Latest – Page 567
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Reviews
The Hottie And The Nottie
Dir: Tom Putnam. US. 2008. 98 mins.A crude twist on the old maxim about inner beauty trumping outward appearance, The Hottie And The Nottie sluggishly tries to copy the Farrelly brothers' winning mixture of sweetness and occasionally revolting humour, but the results couldn't be more unsightly. Socialite and tabloid ...
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Reviews
Quiet Chaos (Caos Calmo)
Dir: Antonello Grimaldi. Italy. 2008. 110 mins.'Write about what you know' goes the old dictum - so contemporary Italian scripters mostly write about city-dwelling, media-savvy middle-class people like themselves. But at least in Quiet Chaos our hero, TV executive Pietro Paladini, is doing something more original than having a mid-life ...
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Reviews
Shine A Light
Dir: Martin Scorsese. US. 2008. 123 mins.Raunchy and affectionate, Scorsese's Rolling Stones film, which opened this year's Berlinale, is as much homage as concert film. In bringing the miracle of the Stones' survival to a wider audience, it's the cinematic equivalent of an all-singing, all-dancing Tutankhamun exhibition. And for all ...
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Reviews
The Last Word
Dir: Geoffrey Haley. US. 2008. 94 mins.Geoffrey Haley, a DP and editor perhaps best known for shooting the floating plastic bag sequence in American Beauty, makes his feature debut with The Last Word, a dark comedy about a man who makes a living writing other people's suicide notes. In ...
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Reviews
Downloading Nancy
Dir: Johan Renck. 2008. US. 96 mins.A woman’s journey of self-hatred, self-degradation, self-mutilation and ultimately self-destruction courtesy of a murderous kindred spirit makes for grim viewing in Downloading Nancy, the feature debut of Swedish commercials and music video director Johan Renck. Although acted with conviction and directed with not a ...
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Reviews
Pretty Bird
Dir: Paul Schneider, US, 2008, 97mins.The perennial story of Americans trying to get rich quick on a new invention meets the perennial story of Americans betraying each other over property in Pretty Bird. The look, and feel, of the film sing an ode to American kitsch.Pretty Bird's success in the ...
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Reviews
The Sun Street Boys
Dir: Gyorgy Szomjas. Hungary , 2008. 89minsFar superior to last year's Hungarian box-office champion Children of Glory, Gyorgy Szomjas' new film tells a very similar story, namely the 1956 uprising against the prevailing communist regime. But it has a different narrative accent and is less adroit at tugging the heartstrings ...
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ReviewsOperation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Dir: Richard Robbins, USA, 2007, 81mins
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Reviews
Anywhere USA
Dir. Chusy Haney-Jardine, USA, 2008, 124minsThe portentously titled Anywhere USA is a triptych of Americana by debut writer/director Chusy Haney-Jardine - a trailer-trash farce, an uncle/niece meditation on the death of parents, and a clumsy satire on racial anxiety among the rich and White.Haney-Jardine, who says the film draws on ...
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Reviews
Definitely, Maybe
Director/Scr: Adam Brooks US/UK. 2008. 111 minsAn unusually soulful and appealing romantic comedy, Definitely, Maybe is the perfect antidote to the raucous lowbrow vulgarity that has come to define the genre in the 21st century. There is none of the wild profanity or bad taste humour of the Farrelly brothers ...
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Reviews
Wonderful Town
Dir: Aditya Assarat. Thailand, 2007. 92 minsAditya Assarat's first feature, a tragic, melancholy, minimalist love story taking place in what was once a Thai beach resort before the 2004 tsunami hit, offers a poignant portrait of a place grappling with the loss of its main source of income amid the ...
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Reviews
Fool's Gold
Director: Andy Tennant US. 2008. 113 mins.Feeling as if it was lashed together from bits of earlier, more convincing romantic comedies and adventure romps, Fool's Gold is a rickety vessel that just about reaches its destination thanks to the star power of Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson and the helmsmanship ...
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Reviews
The Guitar
Dir: Amy Redford. US. 2008. 93mins.The suggestive metaphor of loss and emotional trauma as divine liberation is treated awkwardly between the outrageous and obscene in Amy Redford's debut feature The Guitar. Saffron Burrows is commanding as a distraught woman who finds a novel way to cope with tragedy, but the ...
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Reviews
Sleep Dealer
Dir: Alex Rivera. Mexico/US. 2008. 90 mins.Alex Rivera's low budget futuristic thriller Sleep Dealer is set in the near future where the USA has been sealed off from Mexico yet Mexican workers still do all the hard labour through technology. A selection in dramatic competition at Sundance last week and ...
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Reviews
Untraceable
Dir. Gregory Hoblit, US, 2008, 100 minsNeither terrifying nor inspiring, Untraceable is still a curious portrait of a society that struggles to police itself, under siege from one of its own children. The much-feared 'enemy within' that Cold Warriors railed about is now sitting at his basement computer and playing ...
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Reviews
Over Her Dead Body
Dir: Jeff Lowell. US. 2008. 95 mins.A languid, thinly sketched and habitually unfunny supernatural comedy that never scratches beyond the surface of its conceit, Over Her Dead Body quickly wears out its welcome in both this world and the next. Delving into a love triangle comprised of a pleasant guy, ...
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Reviews
Riprendimi
Dir: Anna Negri. Italy. 2008. 96 mins.Anna Negri's second film Riprendimi is a bittersweet comedy about the breakup of a relationship and the fallout for those involved. Offering intelligent commentary on the fickleness of young men and women today as well as many amusing insights into humans in romantic ...
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Reviews
Trouble the Water
Dirs: Tia Lessin & Carl Deal. US. 2007. 90minsAlthough both productions document the same Hurricane Katrina that unleashed its fury on the US Gulf Coast in 2005, Trouble The Water could hardly be more different stylistically from Spike Lee's 2006 mini-series When The Levees Broke. If Lee's reverentially crafted ...