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Latest reviews – Page 405
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Reviews
The Singer (Quand J'Etais Chanteur)
Dir/Scr: Xavier Giannoli. France. 2006. 112 minsSad songs say so much in The Singer, an unashamedly sentimental love story that features one of Gerard Depardieu's most fully realised and endearing performances in recent years. His melancholy, smalltime singer has the same weary charm as Burt Lancaster's aging hood in Atlantic ...
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Reviews
A Scanner Darkly
Dir, Scr: Richard Linklater. USA 2006. 100 mins.Returning to the animated live-action technique of his 2001 philosophical doodle Waking Life, the hyper-productive Richard Linklater has come up with what must surely be the first sci-fi slacker movie. Based on Philip K Dick's cult novel of the same name, this ...
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Reviews
Drama/Mex
Dir/Scr: Gerardo Naranjo. Mexico 2006. 105 mins.A loose, choral drama that plays out over one hot night in Acapulco, Drama/Mex traces its line of influence back through Amores Perros and Gus Van Sant to early Truffaut.Shot in just three weeks, featuring mostly non-professional actors, this Cannes Critics' Week entry is ...
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Reviews
Marie Antoinette
Dir/scr: Sofia Coppola. US. 2006. 123 minsIt's history but not as we know it in Marie Antoinette, Sofia Coppola's frivolous, fun-filled attempt to make 18th century Versailles accessible to 21st century audiences.Her version of Marie Antoinette is more Paris Hilton than Paris, France as we meet a shallow young woman ...
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Reviews
Lights In The Dusk (Laitakaupungin Valot)
Dir/scr: Aki Kaurismaki. Fin. 2006. 80mins.LightsIn The Darkrepresents business as usual, more or less, for Finnish gloomsterAki Kaurismaki - albeit leavened with somewhat lessof his distinctive dry humour. This social-realist tale, with a dash of filmnoir, is about a loner whose life goes from bad to worse to worse still, ...
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Reviews
Shortbus
Dir/scr: John Cameron Mitchell.US.2006. 102mins.A film thatshows three men having no-holds-barred group sex while bawling out The Star-Spangled Banner at the top oftheir lungs is not going to delight the US censors - but John CameronMitchell's follow-up to Hedwig And The AngryInch has plenty to offer the rest of us. ...
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Reviews
Southland Tales
Dir/scr: Richard Kelly. US. 2006. 140mins.Maybe SouthlandTales, Richard Kelly's long-awaited follow-up to cult sleeper Donnie Darko,will work as a multimedia project with publishing, music industry and websitetie-ins; it certainly doesn't hang together as a film. Multi-genre film-makingis always a challenge, and this futuristic black comedy musical thriller,larded with facile high-school ...
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Reviews
X-Men: The Last Stand
Dir: Brett Ratner. US. 2006. 105mins.Brett Ratner perfunctorily signs off on one of current cinema'smost credible comic-book series with X-Men:The Last Stand, a pulpy action ride that will satisfy teenage audiences butfails to stand up to its immediate predecessor in terms of dramatic cohesion.Compensationcomes in the form of fiery pyrotechnics ...
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Reviews
Climates (Iklimler)
Dir/scr: Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Turk-Fr. 2006. 97mins.In 2002, Turkish director NuriBilge Ceylan made his mark on the Cannes competitionwith Distant (Uzak). That, his third feature,struck many audiences as a resounding blow in favour of the great art-cinematradition of films as contemplative, thematically rich personal essays. Ceylan's growing reputation as a ...
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Reviews
Fast Food Nation
Dir: Richard Linklater. US. 2006. 116mins.The American Dream is full of shit but everyone stillwants a slice of it in Fast Food Nation,an uneven attempt to pick the dramatic meat from the bones of Eric Schlosser's2001 non-fiction bestseller. Following the multi-story template established by Traffic, it traces the food chain ...
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Reviews
Princess
Dir: Anders Morgenthaler. Den. 2006. 80mins.It's a sometimes dazzling curio rather than afully-fledged achievement, but Anders Morgenthaler'sadult animation Princess is certainlyone of the more attention-grabbing items on the Cannes menu this year. Kickingoff Directors' Fortnight, this tale of vengeance in the Danish porn underworldresembles the sort of grim material usually ...
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Reviews
Volevo Solo Vivere
Dir: Mimmo Calopresti. It. 2006. 82mins.Mimmo Calopresti'shomage to the almost 6,000 Italian Jews who died in Hitler's death camps, and the 837 who returned alive, Volevo Solo Vivere spins amoving story out of sensitively sifted and edited archive material.The archives used are thoseof the Shoah Foundation's Institute For Visual History ...
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Reviews
La Tourneuse De Pages
Dir: Denis Dercourt. Fr. 2006. 83mins.While it tries to wedge itself inbetween the caustic social commentary of Claude Chabroland Michael Haneke's notion of past guilt hauntingthe Western bourgeoisie, Denis Dercourt'spsychological thriller La Tourneuse De Pages sadly has neither the wit nor thedepth to play in such a lofty league.Dercourt takes ...
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Reviews
Poison Friends (Les Amitis Malefiques)
Dir: Emmanuel Bourdieu. Fr. 2006. 103mins.The theme of young male friendship gets a vigorousthough hardly ground-breaking workout in PoisonFriends, French screenwriter Emmanuel Bourdieu'ssecond directorial outing, which opened Critics' Week at Cannes. Though theprotagonists are already at university, this still qualifies as a coming-of-agemovie, which (not for the first time) shows ...
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Reviews
Bug
Dir: William Friedkin. US. 2006. 102mins.An old dogtries to show off some new tricks in Bug,as veteran director William Friedkin (The Exorcist) attempts the trickytransfer of a bizarre theatrical hybrid to the cinema screen. The back-to-basicsapproach pays dividends in terms of the intensity of the performances and thesustained sense of ...
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Reviews
The Wind That Shakes The Barley
Dir: Ken Loach. Ire-UK-Ger-It-Sp. 2006.124mins.Given the turbulent events that it portrays, The Wind That Shakes TheBarley is a curiously detached affair. For all the intelligence and craftsmanshipthe director brings to his material, the film conspicuously fails to tug at theemotions in the way that might have been expected. Ken Loach ...
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Reviews
Paris, Je T'Aime
Dirs: see credits below. Fr-Liech-Switz. 2006. 120mins.That largelyunloved genre, the portmanteau film, no doubt works best in specialised slots -such as that of the opener in the Un Certain Regardsection at Cannes. Fitting the bill as a light, generally celebratory sectioncurtain-raiser, Paris JeT'Aime is a postcard-like, sometimes genuinelycharming, whistle-stop city ...
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Reviews
Summer Palace
Dir: Lou Ye. Chi-Fr. 2006.140mins.Social upheaval and sexual liberation make for areasonably potent cocktail in SummerPalace, an ambitious attempt to convey the sweep of recent world historythrough the life and loves of a young Chinese woman. The fourth feature from Suzhou River director Lou Ye is easily hismost accessible, although ...
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Reviews
Hamaca Paraguaya
Dir/scr: Paz Encina. Fr-Arg-Hol-Par-Sp. 2006. 78mins.With a Cannesappearance (in Un Certain Regard) that makes it the first Paraguayan film to screenin the official selection of a major festival - and the only Paraguayan featureshot on 35mm in the last 30 years - HamacaParaguaya will delight those self-flagellatingcineastes who believe, like ...