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Latest reviews – Page 408
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Reviews
Eden
Dir: Michael Hoffman. Ger-Switz. 2005. 98mins.Voted the audience award winner at Rotterdam, MichaelHoffman's Eden is a natural crowdpleaser that successfully combines food and sex for aromantic romp in the best tradition of hits like Mostly Martha.More demure and lessenergetic than Sandra Nettlebeck's feature, thiscomedy about the encounter between an overweight, ...
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Reviews
Paper Dolls
Dir/scr: Tomer Heymann. Is-Swiss.2005. 80mins.A surefire winner on specialistcircuits, Paper Dolls, Tomer Heymann's documentary abouta group of Filipino transsexuals in Israel has everything a successful pictureneeds: endearing characters, tears, laughter, heartbreak and an explosiveclimax at the most unexpected moment.Originally commissioned as asix-part TV series, it has now been cut to ...
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Reviews
Wilderness
Dir: Michael J Bassett. UK 2006. 91mins"Get them out of here. Get them to the island andteach them a bloody lesson!" the governor at a young offenders institutionroars at the inmates early on in Wilderness,Michael Bassett's lurid but enjoyably cheesy horror picture.This is not subtlefilm-making. Dario Poloni's screenplay is influencedby ...
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Reviews
Dreamland
Dir. Jason Matzner. US. 2006. 88mins.The debut feature from video director and fine artistJason Matzner, Dreamlandlimns the emotional frustrations and personal consequence of emerging femalesexuality, tracking love, heartbreak and self-discovery among a trinity ofdamaged souls in the New Mexico desert.The movie is tender andvisually confident, although the script by Tom ...
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Reviews
Slither
Dir: James Gunn. US. 2006. 94mins.A loving homage to B-movie horror films, James Gunn'sSlither supplies gross-out scares aswell as some self-mocking humour. But while the filmwill please genre fans, others may find the presentation over-familiar.Slither opens on March 31 in the US - following its appearance at the SXSW FilmFestival ...
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Reviews
Inside Man
Dir: Spike Lee. US. 2006.129mins.In Inside Man,Spike Lee applies his jazzy and provocative directing style to the bank heistgenre and turns out an ambitious, often intriguing, but extremely uneven crimethriller. The genre and a strong cast headed by DenzelWashington suggest that this Imagine Entertainment production has the potentialto end Lee's ...
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Reviews
Ten Canoes
Dir: Rolf de Heer. Aus.2006. 91mins.The Adelaide Film Festival has aninvestment fund which, with its first feature flutter last year, shrewdlybacked the critically acclaimed Look BothWays. Sarah Watt's drama about fractured lives in a big city suburb went onto play well at international festivals - it won Toronto's Discovery award ...
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Reviews
Wal-Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price
Dir: Robert Greenwald. US.2005. 95mins.The reviled and lauded US corporate behemoth Wal-Martis - depending on your viewpoint- either the end of civilisation or anillustration of the triumph of free market brilliance.The largest employer inNorth America now falls in the sights of rakish and entertaining left-wingprovocateur Robert Greenwald in Wal-Mart:The High ...
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Reviews
Orchestra Seats (Fauteuils D'Orchestre)
Dir: Daniele Thompson. Fr. 2006. 106mins.A sparkling champagne-light ensemble piece of a moviewhich showcases one of Paris's most deluxe thoroughfares, Orchestra Seats is the third successful solo outing from writer-directorDaniele Thompson.The daughter oflate comedy director Gerard Oury, with who she wroteseveral of French cinema's biggest box-office smashes back in the ...
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Reviews
You And Me (Toi Et Moi)
Dir: Julie Lopes Curval.Fr. 2006. 94mins.Writer-director Julie Lopes Curvalleapt into the front rank of promising Gallic auteur talent with her debutfeature, Seaside (Bord De Mer), a dramatic ensemble piece setin a once-fashionable seaside resort town, which won the prestigious Camera d'Or at Cannes in 2002. Three years on, she now ...
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Reviews
In Between Days
Dir: So Yong Kim. US-Can 2005.83mins.Some of the most interesting films in this year's Berlinale screened in the supposedly off-off Forum sidebar,with In Between Days - a small butmemorable teen romance - a case in point.So Yong Kim's feature is, asthe title hints, a work that takes its time getting ...
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Reviews
My Country, My Country
Dir: Laura Poitras. US. 2006. 90mins.The trouble with current affairs documentaries istheir topicality: contemporary as they may seem at the time, they lose lustreby the time they premiere.It could be an obstacle forLaura Poitras' MyCountry, My Country, about the Iraqi elections of January 2005. There islittle more she can add ...
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Reviews
Flannel Pajamas
Dir/scr: Jeff Lipsky. US. 2006. 124mins.With his reportedly autobiographical FlannelPajamas, former arthousedistribution specialist Jeff Lipsky successfully tracksthe emotional ups and downs of a relationship, moving from sublime rapture andsurrender to grim heartbreak.Guided by two excellent leadperformances and shaped by some raw writing, he reveals a finely shaded and tactilesense of ...
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Reviews
Piano 17
Dir: Manetti Bros. Italy2006. 105mins.Italy long ago lost the talent for genre film-makingthat made it such a commercial force in the 1960s and 1970s. But a few bravesouls, like the Manetti brothers, are trying to kicksome life into the old corpse. The Rome-based brothers' first feature, thetrash horror parody Zora ...
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Reviews
Conversations On A Sunday Afternoon
Dir/scr: Khalo Matabane. S Afr. 2005. 80minsFalling somewhere between a tentative documentary anda piece of home movie improvisation, Khalo Matabane's first fictional feature allows him to againexplore the many faces resident in South Africa today.The set-up is the accidentalencounter between a tormented poet Keniloe (Kgoroge) and a Somali refugee, Fatima ...
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Reviews
Four Stars (Quatre Etoiles)
Dir: Christian Vincent. Fr. 2006.100mins.A mildly entertaining French boulevard farce, Four Stars is much better suited to aswift home release than the spotlight of a festival like Berlin where itpremiered.Very much in the traditionof light Gallic comedies sustained by gags and assembly line jokes, ChristianVincent's new feature matches a pretty ...
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Reviews
You And Me (Toi Et Moi)
Dir. Ma Liwen. China. 2005.85mins.You And Me is one of thoseheartwarming, inter-generational dramas that the Chinesedo so well that is, alas, not one of the more accomplished examples of the genre.Opening the Kinderfilmfest Plus 14 section at theBerlinale, it seemed to play well enough to its targetaudience, young teens and ...
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Reviews
The Peter Pan Formula (Peterpan-eui Gongsik)
Dir/scr: Cho Chang-ho. S Kor. 2005.108mins.Teenage angst has rarely felt seemed more decorous ormore downbeat than in the hands of South Korean director ChoChong-ho in his debut The Peter Pan Formula. A moody, atmospheric coming-of-age film witha perverse streak of eroticism, it explores the emotional links betweenmourning and sexuality in ...
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Reviews
Tough Enough (Knallhart)
Dir: Detlev Buck. Ger.2005. 98mins.Mixing references from early Ken Loach to La Haine to Mean Streets, Tough Enough is German actor-director DetlevBuck's hard man act after a string of dry, slightly surreal comedies - thelast, Bundle Of Joy, dating back to2000.It's a powerful and oftenviolent film, uncritically but movingly wrapped ...
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Reviews
Rampage
Dir/scr: George Gittoes. Aus. 2005. 118mins.Though it needs to be cut drastically, Rampage is a power-packed documentarywith lots of potential. Set mostly in one of the worst black ghettoes in Miami,the film, which was shot over the course of several years by Australianfilm-maker George Gittoes, is lively, insightful andeven shocking.Festival ...