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Latest reviews – Page 396
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Reviews
The Last Winter
Dir: Larry Fessenden. US-Ice. 2006. 106mins.The fourth feature from idiosyncratic American independentdirector Larry Fessenden, The Last Winter expertly conflates the psychological dread fundamentalto the horror genre, broadening it out into a deeper, existential malaise aboutthe disintegration of civilisation.A story about the madness thatengulfs a disparate group at a remote Alaskan ...
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Reviews
Flyboys
Dir: Tony Bill. US. 2006.138mins.Impressively staged and expansive in scope, World WarOne aviation feature Flyboys isrooted in the true story of those young American men who volunteered as fighterpilots for the French prior to their country's entry into the war. It alsosuccessfully captures how aeroplanes, these newinventions of the sky, ...
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Reviews
Mon Meilleur Ami
Dir: Patrice Leconte. Fr. 2006. 94mins.Patrice Leconte, whosebelated second sequel to his breakthrough 1978 smash Les Bronzes was France's biggest homegrownblockbuster this year, stays in similar territory for his follow-up Mon Meilleur Ami.In fact, this broad high-concept comedy of the Dinner Game or Apres Vous variety could have been a ...
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Reviews
Ghosts
Dir: Nick Broomfield. UK.2006. 96mins.Labelled as fiction but closer in spirit to thedocumentaries he is best known for, Nick Broomfield's Ghosts initially looks like a milder version of Michael Winterbottom's Berlin winner In This World. But then this San Sebastian opener seems to segueinto Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation, with ...
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Reviews
The Boss Of It All (El Patron)
Dir/scr: Lars Von Trier. Den. 2006. 110mins.After the epic sermonising of Dogville and Manderlay, Lars Von Trier is clearly in the mood for a little fun. Theomniscient narrator of The Boss Of It All even introduces the film as a humble comedylest we have any doubts about what might lie ...
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Reviews
Copying Beethoven
Dir: Agnieszka Holland. UK-Hung. 2006. 104mins.With Copying Beethoven,workmanlike director Agnieska Holland partiallyredeems herself for such embarrassing earlier Toronto misfires like Total Eclipse (1995) - will anyoneever forget the silliness of ultra-American teen Leonardo DiCaprioas French poet Arthur Rimbaud' - but only partially.Movies thatcentre on classical music, of course, have a ...
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Reviews
Hula Girls (Hula Garu)
Dir: Lee Sang-il. Jap. 2006. 108minsHula Girls has allthe ingredients for a crowd-pleasing heartwarmer butit sweats and strains to make the recipe work. Despite being based on trueevents it feels entirely formulaic with even the most casual cinemagoer likelyto be one step ahead of every twist and turn in the ...
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Reviews
Seraphim Falls
Dir. David Von Ancken. US. 2006 115mins.Had it been made 50 years ago, Seraphim Falls might now be considered aclassic western. But the intervening years have warped and reshaped the genreso many times that an effort like this seems besidethe point. Unlike John Hilcoat's savagely post-modernThe Proposition, which screened atToronto ...
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Reviews
Wedding Daze
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.Black has an extensivebackground in TV and theatre ...
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Reviews
Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days And 30 Nights - Hollywood To The Heartland
Dir. Ari Sandel. US, 2006.110mins.The odd thing about Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show is that itson-screen success has little to do with Vaughn himself. The US actor may be theimpresario behind the comedy show, which was inspired by Buffalo Bill'straveling festival and played in 30 cities across America over ...
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Reviews
The Namesake
Dir: Mira Nair. USA. 2006. 122minsMira Nair's best films have shown an optimism aboutlife and an affection for the flaws and failings of her characters, and shebrings a similar sense of compassion to TheNamesake, her adaptation of the novel by Pulitzer prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri. A sweeping saga ofculture clashes and ...
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Reviews
Born And Bred (Nacido Y Criado)
Dir: Pablo Trapero. Arg-It-UK.2006. 100mins.The first 10 minutes of Born And Bred seem indicate that Pablo Trapero'snew film will contain the some of the same gentle touches prevalent in hisprevious feature Rolling Family. Butthen the picture's true theme kicks in and any expectations that we are aboutto watch a story ...
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Reviews
The Dog Problem
Dir: Scott Caan. US. 2006. 98mins.Told with a casual poignancy and unpredictability,Scott Caan's TheDog Problem is loose, funky and impressively original. Taking its titlefrom a quotation by playwright Edward Abbey, it's a detailed comedy of mannersabout the strange and complicated emotional odyssey that the title animal sparksin a struggling young ...
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Reviews
These Encounters Of Theirs (Quei Loro Incontri)
Dir/scr: Jean-MarieStraub and Daniele Huillet.It. 2006. 68mins.A profoundly uncommercialpiece of avant-garde filmmaking, Jean-Marie Straub and DanieleHuillet's TheseEncounters Of Theirs divides 10 non-professional actors into couples, thenhas them take turns in declaiming the DialoguesWith Leuco, Cesare Pavese's abstract, philosophical work. The result isfeature that has something of a cleansing (some would ...
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Reviews
Prague (Prag)
Dir: Ole Christian Madsen. Den.2006. 92mins.Danish film-maker Ole Christian Madsen plunges onceagain into the darker recesses of marital life for Prague, a powerful drama in which his strong direction and the overwhelmingperformances that he draws smooth over some of the script's inconsistencies.Madsen, whose earlier drama Kira's Reason (2001) dealt with ...
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Reviews
Death Of A President
Dir. Gabriel Range. UK. 2006. 93mins.The blurring of reality and fiction takes anintriguing step sideways in Death Of APresident, a mock documentary that posits the assassination of George WBush and the political shockwaves such an event would surely generate. Nosurprise, the film, which world premiered at Toronto and won the ...
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Reviews
The City Of Violence (Jjak-pae)
Dir: Ryoo Seung-wan. S Kor. 2006. 93mins.Action film-maker Ryoo Seong-wan takes a comparative step backwards from thepsychological complexity of last year's CryingFist with The City OfViolence, his latest outing, which pegs a series of appetisingly choreographedfight sequences onto a threadbare script.Co-produced by Korea's mainmartial arts school, the film seems more ...
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Reviews
Everybody's Hero
Dir: Christopher Reeve, Daniel St. Pierre, ColinBrady. US. 2006. 85mins.It's easy to see why Christopher Reeve,who died during the making of animated children's film Everybody's Hero (directing duties were assumed by Daniel St Pierreand Colin Brady), was attracted to the material. The story of a young boy whofinds the strength ...
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Reviews
Everyone's Hero
Dir: Christopher Reeve, Daniel St. Pierre, ColinBrady. US. 2006. 85mins.It's easy to see why Christopher Reeve,who died during the making of animated children's film Everyone's Hero (directing duties were assumed by Daniel St Pierreand Colin Brady), was attracted to the material. The story of a young boy whofinds the strength ...
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Reviews
Cashback
Dir/scr: Sean Ellis. UK. 2006.90mins.A wistful, endearing slip of a romantic comedy, Cashback marks anassured feature debut from writer/director Sean Ellis. An expansion of hisOscar-nominated short, it strains to fill the bigger canvas of a feature butany reservations are balanced by the unusual lyricism of Ellis's approach tothe genre, the ...