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Latest reviews – Page 436
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Reviews
Thumbsucker
Dir: Mike Mills. US.2005. 94mins.Music video andcommercials director and graphic artist Mike Mills makes an impressive featuredirectorial debut with Thumbsucker, a short and sweet adaptation of thenovel by Walter Kirn.Of all the high schoolpictures at Sundance this year, this is by far the best, treating the teenagerat its centre as ...
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Reviews
The Forest For The Trees (Der Wald Vor Lauter Baumen)
Dir:Maren Ade. Ger. 2003. 81minsA sober psychological drama about a novice teacher in meltdown, Maren Ade'slow-budget The Forest for the Trees builds slowly but assuredly toproduce an unsettling final kick. An introverted but commanding lead performanceby Eva Lobau should put her name on the map, as well as that of ...
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Reviews
The Aristocrats
Dir. PaulProvenza. US. 2004. 90mins.A documentary exploring the art and history of the world's filthiest joke, The Aristocrats is a no-frills primer onthe craft of comedy. Co-executive producers Paul Provenza and Penn Jilette (thespeaking half of the magic-comedy duo Penn & Teller) have tapped the brainstrust of professional US comedy ...
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Reviews
The Matador
Dir: Richard Shepard. US.2005. 97 mins. A crime comedy whichplays like Pulp Fiction-ultra-lite, The Matador is an unlikelyfit for the Sundance Film Festival where it world premiered on Saturday night.Broad, benign and cheerfully implausible, it is an independently financed filmwith mainstream sensibilities and distributors who have already committed willbe pleased ...
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Reviews
The Jacket
Dir: John Maybury. US/UK.2005. 102 mins. An intriguing hybrid oftime travel thriller, asylum horror movie and visual arts experiment, TheJacket may ultimately fail in its ambitions to fuse those genres but itremains an engaging and original entertainment which has the potential to tapinto a medium to wide audience on its ...
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Reviews
Dear Wendy
Dir. Thomas Vinterberg.Denmark/Germany/France/UK. 101 min. Dogme may be no more butif Dear Wendy is any indication, the artistic collaboration of itsfounders Thomas Vinterberg and Lars Von Trier is very much alive. An elaboratespoof of US politics and culture, the new film is a continuation of the themesraised in Von Trier's ...
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Reviews
Inside Deep Throat
Dirs/scrs: Fenton Bailey,Randy Barbato. US. 2004. 90mins It has been thirty-threeyears since Deep Throat first went down on one of Time Square's triple-Xfleapits in Manhattan and came up a pop-cultural landmark that reverberates tothis day. The lasting impact, both personal and societal, of this seminal pornflick is now chronicled in ...
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Reviews
Happy Endings
Dir/scr. Don Roos. US. 2004. 128mins A full seven years since making a splash at Sundance as a filmmaking debutant, Don Roos returns to Park City with this year's opening night attraction. Happy Endings, his third directorial outing, promises a benign beginning to the Park City festivities, if only because ...
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Reviews
Unconscious (Inconscientes)
Dir: Joaquin Oristrell.Sp-Port-Ger-It. 108mins.Spain's Joaquin Oristrelltakes time off from contemporary urban dramas and, with Unconscious,delivers an attractive and witty mystery comedy that maintains its screwballenergy throughout.Although the elements ofperiod comedy, an unappealing title and foreign language might deter somebuyers from looking deeper into this delightful Sherlock Holmes-Meets-Freudpiece, distributors and festivals ...
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Reviews
This Charming Girl (Woman, Jeong-hae)
Dir: Lee Yoon-ki. 2004. 99minsAny film that deals with subjects such as loneliness, boredom andself-loathing must run the risk of inflicting similar feelings on its audience.This Charming Girl flirts with these dangers as it slowly, slowlyscratches beneath the isolationist facade put up by a largely unremarkableyoung woman. Often minimalist in ...
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Reviews
Alla Luce Del Sole
Dir/scr: Roberto Faenza.It. 2005. 92mins.A brave voice speaks outagainst the Mafia; the voice gets silenced, but its message remains. AllaLuce Del Sole is not the first committed Italian biopic to fit this pitchline, and is unlikely to be the last.The most obvious differencebetween Roberto Faenza's new film and other examples ...
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Reviews
Watermarks (Hakoach Liskhot)
Dir/scr. Yaron Zilberman.Is-Fr-Us. 2004. 80mins.Science graduate YaronZilberman had never worked in film industry until he came across the story ofVienna's Jewish swimming team. The result is Watermarks, a lively andsurprisingly uplifting documentary set on the eve of World War Two.Having already takenaudience awards at festivals in Vienna, Boston and Washington, ...
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Reviews
Hostage
Dir/scr. ConstantineGiannaris. Gre-Tur. 2004. 102minsThe two Albanians whorecently hijacked a bus in Athens probably did not know that they werere-enacting the screenplay of Constantine Giannaris' Hostage, itselfbased on a similar real-life incident that took place in 1999.As told through the eyes ofan disoriented and angry young Albanian immigrant, this is ...
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Reviews
Lila Says (Lila Dit Ca)
Dir: Ziad Doueiri. Fr.2004. 89mins.Watching Lila Saysis like putting a watercolour painting instead of a photograph on the frontpage of a newspaper. Just conceivably, there are circumstances where, indefiance of expectations, the broad brush-strokes could work instead of thecrisp snapshot. And, directed by a French Muslim Ziad Doueiri as an ...
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Reviews
Changing Times (Les Temps Qui Changent)
Dir: Andre Techine. Fr.2004. 98mins.The title of Andre Techine's new film has an ironicmeaning its makers certainly never intended: times indeed have changed when theFrench star system, as epitomised by the screen reunion of two of France'sbiggest motion picture icons - Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu - havelittle impact on ...
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Reviews
Elektra
Dir:Rob Bowman. US. 2005. 96mins.Sheappeared - and apparently died - in last year's Ben Affleck vehicle Daredeviland now Marvel Comics character Elektra gets her own movie, withJennifer Garner, from TV's Alias, once again playing the mysteriousaction heroine with the sexy costume and lethal martial arts skills.This comics-to-screen transfer, however, produced ...
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Reviews
Assault On Precinct 13
Dir: Jean-FrancoisRichet. US. 2005. 109mins.One of the first filmsproduced under Focus Features' genre division Rogue Pictures, Assault OnPrecinct 13 is an efficient action feature which might not break any newground in the genre, but will keep a male action-loving audience happy.Theatrical results will be good, if not spectacular; audiences will ...
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Reviews
Racing Stripes
Dir: Frederick Du Chau.US. 2005. 102mins.A talking zebra picture which borrows liberally from Babe, NationalVelvet, Doctor Dolittle, Ice Age, The Incredible Journeyand every Disney movie on record, Racing Stripes may not be a familyfilm on the Pixar level of sophistication, but it generates enough of its owncharm to score with ...
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Reviews
White Noise
Dir: Geoffrey Sax.UK-Can. 2004. 98mins.The idea of communicatingwith the dead has always had an irresistibly spooky appeal and with WhiteNoise production outfit Gold Circle and a team of mainly Britishbehind-the-scenes talents do a decent job building a movie around the hi-techequivalent of ouija boards and seances.Financed as a UK/Canadaco-production but ...
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Reviews
I Am Cuba, The Siberian Mammoth (Soy Cuba, O Mamute Siberiano)
Dir: Vicente Ferraz.Brazil. 2004. 90mins.Saddled with an unhelpfuland slightly repellent title, I Am Cuba, The Siberian Mammoth isn'tactually a wildlife film but an intelligent making-of documentary which alsomanages to examine a particularly-interesting slice of Cold War history.And although it can getbogged down in its own minutae, Mammoth is fascinating enough ...