displaced Macedonians, Milcho Manchevski's third feature Shadows is ambitious and capably mounted. However it is too fastidious for its own good, and is damaged by dramatically contradictory parts that constantly throw the movie's balance and tone off kilter.This is only Manchevski's second film ... -
The Babysitters
18-Sep-2007
Dir. David Ross. US. 2007. 90mins.First time director David Ross negotiates a precarious line between exploitation and provocation with The Babysitters, the story of a bright and industrious teenager who fronts a high school escort service for bored suburban men. It inverts the story of Risky Business, moving away from male teenage sexual initiation towards a more elusive and problematic study of the emotional costs of female sexual expression. -
Trumbo
18-Sep-2007
Dir: Peter Askin. US. 2007. 96mins.Peter Askin's endearing and sometimes strangely compromised documentary portrait Trumbo, a meditation on the life and times of the radical American screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, is an alternately rich and often bewildering mixture of theatre, family memoir and hot wired historical document.The film's portrait of an artist who suffered grievous personal, professional and artistic injury during the anti-communist ... -
The Princess of Nebraska
18-Sep-2007
Dir: Wayne Wang. US. 2007. 77mins.Wayne Wang's The Princess of Nebraska is a stylistically audacious companion piece to the director's A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, adapted from the same collection of short stories by expatriate Chinese writer Yiyun Li. Like Blue in the Face, the improvisational variant of his own Smoke that he developed with writer Paul Auster, the second film is more fluid and nervy and features a dynamite lead ... -
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
18-Sep-2007
Dir: Wayne Wang. US. 2007. 83mins.After a series of Hollywood assignments, the eclectic and unpredictable Wayne Wang has fashioned an old fashioned classical piece in A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, written by the highly regarded Chinese writer Yiyun Li, who adapted her own short story. The minor key and quietly observational work is not earth-shattering or particularly urgent, though it enables a talented filmmaker to ... -
United states - Mumble-Mania
14-Sep-2007
Joe Swanberg never wanted to change the world or rewrite the rules of cinema. He simply wanted to make movies, preferably on his own terms with a group of friends and collaborators. -
Mother of Tears
12-Sep-2007
Dir/Scr: Dario Argento. Italy. 2007 98mins .The new work of Italian horror specialist Dario Argento, Mother of Tears forms a trilogy of the two macabre, hyper stylized works that made his international reputation: Suspiria (1977) and Inferno (1980). The time away from the material has certainly not dulled the director's senses or brought about any new reflection. As a piece of narrative, however, the movie is virtually ... -
Middle East in the Midwest
3-Aug-2007
As a slew of Iraq-themed films are readied for wide US theatrical release, Patrick Z McGavin talks to two film-makers about the appetite for the subject among financiers and audiences. -
William Schopf and Ed Arentz: boxing clever
13-Jul-2007
Starting life as an arthouse theatre, a specialty film distribution enterprise is thinking outside the Box. Patrick Z McGavin reports. -
Festival fallout
11-May-2007
The buzz about the films turned down by festivals is becoming as loud as the buzz about the films which are accepted. Ahead of Cannes, the biggest festival of them all, Patrick Z McGavin looks at why rejections are the talk of the town. -
In The Land Of Women
20-Apr-2007
Dir/scr: Jonathan Kasdan. US. 2007. 99mins. A first feature about a romantically failed young writer whose ideas and attitudes about women are dramatically shaken by a beautiful older woman and her daughter, Jonathan Kasdan's In the Land Of Women shows promise and ambition, abetted by strong acting and colourful writing. At the say time it suffers from the limitations and problems of many autobiographically shaped first works, its naturalness and grace undercut ... -
The Reaping
1-Apr-2007
Dir: Stephen Hopkins. US. 2007. 99mins. After a recent sojourn working in television and cable, action director Stephen Hopkins pulls out all the stops with The Reaping. The result is a frenzied and unrestrained supernatural horror thriller, starring two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank as a debunker of religious phenomena enlisted to explain the furious acts descending on an isolated Southern community. -
United States - Southern man
2-Mar-2007
Jeff Nichols was two years behind writer-director David Gordon Green at the North Carolina School of the Arts. After Green made his auspicious feature debut in 2000 with the poetic George Washington, Nichols took particular notice of his professional advice. -
Shotgun Stories
27-Feb-2007
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The Filthy World
22-Feb-2007
Dir: Jeff Garlin. US. 2006. 86mins. -
Eagle Vs Shark
22-Feb-2007
Dir: Taiki Waititi. NZ. 2007. 93mins. -
Lagerfeld Confidential
21-Feb-2007
Dir/scr: Rodolphe Marconi. Fr. 2007. 87mins. -
La Leon
20-Feb-2007
Dir: Santiago Otheguy. Arg-Fr. 2007. 85mins. -
Finishing the Game
7-Feb-2007
Dir: Justin Lin. US. 2007. 93mins. Following his foray directing the studio assignments Annapolis and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Justin Lin exhibits a warmer, more personal touch with Finishing the Game, a clever though very thin divertissement about filmmaking, Asian cultural stereotypes and the iconic representation of martial arts master Bruce Lee. -
King of California
6-Feb-2007
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The Messengers
5-Feb-2007
Dirs: Oxide and Danny Pang. US. 2007. 91mins. The studio debut of the gifted horror specialists Oxide and Danny Pang (The Eye , Bangkok Dangerous), The Messengers is a visually assured though dramatically flat ghost story about an endangered American family unaware their just purchased North Dakota farmhouse harbors a tragic secret. -
Black Snake Moan
3-Feb-2007
Craig Brewer: US: 2007 -
The Pool
31-Jan-2007
Dir: Chris Smith. US. 2007. 106mins.In his second narrative feature The Pool, documentary film-maker Chris Smith (American Movie) considerably expands his range and thematic concerns. Working in Hindi, telling a low key, resonant story about an 18-year-old Indian boy's ... -
Once
29-Jan-2007
Dir/scr: John Carney. Ireland. 2007. 88mins. -
Four Sheets To The Wind
28-Jan-2007
Dir/scr: Sterlin Harjo. US. 2007. 85mins.In Sterlin Harjo's debut feature, Four Sheets To The Wind, detailing the emotional and interior journey of a young, somewhat confused Native coming to terms with the death of his father, the young film-maker has carved out a limited though intoxicating piece of American regional film-making. -
Waitress
26-Jan-2007
Dir/Scr: Adrienne Shelly. US. 2007. 104mins -
Dedication
26-Jan-2007
Dir: Justin Theroux. US. 2007. 112mins.After playing a malevolent director in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, actor Justin Theroux takes the plunge down the rabbit hole with Dedication, bringing an electric charge and furious energy to the story of a misanthropic writer of children's books whose professional pairing with a beautiful designer makes him more recognisably human. -
Expired
25-Jan-2007
Dir/scr: Cecilia Miniucchi. US. 2007. 110mins. 'I'm the most hated person in the world,' Samantha Morton's shy, emotionally withdrawn parking meter enforcer says at the opening of Expired, a title that proves unfortunately apt. The movie proves exhausting, obliterating patience, understanding or emotional conviction in its portrait of female ... -
Grace Is Gone
23-Jan-2007
Dir/scr: James C Strouse. US. 2007. 92mins.The strengths and limitations of Grace Is Gone exist in conjunction with each other. Intimately ... -
Year of the Dog
22-Jan-2007
Dir/Scr: Mike White. US. 2007. 98mins. -
The Savages
22-Jan-2007
Dir/scr: Tamara Jenkins. US. 2007. 113mins. -
The Good Shepherd
12-Dec-2006
Dir: Robert De Niro. US. 2006. 165mins.Robert De Niro's secondfeature The Good Shepherd is afrequently absorbing, fascinating work that achieves its power through itsdeliberate sense of contradiction. Traversing 20th-century American foreignpolicy and Cold War politics, it refracts historical tensions through a singleperspective; the complex, emotionally harsh life of spymaster Edward Wilson,played with rigorous precision and ... -
Home Of The Brave
9-Dec-2006
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The Return
14-Nov-2006
Dir: Asif Kapadia. US. 2006. 85mins. -
Trapped Ashes
6-Oct-2006
Dirs: Joe Dante, Monte Hellman, Ken Russell, SeanCunningham, John Gaeta. US/Canada/Japan. 2006. 105mins. -
Griffin & Phoenix
3-Oct-2006
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Griffin & Phoenix
3-Oct-2006
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School For Scoundrels
25-Sep-2006
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School For Scoundrels
25-Sep-2006
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The Last Winter
22-Sep-2006
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Wedding Daze
21-Sep-2006
Dir/scr: Michael Ian Black.US. 2006. 90mins.Those foundations of the romantic comedy, sentimental faith andoptimism, are mocked and blown wide open in ThePleasure Of Your Company, Michael Ian Black's clever and engagingly piecethat unfortunately fails to sustain its free-floating, comic riffs right to theend. -
The Dog Problem
20-Sep-2006
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Black Sheep
13-Sep-2006
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My Super Ex-Girlfriend
21-Jul-2006
Dir: Ivan Reitman. US. 2006. 96mins. -
United 93
21-Apr-2006
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Dreamland
21-Mar-2006
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Wal-Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price
14-Mar-2006
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Flannel Pajamas
10-Mar-2006
Dir/scr: Jeff Lipsky. US. 2006. 124mins.With his reportedly autobiographical FlannelPajamas, former arthousedistribution specialist Jeff Lipsky successfully tracksthe emotional ups and downs of a relationship, moving from sublime rapture andsurrender to grim heartbreak. -
Ask The Dust
3-Mar-2006
Dir/scr Robert Towne. US. 2005. 117mins. -
Lucy
3-Mar-2006
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The Red Cockatoo (Der Rote Kakadu)
1-Mar-2006
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The Feast Of The Goat (La Fiesta Del Chivo)
28-Feb-2006
Dir. Luis Llosa. Spain/UK. 2006. 135mins. -
Puccini For Beginners
22-Feb-2006
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Son Of Man
22-Feb-2006
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Subject Two
20-Feb-2006
Dir/scr Philip Chidel. US. 2006.92mins. -
Opal Dream
17-Feb-2006
Dir: Peter Cattaneo. Aus-UK. 2005. 88mins. -
Freedomland
14-Feb-2006
Dir: Joe Roth. US. 2006.113mins. -
Salvage
4-Feb-2006
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Wristcutters: A Love Story
4-Feb-2006
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Little Red Flowers (Kan shang qu hen mei)
1-Feb-2006
Dir. Zhang Yuan. China.2006. 92mins.In the droll Little Red Flowers, eccentric Sixth Generation director Zhang Yuanshapes a comically alive, delicately observed adaptation of theautobiographical novel by Wang Shuo. -
Solo Dios Sabe
1-Feb-2006
Dir/scr: Carlos Bolado. Mex-Braz. 2006. 114mins. -
God Grew Tired Of Us
30-Jan-2006
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Open Window
30-Jan-2006
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Annapolis
27-Jan-2006
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A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints
26-Jan-2006
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The Hawk Is Dying
26-Jan-2006
Dir: Julian Goldberger. US. 2006. 112mins.The second featurefrom Julian Goldberger after his 1999 work Trans,The Hawk Is Dying is an admirable thoughfailed effort to graft the film-maker's poetic aesthetic to the demands of narrativefilm-making. -
The Night Listener
24-Jan-2006
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The New World
13-Dec-2005
Dir/scr: Terrence Malick. US. 2005. 150mins. -
Hostel
17-Nov-2005
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The Libertine
14-Nov-2005
Dir. Laurence Dunmore. UK. 2005. 114mins. -
Sorry, Haters
8-Nov-2005
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The Ice Harvest
31-Oct-2005
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Jarhead
28-Oct-2005
Dir. Sam Mendes. US. 2005. 120mins.Technically strong and well performed,the visually accomplished Jarhead isa complex, mournful meditation on war and its consequences that director SamMendes also manages to inject with a bracing emotional immediacy. -
The Weather Man
21-Oct-2005
Dir. Gore Verbinski. US. 2005.102mins.TheWeather Man is clearly a transitional work for director Gore Verbinski, a modestly budgeted, comically inflected dramamore alert ... -
Feast
18-Oct-2005
Dir. John Gulager. US. 2005. 80mins. -
Slow Burn
18-Oct-2005
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Harsh Times
26-Sep-2005
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The Regular Lovers (Les Amants Reguliers)
26-Sep-2005
Dir:Philippe Garrel. Fr. 2005. 183mins
