All articles by Fionnuala Halligan – Page 42
-
-
News
Venice: A critical review
Rather than dwelling on Venice 65, the festival's artistic director Marco Mueller was keen to emphasise that things will be different for Venice 66. This year he 'chose to gamble on innovation and invention rather than repeat what has been successful in recent years'.But, he admitted, 'two elements were missing ...
-
News
Venice Film Festival confirms permanent date change
The 65th Venice Film Festival artistic director Marco Muller has confirmed that next year's festival will open later, on September 2. More significantly, he said that the shift to the first Wednesday in September would be a permanent one. That means that, while the next two years will not see ...
-
-
-
-
ReviewsTeza
Dir-scr: Haile Gerima. Ethiopia-Germany-France. 2008. 140mins.Haile Gerima ambitiously attempts to put his native country’s tragic recent history into context in the sprawling Teza, which follows an Ethiopian intellectual through exile in Germany and return to his home village during the turbulent early years of the Marxist ...
-
-
ReviewsVegas: Based On A True Story
Dir: Amir Naderi. US. 2008. 102mins.Vegas: Based on a True Story feels like Vegas: A Shooting Experiment. Iranian director Amir Naderi - living in the US for the last 20 years - has wrapped an interesting story in a drab,DV format, framed mostly in long and ...
-
ReviewsPonyo on the Cliff By The Sea (Gake No Ue No Ponyo)
Dir-scr: Hayao Miyazaki. Jap. 2008. 101minsVisually, it’s extraordinary; imaginatively, it’s daring. Once again Hayao Miyasaki is playing in a league of his own with Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea, a sweet, gentle, moving, and always delightful Japanese take on the classic Little Mermaid fable. Commercially, it has the ...
-
Reviews
Wild Child (2007)
Dir Nick Moore, UK, 2008, 98 mins.Hannah Montana meets St Trinians in Wild Child, Working Title's oddly-unconvincing stab at the Clueless end of the teen market - a project broad-based enough to make tween competitor Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging feel arthouse.Working Title's legendary professionalism seems to haveshifted down a ...
-
Reviews
Angus, Thongs And Perfect Snogging
Dir. Gurinder Chadha. 2008. UK . 100 mins.Relighting Sixteen Candles in the UK for a new generation, Gurinder Chadha's Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is an amiable if fairly anodyne teen outing which will face a tough challenge breaking out from its girlie demographic. This target audience, however, will be ...
-
Reviews
Meet Dave
Dir. Brian Robbins. US. 2008. 90 minsThe puzzler that is Eddie Murphy's career continues apace with this low-fi kiddy-oriented affair featuring the comedian as both a human-shaped spaceship called Dave Ming-chang and the commander of said vessel.With Dreamgirls well-established as a flash-in-the-quality-pan, and the stunning comedic turns of the 80s ...
-
-
Reviews
The Incredible Hulk
Dir. Louis Leterrier. 2008. US. 112mins.Two big-budget, high-profile attempts later and it's perfectly clear that Marvel sincerely believes The Incredible Hulk is a viable film franchise. What's not so clear is why.Producer Gale Anne Hurd's second stab at The Incredible Hulk throws all the tricks in the blockbuster book at ...
-
ReviewsBlindness
Dir: Fernando Meirelles. 2008. Brazil-Canada-Japan. 118mins.In Blindness, Fernando Meirelles valiantly attempts to pin down Nobel laureate Jose Saramago’s largely metaphorical work of fiction for the big screen: by giving the audience eyes on a world suddenly hit by a plague of blindness. The result makes for ...
-
Reviews
Flashbacks Of A Fool (2007)
Dir. Baillie Walsh. UK. 2008. 104mins.Flashbacks Of A Fool nails one of its main selling points early on: James Bond's naked bottom is viewed through a glass distortedly throughout the entire title sequence. Before a word has been uttered, and to the sounds of Scott Walker's Sons Of The Father, ...
-
Reviews
Dangerous Parking
Dir Peter Howitt. UK. 2007. 109mins.There's a limit to how far this film can go, even in a best-case scenario: it's an 18 cert in the UK and for at least half that restricted audience Dangerous Parking will be hate at first sight. For those who tenaciously cling on, however, ...
-
Reviews
A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures
Dir. Chris Waitt. UK. 2007. 89mins.A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures is funny. The more viewers are charmed by Chris Waitt, the funnier they will find this low-budget documentary. But he's not overwhelmingly charming, even to his long-suffering mother, and doubts linger at the end as to whether he's ...
-
Reviews
Welcome To The Sticks (Bienvenue chez les ch'tis)
Dir Dany Boon. Fr. 2008. 106mins.A last-minute English title change for Dany Boon's soaraway French box office success (it was to be called Welcome To The Land Of The Ch'tis) should help this broad-based, amiable comedy attract audiences looking to find out what le tout France is talking about.Butthat is ...