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Latest reviews – Page 419
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Reviews
Dam Street (Hong yan)
Dir: Li Yu. Chi-Fr. 1995.93mins.A persuasive, lyricalstudy of smalltown life in rural China in the 1980s and 1990s, Dam Street fullyconfirms the promise of director Li Yu's debut feature, Fish And Elephant.Like that first film, Dam Street deals with women's issues - but not ina narrow or dogmatic way. There ...
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Reviews
In His Hands (Entre Ses Mains)
Dir: Anne Fontaine.Fr-Bel. 2005. 90mins.Frenchauteur and former actress Anne Fontaine has been turning out nuanced studies ofthe hidden depravities of respectable middle-class life for a decade. Thehighpoint was 2001's How I Killed My Father, which staged a riveting,deliciously ironic encounter between a son and a father, played respectively,and brilliantly, by ...
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Reviews
Shadowboxer
DirLee Daniels. US. 2005. 93mins.LeeDaniels made history as the first stand-alone black producer of anOscar-winning film, when Halle Berry lifted the Best Actress prize for Monster'sBall in 2002. It's a shame then that the talented Daniels chose Shadowboxerfor his directorial debut: it's doubtful whether even the most experiencedauteur could have ...
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Reviews
Drawing Restraint 9
Dir/scr: Matthew Barney.US-Jap. 2005. 143mins.Matthew Barney is one ofthe superstars of the American art world. He has held exhibitions everywherefrom the Guggenheim to the Venice Biennale, and has won numerous prizes. His CremasterCycle, made between 1994 and 2002, was shown - and rhapsodised over - inboth cinemas and museums. Drawing ...
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Reviews
The Regular Lovers (Les Amants Reguliers)
Dir:Philippe Garrel. Fr. 2005. 183minsFrench director PhilippeGarrel makes unclassifiable movies that play to highly discerning tastes. Hisexquisite new feature, The Regular Lovers, a three-hour black-and-whitemeditation on love, passion and the personal and political ramifications of theevents of May 1968, is a strikingly original and challenging piece of work.Even with its ...
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Reviews
Harsh Times
Dir: David Ayer. US.2005. 119mins.David Ayer's HarshTimes is a corrosive, frequently riveting social portrait on friendship,damaged masculinity and the dread of violence. The debut feature from thetalented screenwriter of Training Day, the movie is flawed and sometimesoverreaches though it is given a propulsive kick from Christian Bale's searingMethod performance.A genre ...
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Reviews
Something Like Happiness (Stetsi)
Dir/scr: Bodhan Slama.2005. Cz Rep. 100mins.A surprise winner of the top prize at San Sebastian, butno less deserving for that, Bodhan Slama's small-scale Czech drama surged aheadof more heavyweight rivals to take the Golden Shell for best film and bestactress (Ana Geislerova) - and that in a competition which allows ...
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Reviews
Flightplan
Dir:Robert Schwentke. US. 2005. 93mins.Germandirector makes a promising US debut with Flightplan, a taut suspensethriller that gets good use out of its transatlantic airliner setting and, fora while at least, produces some real emotional resonance too.Withthe very selective Jodie Foster starring, the Imagine/Touchstone productionshould be capable of strong box office ...
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Reviews
Summer In Berlin (Sommer Vorm Balkon)
Dir: Andreas Dresen.Germany 2005. 112mins.Indie director AndreasDresen is the German counterpart of Robert Guediguian: a regional maverickwithin a national system, whose drama-tinged comedies, or comedy-tinged dramas,are all set in the milieu he knows best. Dresen's preferred location is theformer East Germany, his preferred subject those who are struggling in thedepressed ...
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Reviews
Enlightened By Fire (Iluminados Por El Fuego)
Dir:Tristan Bauer. Arg. 2005. 100mins.Sometimesa film has more value as a national pain relief than as a quality piece ofcinema. Such is certainly the case with Enlightened By Fire, the firstArgentine commercial film to take on the subject of the Falklands/Malvinas war,and to deal with the traumas of the young ...
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Reviews
Hard Times (Malas Temporadas)
Dir. Manuel MartinCuenca. Sp. 2005. 115mins.Three sets of outsidersin Madrid, characters on the fringe of the accepted norm whether by choice orcircumstance, approach a crisis in the nicely-modulated and finely-acted HardTimes, Manuel Martin Cuenca's follow-up to The Weakness Of The Bolshevik.Despite its defiantly sombretone, it should find a solid audience ...
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Reviews
Water
Dir/scr.Deepa Mehta. Can. 2005. 114mins.As intelligent as it isravishing, Deepa Mehta's Water is amoving portrayal of impossible love and possible hope. Fronted by an equally ravishingcombination of Bollywood stars Lisa Ray and John Abraham and cloaked in ahistorical drama set within Indian's widow caste, it tells the story of a ...
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Reviews
April Snow (Wae Chul)
Dir: Hur Jin-ho. S Kor.2005. 105mins.Coming after ChristmasIn August and One Fine Spring Day, April Snow shows HurJin-ho be as gentle and romantic as ever - and as likely to enjoy successfulbox office.Once again he concentrateson strong emotions, showing as slow, deliberate and sensitive a touch as he hasdone before, ...
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Reviews
Not Here To Be Loved (Je Ne Suis Pas La Pour Etre Aime)
Dir: Stephane Brize. Fr.2005. 95mins.French director StephaneBrize's second feature after Hometown Blues (1999), Not Here To BeLoved is more a slow, intimate study of two repressed characters than astraightforward romantic comedy. The film's measured dosing of humour andpassion takes its cue from the tango music, which is central to the ...
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Reviews
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
Dirs: Nick Park, Steve Box.UK. 2005. 85mins.A delirious blend ofwhimsy and wit, the long-awaited Wallace & Gromit feature is sure tocharm all who encounter it. Having already opened in Australia - just ahead ofits Toronto appearance - to substantially better figures than those forAardman's previous feature, the buoyant Chicken Run, ...
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Reviews
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit
Dirs: Nick Park, Steve Box.UK. 2005. 85mins.A delirious blend ofwhimsy and wit, the long-awaited Wallace & Gromit feature is sure tocharm all who encounter it. Having already opened in Australia - just ahead ofits Toronto appearance - to substantially better figures than those forAardman's previous feature, the buoyant Chicken Run, ...
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Reviews
Cry Wolf
Dir: Jeff Wadlow. US.2005. 90mins.There are more twiststhan jolts in Cry_Wolf, the teen thriller whose script helped debutantfeature director Jeff Wadlow take first prize - a $1m production grant - in theChrysler Million Dollar Film Festival.Wadlowproves himself a worthy winner of the competition (created by Doug Liman'sproduction outfit Hypnotic and ...
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Reviews
Lord Of War
Dir/scr: Andrew Niccol.US. 2005. 121mins.Andrew Niccol has always been a fascinating writer,exploring decidedly catchy, low-fi concepts about the collision of humanity andmodernity, while also showing a consistent distrust of authority.His list of credits aswriter-director includes the under-heralded sci-fi drama of Gattaca, thebloated Hollywood-goes-digital satire Simone, and of course thescreenplay for ...