Latest – Page 652
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Reviews
A Home At The End Of The World
Dir: Michael Mayer. US.2004. 93mins.Can a movie be too short' Broadway theatre directorMichael Mayer and novelist Michael Cunningham have opted for an ultra-concisemovie treatment of Cunningham's celebrated first novel (1990), which traces thefriendship between two boys over 30 years in just 93 minutes. The effect is afilm which feels like ...
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Reviews
Our Music (Notre Musique)
Dir/scr: Jean-Luc Godard. France 2004. 80minsA characteristically encyclopaedic disquisition onwords, images and war, the latest essay-fiction from Jean-Luc Godard is notobviously as visually striking as its predecessor, Eloge De l'Amour, andis considerably more dense verbally. But this three-parter shows Godard to beas perplexing and provocative as ever.Undoubtedly it will appeal ...
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Reviews
The Door In The Floor
Dir: Tod Williams. US.2004. 111mins.In his first film sincehis promising 1998 debut The Adventures Of Sebastian Cole, Tod Williamsdelivers a solid and compelling adaptation of the first third of John Irving'snovel A Widow For One Year. Blending Irving's tendency to absurdism witha painful evocation of suppressed grief, The Door In ...
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Reviews
Sword In The Moon
Dir. Kim Eui-Suk. Korea.2003. 100mins.Dark, bloody and brutal, Kim Eui-Suk's martial artsextravaganza, released in Korea last July to lukewarm response, played in UnCertain Regard at Cannes in the hope of catching second wind with a differenttype of audience. But its grim, humourless disposition is unlikely to gain itmany new friends.The ...
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Reviews
The Clearing
Dir: Pieter Jan Brugge.2004. US. 91mins.Robert Redford returns to the big screenseveral months after his brutal vilification in the pages of Peter Biskind's Down And Dirty Pictures as an enemy ofindependent film - with, of all things, a small, independent-style film forthinking adults, albeit one financed and distributed by the ...
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Reviews
Hotel
Dir/scr: Jessica Hausner.Austria. 2004. 82minsHotel is the kind of shaggy dog story that might have madean effective short but feels too insubstantial and enigmatic to measure up as afull-length film. The second feature from LovelyRita writer-director Jessica Hausner is only a partially successful attemptto inject some fresh ideas into the ...
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Reviews
Schizo (Shiza)
Dir: Guka OmarovaRuss-Kazahkstan-Fr-Ger. 2004. 90mins.Don't be fooled by themisleading English title, already used by at least two slasher pics. Kazhakfeature Schizo is a terse but gripping, elegantly crafted slice ofrealist drama, with an edge of low-life thriller. Evoking the desperate mood ofsubsistence-level life in the newly-independent Kazhakstan of the early ...
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Reviews
Criminal
Dir: Gregory Jacobs. US.2004. 87mins.Steven Soderbergh'slong-time first assistant director Gregory Jacobs gets a shot at being the topdog courtesy of Soderbergh's financing clout at Warner Bros with Criminal,a remake of 2000 Argentinian hit Nine Queens (Nuevas Reinas).Unfortunately, somewhere in the transfer of the sting caper from Buenos Airesto Los Angeles, ...
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Reviews
The Notebook
Dir: Nick Cassavetes. US.2004. 124mins.The positioning ofwomen's tearjerker The Notebook by New Line Cinema in the heart of summer blockbuster season may be oneof the more inspired distribution decisions this year. As gentle, lush andsappy as a thousand TV movies but distinguished by sumptuous production valuesand a great cast, The ...
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Reviews
Spider-Man 2
Dir:Sam Raimi. US. 2004. 127mins.There'sas much soul searching as web spinning in the sequel to summer 2002 box officechampion Spider-Man. Revealing more (literally as well asmetaphorically) of its superhero's human face, Spider-Man 2 - againdirected by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire as the comic book New Yorkcrime fighter - ...
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Reviews
Earth And Ashes
Dir. Atiq Rahimi.France/Afghanistan, 2004. 105mins.Any future attempt tocompile a visual history of the destructive folly which took hold of the humanrace at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st,will surely allocate a place of honour to this emblematic debut by Paris-basedAfghan film maker Atiq Rahimi.Going ...
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Reviews
Taegukgi (Taegukgi Hwinalrimyeo)
Dir: Kang Je-gyu. Korea.2004. 148 minsIs Kang Je-Gyu becoming theMichael Bay of Korean cinema' The director made a persuasive claim to the titlewith the slick conspiracy thriller Shiri (Swiri) which grabbedthe Korean box-office crown in 1999. Now, he moves into Pearl Harborterritory with Taegukgi, a sweeping wartime epic that combines ...
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Reviews
Dealer
Dir/scr.Benedek Flieghauf. Hungary. 2004. 160mins.Dark, brooding and slow, Benedek Flieghauf's second film,recently awarded the Best Director prize in Mar del Plata, is God's gift tofestivals, a feast for film buffs and art houses and a test of endurance formisguided audiences seeking pure entertainment. Thoseaccustomed to Hollywood and others' over-stylised view ...
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Reviews
Izo
Dir: Takashi Miike. 2004.Jap. 128mins.The bad boy of Japanesefilm, with a growing international following, Takashi Miike likes violence wellenough, injecting everything from slow torture to mass slaughter into his50-plus films. But until his latest, Izo,he had never done samurai swordfighting. The traditionalist genre, until younger film-makerscame along like Nakano (Samurai ...
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Reviews
Los Muertos
Dir/prod/scr/ed:Lisandro Alonso. Argentina. 2004. 78minsBewareof promising beginnings bearing false hopes. That would seem to be the lessonto be drawn from Los Muertos, the second feature from Argentiniandirector Lisandro Alonso. Alonso's debut feature was the memorably stultifying LaLibertad (2001), which lovingly covered the working life of a ruralwoodcutter. Los Muertos signals ...
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Reviews
Or
Dir:Keren Yedaya. Israel-Fr. 2004. 100mins.This intimate, visually stylised but rather loose firstfictional film by Keren Yedaya paints a raw, grim and uncompromising portraitof the relationship between an adolescent girl and her prostitute mother, andthe daughter's effort to get her parent once and for all off the streets.Yedaya,a socially-conscious activist who ...
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Reviews
Ma Mere
Dir: Christophe Honore.France. 2004. 109 mins.It's not difficult to seewhy second-time director Christophe Honore was surprised when Ma Mere,his incest-laced study of sexual obsession was turned down by the Cannesselection committee: it is, after all, much more of a festival film than acommercial prospect. Striking in its stark cinematic language, ...
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Reviews
Steamboy
Dir/scr: Katsuhiro Otomo.Jap. 2004. 126mins.In 1988, with his debut feature Akira,Katsuhiro Otomo introduced the world to the post-apocalyptic future,Japanese-style - and spurred a global boom for Japanese animation that has yetto subside. Sixteen years later, he is back with Steamboy, an animatedepic set in the London of 1866, when the ...
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Reviews
Around The World In 80 Days
Dir: Frank Coraci. US.2004. 119mins.Walden Media's costly self-financed family adventurefinally hits the screens with the Walt Disney Pictures stamp on it and provesworthy of the honour. Jules Verne purists and lovers of the three-hour 1956classic will do best to stay away, but family audiences will be guaranteed agood-natured summer entertainment ...
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Reviews
Los Muertos
Dir/prod/scr/ed:Lisandro Alonso. Argentina. 2004. 78minsBewareof promising beginnings bearing false hopes. That would seem to be the lessonto be drawn from Los Muertos, the second feature from Argentiniandirector Lisandro Alonso. Alonso's debut feature was the memorably stultifying LaLibertad (2001), which lovingly covered the working life of a ruralwoodcutter. Los Muertos signals ...