All articles by Allan Hunter – Page 55
-
Reviews
Waz
Dir: Tom Shankland . UK. 2007. 103mins. Blend together elements of Seven, Saw and the CSI television franchise and sprinkle liberally with torture porn nastiness and you have the recipe for WAZ, a grimy, unremarkable serial killer thriller that looks like the kind of derivative material destined for an early ...
-
Reviews
The Waiting Room
Dir/scr: Roger Goldby. UK. 2007. 96mins.A chance encounter changes lives and re-defines relationships in The Waiting Room, a mawkish, low-key ensemble piece that marks the debut feature of writer/director Roger Goldby. Stray moments of touching emotion and accomplished lead performances are some compensation for a central premise that is hard ...
-
Reviews
3:10 To Yuma
Dir: James Mangold US . 2007. 117minsThe western has become the most unfashionable of genres, with a reputation for box-office poison that persists despite the relatively recent success of Open Range (2003). The fiftieth anniversary remake of 3:10 To Yuma is sturdy enough to withstand the jinx. Handsomely crafted, it ...
-
News
Edinburgh Film Festival: by populist demand
With a new director, the Edinburgh Film Festival (Aug 15-26) is hoping to enhance its reputation as the home of British film. Allan Hunter reports. Everything is different and everything is the same at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) this year. The first festival under artistic director Hannah McGill ...
-
Reviews
Sparkle
Dir/Scr: Tom Hunsinger & Neil Hunter UK. 2007. 104minsTom Hunsinger and Neil Hunter have built a reputation for making exceedingly engaging, increasingly polished ensemble pieces on the vagaries and vulnerabilities of the human heart. Despite critical acclaim for Boyfriends (1996) and especially The Lawless Heart (2001), they have yet to ...
-
News
McGill's first Edinburgh programme to close with Two Days In Paris
The 2007 Edinburgh International Film Festival (Aug 15-26) will have a special focus on Cinema and the Written Word. The first Festival under new artistic director Hannah McGill will celebrate the art of screenwriting with a series of events that run across the major Edinburgh arts festivals. There will be ...
-
Reviews
Captivity
Dir: Roland Joffe. US. 2007. 84 minsThe controversy surrounding the marketing of Captivity proves to be more interesting than the film itself. Banned American billboard images considered too intense for public display earned Captivity the kind of notoriety that publicity budgets cannot buy. Anyone seduced by the whiff of scandal ...
-
News
Cinefile takes UK rights to True North and Change Of Address
Scottish-based distributor Cinefile has acquired the UK theatrical rights to Emmanuel Mouret's Change Of Address (Changement D'Adresse) and Steve Hudson's drama True North. As a specialist in French-language titles, Cinefile is best known for the UK release of Cedric Klapisch's L'Auberge Espagnole (also known as The Spanish Apartment or Pot ...
-
Reviews
We Own The Night
Dir/scr: James Gray. US. 2007. 105mins.A self-conscious evocation of the crime and punishment police thrillers that were once a speciality of Sidney Lumet, We Own The Night is an average B-movie with delusions of grandeur. Transparent plotting and dubious moral grand-standing are the main drawbacks in a film that lacks ...
-
News
Quality and diversity ensure it was a Cannes to remember
Special occasions always provoke unrealistic expectations but Cannes rose to the challenge of a landmark 60th festival with a programme that had distinction in abundance.Opening with Wong Kar Wai's underwhelming My Blueberry Nights was still a statement of intent, underlining the belief that auteur-cinema matters and that the festival was ...
-
Reviews
Ocean's Thirteen
Dir: Steven Soderbergh. US. 2007. 122mins.Thirteen should produce some lucky numbers for Warner Brothers and maintain the muscular box-office momentum in the current summer of threequels. The third entry in the crime caper franchise, Ocean's Thirteen marks a return to form after the self-indulgent tomfoolery of its globe-hopping predecessor, even ...
-
Reviews
Back To Normandy (Retour A Normandie)
Dir: Nicolas Philibert. Fr. 2006. 113 mins Any documentary is an act of remembrance. Back To Normandy has a special personal significance for director Nicolas Philibert because it allows him to return to the scene of his earliest filmmaking experiences and also to pay homage to his mentor Rene Allio. ...
-
Reviews
Mister Lonely
Dir: Harmony Korine. UK/Fr/Ire/USA. 2006. 112 mins It's a playful, romantic Harmony Kormine who emerges for inspection with Mister Lonely, his first film as a director since Julien Donkey Boy in 1999. The story of a lonely Michael Jackson impersonator who finds a fleeting tenderness with a Marilyn Monroe impersonator ...
-
Reviews
After Him (Apres Lui)
Dir: Gael Morel. Fr. 2007. 90 mins A mother's grief warps into a suffocating obsession in Apres Lui, a sombre study of aching loss and broken hearts. The latest feature from Gael Morel (Le Clan, A Toute Vitesse etc) is a typically dour, unsentimental drama that refuses to sweeten the ...
-
ReviewsThe Diving Bell And The Butterfly (Le Scaphandre Et Le Papillon)
Dir:Julian Schnabel. 2007.France 112 mins
-
Reviews
A Mighty Heart
Dir: Michael Winterbottom. US. 2007. 108 mins Michael Winterbottom has become a master at relating dramatic true stories in a documentary style. He brings a typical intelligence and urgency to A Mighty Heart, the 2002 case of the kidnap and execution of American journalist Daniel Pearl. The star casting of ...
-
Reviews
XXY
Dir: Lucia Puenzo. Arg/Sp/Fr. 2007. 91 mins The familiar agonies of adolescence are given a fresh slant and a perceptive treatment in XXY, a quietly impressive first feature from novelist and documentary maker Lucia Puenzo, daughter of The Official Story (1985) director Luis Puenzo. Refusing to sensationalise the subject of ...
-
Reviews
Actresses (Actrices)
Dir: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. Fr. 2007. 110mins Facing 40 becomes a wake-up call for a neurotic self-absorbed performer in Actresses, the second feature from Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. Previously entitled Dream Of The Night Before, the film mines autobiographical material to explore the eternal conflict between professional success and personal happiness. ...
-
Reviews
Savage Grace
Dir: Tom Kalin. US. 2007. 87 mins Fifteen years after his eye-catching debut Swoon, Tom Kalin returns with a second feature that also addresses a story of true-life transgression and its lethal consequences. The inspiration this time is the rise and demise of 1940s socialite Barbara Daly and the increasingly ...
-
Reviews
Terror's Advocate (L'Avocat du terreur)
Dir: Barbet Schroeder Fr. 2007. 135 mins Renewing his fascination with monsters of modern times, Barbet Schroeder has created a weighty, wide-ranging portrait of devil's advocate Jacques Verges. It could also stand as a complex guide through the rise and rise of global terrorism. The controversial subject matter and Schroeder's ...