Latest – Page 605

  • Reviews

    Breaking And Entering

    14 September 2006

    Dir/scr: Anthony Minghella. UK. 2006. 119mins.Anthony Minghella's firstcontemporary London-set film since Truly MadlyDeeply in 1991, Breaking And Enteringis an ambitious but disappointing affair revolving around middle class folkfrom North London in crisis. Although handsomely produced and featuring one ortwo noteworthy performances, it is hijacked by a surprising lack ofplausibility, both ...

  • Reviews

    Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (Parfum: Die Geschichte Eines Morders)

    14 September 2006

    Dir: Tom Tykwer. Ger-Fr-Sp. 2006. 140mins.Tom Tykwer pulls out allthe stops with his sumptuous English-language adaptation of Patrick Suskind's novel Perfume,making for a daring and imposing achievement that is likely to leave audiencesstunned and somewhat exhausted rather than truly dazzled.With its dark tone, wilfullymorbid subject matter and antipathetic protagonist, it ...

  • This Is England
    Reviews

    This Is England

    13 September 2006

    Dir/scr: Shane Meadows. UK.2006. 104mins.

  • Reviews

    Black Sheep

    13 September 2006

    Dir/scr: Jonathan King. NZ. 2006. 87mins.A canny mix of splatter-movie aesthetics, nationaldread and ecological warning, Jonathan King's debut feature Black Sheep is a riotously funny,gleefully overdone horror exercise that more than hints at the influence of earlyPeter Jackson like Meet The Feebles, Braindead and BadTaste.Swift andentertaining, though at times too ...

  • Reviews

    Bugmaster

    13 September 2006

    Dir: Katsuhiro Otomo. Jap-US. 2006. 130mins.Japanese anime director Katsuhiro Otomomakes a curiously subdued, poetic foray into live-action cinema with his latestfeature, Bugmaster.Though the story's setting in the late Meiji era and its "invisible bug"infestation theme initially suggest a period horror along the lines of ShinyaTsukamoto's Gemini, the meditativepace, lonely but ...

  • Reviews

    10 Items Or Less

    12 September 2006

    Dir/scr: Brad Silberling. US. 2006. 82mins.The unpredictable career of Brad Silberlingtakes another left turn after the big budget spectacle of Lemony Snicket's A SeriesOf Unfortunate Events (2004) with his new feature 10 Items Or Less. More of a character-basedchamber piece than anything else, this virtual two-hander finds thewriter-director straying into ...

  • Reviews

    Antonia

    12 September 2006

    Dir: Tata Amaral. Br. 2006. 90mins.The third feature from film-maker TataAmaral, Antoniatakes a well-sung genre - the rap group from the wrong side of the tracks whotry to make it big in the face of ruptured friendships - and gives it theunique flavour of a Sao Paolo favela.It is further ...

  • Reviews

    The Missing Star (La Stella Che Non C'e)

    12 September 2006

    Dir: Gianni Amelio. It-Fr-Switz. 2006. 107mins.Gianni Amelio treads waterwith The Missing Star, an anti-hero quest moviethat has moments of emotional engagement but is marred by its genrefence-sitting and the muddiness of its final message. It's one of those filmswhose fascination lies not so much in the drama, whichis structured like ...

  • Reviews

    Rob-B-Hood

    12 September 2006

    Dir: Benny Chan. HK-Chi. 2006. 135mins.Jackie Chan returns to the broad Hong Kong comedyaction of earlier films like Meals On Wheels with the enjoyably ramshackle, fast-pacedbabysitting-crook yarn Rob-B-Hood.Laced with some classic stunts - a couple of them as inventive as anything Chanhas ever done - and action set-pieces, and canny ...

  • Reviews

    For Your Consideration

    11 September 2006

    Dir: Christopher Guest. US.2006. 86mins.The finest comedy stems from painfully truthful,accurate reflections of real life. That may explain why Christopher Guest'ssharply observed ensemble comedies have become such surefire guarantees ofhilarity. For Your Consideration isno exception as it captures all the inanity and indignity of the Hollywood Oscar season.Filled with quotable ...

  • Reviews

    Catch A Fire

    11 September 2006

    Dir: Phillip Noyce. UK-S Afr-US. 2006. 98minsThe desperate struggles against the apartheid regimein South Africa have inspired a distinguished body of cinema that stretches from Cry Freedom (1987) to Red Dust (2004). Phillip Noyce's Catch A Fire tells of Patrick Chamussoand his journey from acquiescent model citizen to radicalisedfreedom fighter ...

  • Reviews

    A Good Year

    11 September 2006

    Dir: Ridley Scott. U.S. 2006. 118mins.Ridley Scott's A Good Year, whichre-teams the director with Russell Crowe, should have been an easily likeableand amiable romantic comedy, adapted from the same-name novel by Peter Mayle, who has had a huge following since his 1989 memoir A Year In Provence.But this tale of ...

  • Reviews

    All The King's Men

    11 September 2006

    Dir: Steven Zaillian. US. 2006. 125mins.The queasy compromises of love, loyalty and bareknuckle politics are at the heart of a handsome, star-studded new version ofthe Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All The King's Men. The celebrated 1949 adaptation of theRobert Warren Penn epic is probably best remembered for Broderick Crawford's Oscar-winningperformance as ...

  • Reviews

    Golden Door (Nuovomondo)

    11 September 2006

    Dir/scr: Emanuele Crialese. Fr-It. 2006. 118mins.A moving but unsentimental film of mythic resonance aboutthe early years of mass Italian immigration to the United States, The Golden Door consecrates Sicilian directorEmanuele Crialese as a film-makerof global significance after his promising earlier features, Once We Were Strangers (1997) and Respiro (2002). Turningthe ...

  • Reviews

    Penelope

    10 September 2006

    Dir: Mark Palansky. UK.2006. 101minsMore of anexaggerated pantomime than a lyrical fable, Penelopestruggles to find the magical qualities that seemed to arise so effortlessly inEdward Scissorhandsor Amelie.The tale of a pig-faced girl's search for love and happiness is sweetly toldbut too often plays for easy laughs rather that true wonderment ...

  • Reviews

    Hana

    10 September 2006

    Dir: Hirokazu Kore-Eda. Jap. 2006. 127mins.Rambling, overlong and at times even messy, Hana isnevertheless a delightful surprise from well known Japanese director Hirokazu Kor-Eda. Alwaysidentified in the past with slow, reflective, sad pieces such as Maborosi and philosophicalreflections on human existence like Afterlife- not to mention the heartbreaking NobodyKnows, one ...

  • Reviews

    Brand Upon The Brain

    10 September 2006

    Dir: Guy Maddin. US-Can. 2006. 97mins.Arguably the first true silent movie produced ineight decades, Guy Maddin's Brand Upon The Brain premiered in Toronto with a liveorchestra, in-house sound effects artists, a singer and narrator providing apure cinematic full monty. And though there areobvious challenges in recreating such a singular event, ...

  • Reviews

    Borat

    10 September 2006

    Dir: Larry Charles. US.2006. 82mins.A hand grenade lobbed towards the American heartland,mockumentary Borat explodes with intermittently uproarious results. Fansof Sacha Baron Cohen's enthusiastic Kazakhstanreporter and his television escapades will not be disappointed by a featuredebut filled with caustic encounters and razor-sharp observations. Others mightwonder what all the fuss is about; ...

  • Reviews

    Stranger Than Fiction

    10 September 2006

    Dir: Marc Forster. US. 2006.118mins.A highly original script by newcomerZach Helm, some superlative performances and the deft guiding hand of directorMarc Forster, trying his hand at comedy for the first time, make Stranger Than Fiction the season's must-seefilm for discerning audiences. Financed and co-produced by Mandate Pictures,the film is having ...

  • Reviews

    The Journals Of Knud Rasmussen

    8 September 2006

    Dirs/scr:Zacharis Kunuk, NormanCohn. Can-Den. 2006. 112mins.The combination of an opening night slotin Toronto and the pressure of following up on their justly heralded debut Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner - which won Cannes'Camera d'Or in 2001 - provide film-makers Zacharis Kunuk and Norman Cohenwith a searing spotlight for their new feature ...