Latest reviews – Page 481

  • Reviews

    Ken Park

    2002-09-06T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Larry Clark and Ed Lachman. US-Neth-France. 2002. 92mins.Every film festival needs its succes de scandale, and who better than Larry Clark to lay on the controversy at Venice 2002' Ken Park - co-directed by Clark and cinematographer Ed Lachman - contains scenes of graphic, uncut sexual activity between what ...

  • Reviews

    Ripley's Game

    2002-09-05T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Liliana Cavani. It-UK. 2002. 112mins.Liliana Cavani, the veteran Italian director, was presumably brought in to direct this Patricia Highsmith novel in the hope that some of the dark menace of her drama The Night Porter might rub off on Ripley. If so, then the gamble has failed, at least ...

  • Reviews

    The Man On The Train (L'Homme Du Train)

    2002-09-05T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Patrice Leconte. France. 2002. 90 mins.One of the real audience-pleasers in competition at this year's Venice festival, The Man On The Train (L'Homme Du Train) pairs veteran French actor Jean Rochefort with rocker Johnny Hallyday in a changing-places comedy drama that manages to be both quirky and moving. Although ...

  • Reviews

    The Man On The Train (L'Homme Du Train)

    2002-09-05T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Patrice Leconte. France. 2002. 90 mins.One of the real audience-pleasers in competition at this year's Venice festival, The Man On The Train (L'Homme Du Train) pairs veteran French actor Jean Rochefort with rocker Johnny Hallyday in a changing-places comedy drama that manages to be both quirky and moving. Although ...

  • Reviews

    The Nearest To Heaven (Au Plus Pres Du Paradis)

    2002-09-04T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Tonie Marshall. Fr-Can-Sp. 2002. 97mins.Tonie Marshall's latest outing proves again that no amount of screenplay physics can make up for a lack of chemistry between leading man and leading lady. And the pairing of Catherine Deneuve-William Hurt, however intriguing it looks on paper, fizzles and dies in this flat ...

  • Reviews

    Friday Night (Vendredi Soir)

    2002-09-04T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Claire Denis. France. 2002. 88mins.A man and a woman, complete strangers, meet by chance in Paris and, after the briefest of verbal exchanges, end up having long, passionate sex. But don't be fooled: Friday Night (Vendredi Soir) is as much about traffic jams and unfamiliar neighbourhoods as it is ...

  • Reviews

    Far From Heaven

    2002-09-04T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Todd Haynes. US. 2002. 107 mins.In painstakingly recreating the style and mood of a Douglas Sirk melodrama, Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven attempts to show that prejudice is as rampant in the complacent America of the new millenium as it was behind the twitching net curtains of Sirk's affluent ...

  • Reviews

    Frida

    2002-08-30T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Julie Taymor. USA. 2002. 121mins.First the bad news: Julie Taymor's cinematic life of painter Frida Kahlo, which US-based Mexican actress Salma Hayek fought for most of a decade to bring to the screen, is not the masterpiece some had anticipated. The good news, at least for distributor Miramax, is ...

  • Reviews

    The Magdalene Sisters

    2002-08-30T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Peter Mullan. UK-Ireland. 2002. 118minsShocking true events are transformed into a powerful and moving human drama in The Magdalene Sisters. The second feature from writer-director Peter Mullan, the film is an angry cry from the heart rendered all the more effective by its restraint and burning sense of injustice ...

  • Reviews

    Lilja 4-Ever

    2002-08-30T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Lukas Moodysson. Sweden. 2002. 109 mins.After a promising debut with Show Me Love (known in some territories as Fucking Amal), Swedish wunderkind Lukas Moodysson entered the major league with his last film, Together, a study of a dysfunctional 1970s commune that combined wry humour with emotional torture. Moodysson seemed ...

  • Reviews

    Frida

    2002-08-30T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Julie Taymor. USA. 2002. 121mins.First the bad news: Julie Taymor's cinematic life of painter Frida Kahlo, which US-based Mexican actress Salma Hayek fought for most of a decade to bring to the screen, is not the masterpiece some had anticipated. The good news, at least for distributor Miramax, is ...

  • Reviews

    Lilja 4-Ever

    2002-08-30T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Lukas Moodysson. Sweden. 2002. 109 mins.After a promising debut with Show Me Love (known in some territories as Fucking Amal), Swedish wunderkind Lukas Moodysson entered the major league with his last film, Together, a study of a dysfunctional 1970s commune that combined wry humour with emotional torture. Moodysson seemed ...

  • Reviews

    The Red Siren

    2002-08-29T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Olivier Megaton. France. 2002. 108 mins.A blandly conventional English-language actioner featuring good and bad mercenaries battling it out across Europe to retrieve a 12-year-old runaway, The Red Siren seems more like a spin-off of a Luc Besson formula thriller than a screen adaptation of a cult French suspense novel, ...

  • Reviews

    The Last Great Wilderness

    2002-08-29T00:00:00Z

    Dir: David Mackenzie. UK. 2002. 90minsAn idiosyncratic combination of stalled road movie and psychological drama, The Last Great Wilderness marks a promising feature debut from director David Mackenzie. The dry, dark wit and unpredictable nature of the narrative reveal it to have more in common with the sensibility of early ...

  • Reviews

    Volcano High (Whasango)

    2002-08-28T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Kim Tae-gyun. Korea. 2001. 99minsA manic, manga-style mixture of frenzied fight sequences and hysterical comedy, Volcano High makes Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon seem like a sedate stroll in the park by comparison. Downplaying narrative cohesion in favour of spectacular martial arts moves, it should find an eager audience among ...

  • Reviews

    The Idol (L'Idol)

    2002-08-28T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Samantha Lang. France. 2002. 110mins.A great leap of faith is required to adore The Idol, an overwrought chamber piece about the ambiguous, erotically charged relationship between two expatriates living in Paris. Premiered at Locarno's vast Piazza Grande but much better suited to an intimate art-house setting, this French-language drama ...

  • Reviews

    Heartlands

    2002-08-23T00:00:00Z

    Director: Damien O'Donnell. UK. 2002. 98minsAnswering the question of how you follow an international success like East Is East (1999), director Damien O'Donnell's second feature Heartlands is a slow-burning delight that will steal audience hearts just as effectively as his broader, more obviously crowd-pleasing debut. A gentle road movie filled ...

  • Reviews

    Out Of Control

    2002-08-22T00:00:00Z

    Director: Dominic Savage. UK. 2002. 90 minsAn angry, nihilistic drama told with gut-renching conviction, Out Of Control confirms writer-director Dominic Savage as the standard bearer for the raw, social realist traditions established and refined by Ken Loach and the late Alan Clarke. A largely improvised story intended for transmission on ...

  • Reviews

    Simone

    2002-08-20T00:00:00Z

    Dir: Andrew Niccol. US. 2002. 124mins A third slice of near-futuristic fantasy from Andrew Niccol, the creator of The Truman Show and Gattaca, Simone is a silly souffle of a movie that has some good ingredients but turns out overcooked and stodgy. The film's awkward tone - not to mention ...

  • Reviews

    The Eye (Oko)

    2002-08-19T00:00:00Z

    Directors: Oxide and Danny Pang. Hong Kong-Thailand. 2002. 98minsAn atmospheric blend of psychological thriller and eerie ghost story, The Eye sees director brothers Danny and Oxide Pang follow the highly stylised, hitman thriller Bangkok Dangerous (which won the FIPRESCI prize at Toronto two years ago) with a successful foray into ...