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All articles by Allan Hunter – Page 59
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Reviews
Bee Season
Dirs: Scott McGehee,David Siegel US. 2005. 104mins.Makers of hand-craftedindividual items rather than mass-produced merchandise, directing partnersScott McGehee and David Siegel have built a career on the unpredictable. Theirmuch admired, low-budget indie drama Suture (1993) was eventuallyfollowed by The Deep End (2001), an icily elegant re-imagining of theMax Ophuls film noir ...
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Reviews
Shopgirl
Dir: Anand Tucker. US.2005. 106mins.Shopgirl is a love letter to Clare Danes. The camera caressesher features, gazes adoringly into her tear-filled eyes and celebrates hertalent in a way that has rarely been seen since the MGM heyday of George Cukor.If you weren't besotted byher before then you should be after ...
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Reviews
Shopgirl
Dir: Anand Tucker. US.2005. 106mins.Shopgirl is a love letter to Clare Danes. The camera caressesher features, gazes adoringly into her tear-filled eyes and celebrates hertalent in a way that has rarely been seen since the MGM heyday of George Cukor.If you weren't besotted byher before then you should be after ...
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Reviews
Mrs Henderson Presents
Dir: Stephen Frears. UK.2005. 103mins.A jaunty combination ofsocial history, screwball comedy and theatrical kitsch, Mrs HendersonPresents offers a sparkling, emotion-charged stroll down memory lane. Adeliciously witty script by Martin Sherman is seized upon with relish by JudiDench who gives a spellbinding, tour de force as the merry widow behindLondon's Windmill ...
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Reviews
Imagine Me And You
Dir/scr: Ol Parker.UK-Ger. 2005. 93minsOl Parker ventures intoRichard Curtis territory for his directorial debut Imagine You And Me, apleasant romantic comedy that often appears torn between its more soulful, reflectiveinstincts and the lure of following the crowd-pleasing Curtis formula. Theformula generally wins even if the mismatched lovers on this occasion ...
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Reviews
Tideland
Dir: Terry Gilliam. UK-Can.2005. 121mins.Terry Gilliam has spent hisentire career celebrating the power of the imagination to transcend the awfulrealities of life and death. He has described Mitch Cullin's Tideland as"Alice In Wonderland meets Psycho" and it sounds like idealmaterial for him.Unfortunately, thismacabre, longwinded fantasy is closer in tone to ...
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Reviews
Revolver
Dir/scr: Guy Ritchie. Fr-UK. 2005. 110mins.After the fiasco of Swept Away there wasnowhere to go but up for writer/director Guy Ritchie. Retreating to the safeterritory of gangland squabbles, dirty deeds, diamond geezers and hardcoreviolence must have seemed like a good idea but Revolver is such aconvoluted, risibly overwrought muddle of ...
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Reviews
Breakfast On Pluto
Dir: Neil Jordan. Ire-UK. 2005. 135mins.Neil Jordan comes over all Almodovar in BreakfastOn Pluto, a sprawling, picaresque account of a young transvestite's epicodyssey in search of his mother. Jordan has a patchy record with broad comicmaterial (High Spirits, We're No Angels etc) and this reunionwith Butcher Boy writer Patrick McCabe ...
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News
Tsotsi storms off with Edinburgh prizes
SouthAfrican/UK feature Tsotsi emerged as the major prize-winner at this year'sEdinburgh Film Festival, winning both the Michael Powell Award for the bestBritish Film and the Standard Life Audience Award as the public favourite. Setin the shanty towns of South Africa, Gavin Hood's third feature is based on an AtholFugard novel ...
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Reviews
Gypo
Dir/scr: Jan Dunn. UK.2005. 98minsThe prospect of anofficially approved British Dogme film may not set hearts racing but Gypodefies any low expectations. An accomplished first feature, it makes a virtueof its adherence to the vows of cinematic chastity required by the Dogmemanifesto.Shot in 13 days on a microbudget from a ...
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Reviews
The Dark
Dir: John Fawcett. UK.2005. 92minsA promising supernaturalthriller never quite comes to the boil in The Dark. The latest featurefrom Ginger Snaps director John Fawcett blends together the intriguingingredients of a pagan religion, a remote coastal location, the power of amother's love and the scorn of an injured child but it ...
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Reviews
An Unfinished Life
Dir: Lasse Hallstrom.US. 2005. 107mins.An Unfinished Life is the kind of film where you can predicteverything that will happen within moments of the story starting to unfold. Allthat remains is a simple matter of dutifully filling in the blanks.This Lasse Hallstromventure had been sitting on the shelf for some time ...
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Reviews
Serenity
Dir/scr: Joss Whedon. US.2005. 117mins.Nine successful StarTrek movies and one X-Files outing on the big screen are ampletestimony to the enduring attraction of cult sci-fi television. That factoralone should be enough to ensure muscular box-office for Serenity, afeature spin-off from the short-lived Joss (Buffy The Vampire Slayer)Whedon sci-fi western series ...
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Reviews
Tsotsi
Dir: Gavin Hood. UK-S Af.2005. 94mins.Touched by the kind ofdynamism that also marked City Of God, Tsotsi brings a fresh energy tofamiliar themes of crime and redemption. Based on a novel by Athol Fugard, itoffers an unflinching portrait of post-apartheid South Africa; the lawlessshanty towns and lives bereft of hope. ...
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Reviews
Kinky Boots
Dir: Julian Jarrold. UK.2005. 106mins.Ealing-style comedy meetsAlmodovar-style extravagance in Kinky Boots, a likable triumph of theunderdog comedy celebrating tolerance, drag queens and fabulous footwear. Thefilm has a good number of marketable elements from the intriguing premise tothe slinky soundtrack and the star performance of Chiwetel Ejiofor but it lacksthose special ...
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Reviews
Wah-Wah
Dir/scr: Richard E Grant.UK-Fr-S Afr. 2005. 97minsAdd the name of Richard EGrant to the roster of actors who have made a successful transition to thedirector's chair. His feature debut Wah-Wah is an affectionate, keenly-observedportrait of a family's life set against the dying days of the British Empire.Working from autobiographical material, ...
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News
Edinburgh celebrates British cinema with major premieres
British cinema is alive andwell and flourishing in Edinburgh. That's the message from theprogramme of the 59th Edinburgh International Film Festival, launched thismorning. The fourth Festival under artisticdirector Shane Danielsen has one of the event's strongest line-ups of worldpremieres and star guests in recent years with British cinema stronglyfeatured. The ...
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Reviews
The King
Dir: James Marsh. US.2005. 105mins.Last year Gael GarciaBernal was the face of Cannes, with his contrasting performances in BadEducation and The Motorcycle Diaries. This year, he extends hisrange even further, smouldering with bad boy sex appeal as a prodigal son in TheKing, an English-language Gothic drama set in the American ...
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Reviews
Northeast (Nordeste)
Dir/scr: Juan Solanas.Fr-Sp-Bel-Arg. 2005. 104mins.A woman's selfish questto adopt a baby becomes an eye-opening journey into the heart of Argentina in Northeast,a first feature from director Juan Solanas that contrasts the beauty of thecountry with the ugliness of what happens there.The personal story is thekey to a political statement as ...
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Reviews
Down In The Valley
Dir/scr: David Jacobson.US. 2005. 125mins.Hailed as the De Niro ofhis generation, Edward Norton finally has a chance to remind us why in DownIn The Valley. After a string of supporting roles and odd career choices (TheItalian Job, The Score, Kingdom Of Heaven etc), he once againtakes centre stage with a ...