Latest reviews – Page 473
-
Reviews
Angst (Der Alte Affe Angst)
Dir. Oskar Roehler. Germany. 2002. 91mins.Too much navel-gazing and too little perspective will make Oskar Roehler's formulaic psycho-drama a hard sell, at home as well as abroad. Unlike his earlier, award-winning Nowhere To Go, which put the tragedy of a disillusioned woman writer in a larger socio-political context, the demise ...
-
Reviews
Facing Windows (La Finestra Di Fronte)
Dir: Ferzan Ozpetek. It/UK/Turkey/Port. 2003. 105mins.Ferzan Ozpetek is one of the few contemporary Italian directors who manages to straddle the arthouse-commercial divide. Born in Turkey, the director drew strongly on Anatolian themes in his first two films, The Turkish Bath (1997) and Harem Suare (1999), but with his last, 2001's ...
-
Reviews
Gods And Generals
Dir. Ronald F. Maxwell. US. 2003. 216mins. If it were only two hours long, Gods And Generals would be a trial. But there then follows a further 100 minutes to prolong an experience as dull as it is earnest. Ronald Maxwell, who adapted and directed the well-regarded Gettysburg, is in ...
-
Reviews
Party Monster
Dir: Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato. US. 2003. 98mins.Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, the documentary film-makers behind The Eyes Of Tammy Faye and prosperous production outfit World Of Wonder, made a film in 1998 called Party Monster, about the notorious club promoter Michael Alig who created the Club Kid scene ...
-
Reviews
Yes Nurse, No Nurse! (Ja Zuster, Nee Zuster)
Dir: Pieter Kramer. The Netherlands. 2002. 100mins.Busby Berkeley comes to Amsterdam in all-singing, all-dancing Dutch-language musical Yes Nurse, No Nurse!. Relentless innocence and Mary-Poppins optimism may bore the more cynical before the end, but it contains enough visual style and sheer kookiness to carry the majority through to the inevitable ...
-
Reviews
Off The Map
Dir: Campbell Scott. US. 2003. 108mins.World premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last month, Off The Map feels like a magical realist novel: it is sweet, languorous and full of small, poignant pleasures. But Off The Map does not quite make it as a film. Whereas it might have worked ...
-
Reviews
Distant Lights (Lichter)
Dir: Hans-Christian Schmid. Germany. 2003. 106mins.The winner of the FIPRESCI prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival, Lichter plays like a German Short Cuts. If Altman's cinematic short story collection was given unity by its origin in Raymond Carver's dark fables of the disempowered American male, then Distant Lights - ...
-
Reviews
The Principles Of Lust
Dir: Penny Woolcock. UK. 2003. 105mins.A dark moral tale with a steely eye for life's nastier side, The Principles Of Lust is a compelling and discomforting narrative with intellectual ambitions only too rare in UK cinema. Its visual rawness, distinctly European feel and provocative subject matter will no doubt make ...
-
Reviews
His Brother (Son Frere)
Dir: Patrice Chereau. France. 2003. 89mins.Patrice Chereau's bleak and uncompromising new film about terminal illness and fraternal love is one of the director's most austere and least commercial works to date. Intimacy, to be sure, was not an easy ride for audiences, but it had more focus and structure to ...
-
Reviews
National Security
Dir: Dennis Dugan. US. 2002. 90mins. The interracial cop comedy has not looked too healthy of late, but National Security suggests there may still be life in the genre. Well designed for its star and executive producer Martin Lawrence, the reliably funny, action-spiked buddy caper has taken $35m after four ...
-
Reviews
Alexandra's Project
Dir. Rolf de Heer. Australia. 2002. 103mins.Whether the portrait of a husband victimised by his vindictive and possibly disturbed wife, or a fiercely feminist tract on male insensitivity, this new addition to Rolf de Heer's track record of eccentric speculations, is certainly a skilful exercise - if not a ...
-
Reviews
Blind Shaft (Mang Jing)
Dir: Li Yang. China-Ger. 2003. 92 mins.For most festival-goers at Berlin, the two first-time directors in competition were George Clooney and an unknown Chinese director. In the end, however, it was the latter who won the recognition, for Li Yang 's Blind Shaft is a solid, impressive debut. A watchable, ...
-
Reviews
Daredevil
Dir: Mark Steven Johnson. US. 2003. 102mins.Take that, Batman! Finally comes a comic book adaptation which really does dare to go where Tim Burton and co merely flirted - into the dark realm. Daredevil, as brought to the screen by writer - director Mark Steven Johnson, brings real violence and ...
-
Reviews
Infernal Affairs
Dir. Andrew Lau, Alan Mak. Hong Kong. 2002. 98mins.A smart Hong Kong action thriller, Infernal Affairs stands to prove as much of a hit on the international market as it has done at the box office at home. With both a prequel and sequel already in the works, Warner Bros, ...
-
Reviews
Traces Of The Dragon: Jackie Chan And His Lost Family
Dir: Mabel Cheung. China-HK. 2003. 94mins.This homage to Hong Kong action hero Jackie Chan, which opened the Panorama Documentary section at Berlin, was commissioned by Chan himself as a "family souvenir". But in the hands of director Mabel Cheung (known until now for features such as The Soong Sisters or ...
-
Reviews
Flower Of Evil (La Fleur Du Mal)
Dir. Claude Chabrol. France. 2003. 104mins.Opinion is likely to differ on Flower Of Evil (La Fleur Du Mal), the new opus from Claude Chabrol, one of the soundest names in Gallic cinema. His numerous admirers will once again appreciate this insidious ironic study of the provincial bourgeoisie, while detractors will ...
-
Reviews
My Life Without Me
Dir: Isabel Coixet. Spain-Canada. 2003. 106 mins.My Life Without Me is Love Story with attitude. Sarah Polley - who turns in one of those performances that shift an acting career into a higher gear - even looks a little bit like Ali McGraw. But while audiences should go armed ...
-
Reviews
Good Bye, Lenin!
Dir: Wolfgang Becker. Germany. 2003. 123mins.Leading a strong home team at this year's Berlinale, competition entry Goodbye Lenin! is a high-concept fall-of-the-Wall comedy drama that has much going for it: a strong script, an extremely watchable lead in Daniel Bruhl, photography with a sharp, clean, cinematic gloss and a Nyman-like ...
-
Reviews
The Life Of David Gale
Dir: Alan Parker. US. 2002. 128mins.The prosecution's case prevails in passing judgement on The Life of David Gale, a polemical thriller which has all the conviction and brio one expects of an Alan Parker film, but is let down by the two central performances and a spectacularly feeble script. Well-positioned ...
-
Reviews
I'm Not Scared (Io Non Ho Paura)
Dir: Gabriele Salvatores. Italy. 2003. 107mins.An atmospheric, good-looking child's-view thriller set around a kidnapping in southern Italy during the 1970s, I'm Not Scared is Gabriele Salvatores 11th film. It is also his best: at last the Milanese director, whose previous films have been dragged down by a taste for grotesque, ...