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Latest reviews – Page 410
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Reviews
Invisible Waves
Dir: Pen-ek Ratanaruang. Thai-Neth-SKor-HK-Chi. 2005. 115mins.InvisibleWaves is a feature whose admirers will find it hard to pinpoint why theylike it. Its numerous detractors, on the other hand, will find it easy tosubstantiate their dislikes.Ostensibly about murder,guilt and redemption and told in a manner reminiscent of Jean Pierre Melville, Thaidirector Pen-ek ...
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Reviews
The Kick (Der Kick)
Dir: Andres Veiel. Ger.2006. 82mins.A severely minimalist exercise situated onthe interface between cinema and theatre, TheKick is a rigorously executed, highly disturbing combination of performanceand documentary reportage. Two performers - a woman and a man - act outstatements from a range of people involved in a real-life murder case, sheddingunforgiving ...
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Reviews
Dead Run (Shisso)
Dir: Sabu.Jap. 2005. 124mins.Aptly named, Dead Run is a morbid crawl, a tediouslyover-extended wallow in good, evil and teenage angst that manages at once to beluridly over-heated and grindingly turgid.A first literary adaptation from Sabu(Postman Blues, Unlucky Monkey), it proves a rambling and confused melodrama thatrelies largely on the spurious ...
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Reviews
It's Winter (Zemestan)
Dir: Rafi Pitts. Iran 2005.86mins.Rafi Pitts' remarkable It's Winter is one of those films that forces you to rethink your preconceptions about Iraniancinema. Although recognisably in a taut, austereIranian mould, the film feels new in several ways. Its central figure is notjust an anti-hero but is abrasively unsympathetic; its narrative ...
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Reviews
Isabella
Dir: Pang Ho-cheung. HK-Chi. 2006. 109mins.Although it deals with corruption and features asuspended cop as its hero, Pang Ho-cheung's Isabella is no gritty action drama. Noris it a political piece, despite being set on the eve of Macau's return toChinese hands after 400 years of Portuguese rule. And while it ...
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Reviews
Son Of Man
Dir: Mark Dornford-May. S Afr. 2006. 86minsThe second collaboration between Mark Dornford-May and Cape Town theatre collective Dimpho Di Kopane- their first was Berlinale Golden Bear winner U-Carmen eKhayelitsha- Son Of Man is a stirring fusion ofthe New Testament with African folklore, dance and choral numbers that resultsin a politically ...
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Reviews
Vitus
Dir: Fredi M Murer. Switz. 2006. 120mins.From an opening that suggests a feelgoodchildren's fantasy, Vitusturns into a much odder confection - an intelligent, spiky, sometimes movingcomedy-drama with a satirical eye turned on the Swiss bourgeoisie.Directed by Helvetic veteran Fredi M. Murer, best known for his 1985 Alpine Fire, Vitusis an ...
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Reviews
Puccini For Beginners
Dir/scr: Maria Maggenti. US. 2006. 82mins.Woody Allen famously observed that the greatadvantage of being bisexual was that it doubled your chance of a date on aSaturday night. Maria Maggenti's second feature, thesexual screwball farce Puccini For Beginners, appends the template of Allen's romanticcomedy landmark, Annie Hall, to thefluid, destabilising sexual ...
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Reviews
The Free Will (Der Freie Wille)
Dir: Matthias Glasner. Ger.2006. 163mins.Even audiences inured to the rigors of snail-pacedEuropean introspection face a grueling ride in Matthias Glasner'sdrama about a rapist in search of redemption.Digitallyphotographed by the director himself in murky shades, The Free Will mostly eschews incident for sombrecontemplativeness. But, in the odd moments when Glasnercranks up ...
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Reviews
Requiem
Dir: Hans-Christian Schmid.Ger. 2005. 92mins.The thinking man's The Exorcism Of Emily Rose, Requiem offers a deliberatelyunderstated take on the real-life events which inspired that commerciallysuccessful courtroom horror yarn.Director Schmidand scriptwriter Lange are only marginally interested in the hoary theme of Emily Rose - the tussle between religiousfaith and scientific reason. ...
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Reviews
Find Me Guilty
Dir/scr: Sidney Lumet. US. 2006. 123mins.Now in his eighties, veteran director Sidney Lumet shows no signs of slowing down - and mob courtroomdrama Find Me Guilty proves that hehas lost none of his ability to turn out a slick, well- crafted product.But it's a product that,like many of the director's ...
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Reviews
Subject Two
Dir/scr Philip Chidel. US. 2006.92mins.Philip Chidel's secondfeature Subject Two begins with ataut, suggestive title sequence of two men battling for possession of a gun; asmart, sharp opening that provides a chilling introduction to the highly assuredand impressively staged low-budget horror film that follows.It conforms enough to thedemands of the form, ...
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Reviews
1:1
Dir: Annette K Olesen. Den. 2005. 90mins.1:1is nothing if not timely, addressing the ethnic and religious tensions inDenmark highlighted by the recent furore over anewspaper cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed.Annette K Olesen's follow-up to InYour Hands comes across as a passionate, socially concerned cri de coeur, albeit one executedin a ...
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Reviews
Final Destination 3
Dir: James Wong. US. 2005.92mins.With its original writers and director back at thecontrols, the Final Destinationfranchise cruises efficiently but not very excitingly through its third outing,a cartoonishly gory horror romp with an all-new castof little known young actors. The franchise has proved surprisingly profitablefor New Line: the first film grossed ...
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Reviews
Offside (Sweden, 2006)
Dir: Jafar Pahani. Iran. 2006. 88mins.Destined to be referred to as a Farsi Bend It Like Beckham, Jafar Panahi's football story Offside is his most approachable filmsince The White Balloon, which puthim on the map in 1995.Essentially a realistcomedy, this digital ensemble piece is also bitterly outspoken about thetreatment of ...
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Reviews
The Comedy Of Power (L'Ivresse Du Pouvoir)
Dir: Claude Chabrol. Fr. 2006. 110mins.A sleek, hand-tooled, extremely sophisticatedpackage, A Comedy OfPower is a very grown-up entertainment that artfully walks a line betweenmoral comedy and political thriller. A deluxe cast of French actors, headed byIsabelle Huppert in winningly brittle form, bring distinction to a complexdrama about corruption and intrigue.It ...
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Reviews
The Great Match (La Gran Final)
Dir: Gerardo Olivares. Sp-Ger.2006. 88mins.A surprisingly enjoyable ethno-romp, The Great Match is both a celebration ofthe global reach of football mania and a sly send-up of worthy anthropologicalepics like Himalaya. The threeinterleaved stories - about tribal soccer fans in remote parts of the globe whoare desperate to see the 2002 ...
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Reviews
Family Law (Derecho De Familia)
Dir: Daniel Burman. Arg-It-Fr-Sp.2005. 100mins.Cinema would be a less interesting place if directorsdidn't mine their obsessions, but this is the third time in six years thatDaniel Burman has cast Daniel Hendlerin a comedy-drama about a young Argentinian Jewishman called Ariel who is oppressed by the suspicion that he is not ...
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Reviews
Opal Dream
Dir: Peter Cattaneo. Aus-UK. 2005. 88mins.A sentimental fable about imagination and wonder, Opal Dream should strike a nerve withkids who understand its fragile emotional terrain and how they can create a fantasyworld to improve on their everyday existence.Following the misfire thatwas Lucky Break, Peter Cattaneo's new feature marks something of ...
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Reviews
Longing (Senhsucht)
Dir:Valeska Grisebach. Germany.2006. 88 mins Astory of ordinary love in a defiantly non-glamorous mode, Valeska Grisebach's Longing packs a formidable emotional punch, all the moreso for its spare aesthetic and sure-footed restraint. The director's secondfeature, following 2001's acclaimed Be My Star (Mein Stern), thrives on elliptical storytelling andundemonstratively subtle ...