Latest – Page 628
-
Reviews
Romance & Cigarettes
Dir/scr:John Turturro. US. 2005. 106mins.After the first song-and-dance number of John Turturro'sstar-peppered blue collar musical, the Venice press corps broke into loud,spontaneous applause. When the second ended, there was a more subdued ripple.By the time the third came along, the excitement had died down, and thegood-natured, foot-tapping, flawed nature of ...
-
Reviews
Goal!
Dir: Danny Cannon. UK.2005 110minsGoal! is the first episode in a planned football trilogyabout a 19-year-old Latino Santiago plucked from LA to play in the EnglishPremiership. The second film - to be shot by House Of Wax director JaumeCollet Serra from next month - will see him play on a ...
-
Reviews
Elizabethtown
Dir/scr:Cameron Crowe. US. 2005. 138mins.Aromantic comedy for the MTV generation with some of that old Kentucky magicthrown in for the oldies, Elizabethtown illustrates the dangers of goingstraight for the feelgood jugular. Feelgood has to be earned. So do the last 48minutes of a 138-minute film. And the overlong Elizabethtown has ...
-
Reviews
Elizabethtown
Dir/scr:Cameron Crowe. US. 2005. 138mins.Aromantic comedy for the MTV generation with some of that old Kentucky magicthrown in for the oldies, Elizabethtown illustrates the dangers of goingstraight for the feelgood jugular. Feelgood has to be earned. So do the last 48minutes of a 138-minute film. And the overlong Elizabethtown has ...
-
Reviews
Bubble
Dir: Steven Soderbergh.US. 2005. 73mins.Soderbergh goes back tobasics. Not in the tricksy, star-stuffed mode of Full Frontal or Schizopolis:in Bubble the basics are the ones that really matter. A strong storylineand good dramatic structure give this quirky tragic love triangle a grip on theaudience; and a certain edgy eccentricity in ...
-
Reviews
Corpse Bride
Dirs:Mike Johnson, Tim Burton. UK. 2005. 75mins.Thefirst stop-motion feature directed (in part) by Tim Burton - he produced andwrote The Nightmare Before Christmas - Corpse Bride brings theHollywood fantasist's dark and fertile imagination to bear on a hugelyentertaining macabre love story.Likethe two Shrek movies, the film has a fairytale backbone ...
-
Reviews
Proof
Dir:John Madden. US-UK. 2005. 100mins.Anefficient drama, rather than a memorable one, John Madden's Proofbenefits, for once, from its theatrical origins. Madden directed GwynethPaltrow in the main role of David Auburn's stage play at the Donmar Warehousein London, and the familiarity of both director and actress with the materialcomes through in ...
-
Reviews
Casanova
Dir: Lasse Hallstrom. US.2005. 112mins.There's somethingold-fashioned about Lasse Hallstrom's take on the 18-century Venetian rake andwomaniser Giacomo Casanova; but also something disarmingly likeable.It's as if the spirit of Richard Lester, circa The Three Musketeers, had takenpossession of the Swedish director.Hallstrom is helped by ascript fizzing with brio and by the ...
-
Reviews
Persona Non Grata
Dir/scr:Krzysztof Zanussi. Pol-Russ-It. 2005. 117mins.Krzysztof Zanussimakes films for mature specialised audiences, interested in human nature andethical standards rather than in plots, heroes and villains. If this dooms himto a small, appreciative cinema-going crowd and to selective festivals (likehis competition slot in Venice), then so be it. He has never appeared ...
-
Reviews
Gabrielle
Dir: PatriceChereau. Fr-It. 2005.90mins.An analytical butstrangely alienated portrait of a 10 year-old marriage gone sour, PatriceChereau's latest feature is impressive on many counts but falls short ofdelivering the emotional wallop it seems to hanker for.Expanding on JosephConrad's novella The Return to show both viewpoints in a marital crisis,Chereau delivers an ...
-
Reviews
The Exorcism Of Emily Rose
Dir: Scott Derrickson.US. 2005. 118minsAn interesting but unresolved hybrid of metaphysical horror film andcourtroom drama, The Exorcism Of Emily Rose takes the true story of agirl who died in Germany following an apparent case of demonic possession, andtransplants it to small-town America.Billed as the firstauthentic film treatment of demonic possession, ...
-
Reviews
Everything Is Illuminated
Dir: Liev Schreiber. US.2005. 102mins.The fine US actor LievSchreiber makes his directorial debut on his own ambitious adaptation of whatis perhaps an unfilmable book - Jonathan Safran Foer's brilliant first novel EverythingIs Illuminated. It's a brave attempt, but only partially successful, andcritics will compare it unfavourably with the very recent ...
-
Reviews
Brokeback Mountain
Dir:Ang Lee. US. 2005. 133mins.Nonewly-arrived Martian would ever guess that the same person had directed Sense& Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Hulk.The most impressive thing about Ang Lee's creative take on the multiplepersonality syndrome is the way that each successive experiment feels like thework of a pro that ...
-
ReviewsTakeshis'
Dir/scr: Takeshi Kitano.Jap. 2005. 108mins.By the morning of thepress screening, pretty much everyone on the Lido knew that the “surprise” filmon the Venice competition roster was the new project by Japanese auteur and TVcelebrity Takeshi Kitano. The real surprise, however, came at the end: thebriefest ripple ...
-
Reviews
Gabrielle
Dir: PatriceChereau. Fr-It. 2005.90mins.An analytical butstrangely alienated portrait of a 10 year-old marriage gone sour, PatriceChereau's latest feature is impressive on many counts but falls short ofdelivering the emotional wallop it seems to hanker for.Expanding on JosephConrad's novella The Return to show both viewpoints in a marital crisis,Chereau delivers an ...
-
Reviews
A Sound Of Thunder
Dir: Peter Hyams.US/Germany/Czech Republic/UK. 2005. 101 mins. Emerging in themarketplace almost three years after it was made, A Sound of Thunder turns a vintage Ray Bradbury short story into acheesy and unconvincing big budget B-movie. With its sub-par effects, uninspiredperformances and unfocused narrative, this sci-fi thriller, left over from theglory ...
-
Reviews
Good Night, And Good Luck
Dir:George Clooney. US. 2005. 90mins.Anaustere drama of political and journalistic ethics, Good Night, And GoodLuck represents George Clooney's consecration as a serious writer anddirector after his original but uncertain debut, Confessions Of A DangerousMind.Shotin elegant black-and-white with a classic, measured feel to editing and pacingthat matches its patient establishment of ...
-
Reviews
The Secret Life Of Words (La Vida Secreta De Las Palabras)
Dir/scr: IsabelCoixet. 2005. Sp-UK. 112mins.Produced once more by Pedro Almodovar's El Deseooutfit, Isabel Coixet's second English-language feature proves itself to be adeeply felt work that is much stronger on emotions than it is on form.Initially affecting,her story of a recluse tending a temporarily blinded man eventually becomesrepetitive before stating its ...
-
Reviews
Seven Swords (Qi Jian)
Dir: Tsui Hark. HK-Chi-SKor. 2005. 152mins.Hong Kong auteur TsuiHark's most ambitious film to date, Seven Swords makes for an energeticVenice curtain-raiser after the dreary plod of last year's The Terminal.The director has talked upSeven Swords as the Saving Private Ryan of martial arts films, of areturn to basics and focus ...
-
Reviews
The Great Goblin War (Yokai Daisenso)
Dir: Takashi Miike. Jap.2005. 124mins.Announcing the production of the $30m The Great Goblin War lastSeptember, Kadokawa Group chairman Tsuguhiko Kadokawa said the film would'rival Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings in its worldwideappeal".To make its chairman's wordsa reality, Kadokawa hired Takashi Miike, a director best known for hisfull-frontal plunges ...