Latest – Page 667
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Reviews
Twentynine Palms
Dir. Bruno Dumont. France/Germany, 2003. 119mins.It's The Brown Bunny syndrome all over again. This time, two people driving in a car instead of one, covering only a small part of Southern California instead of the entire continent. And granted, there is a lot more sex, not particularly attractive but quite ...
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Reviews
Vodka Lemon
Dir: Hiner Saleem. France/Italy/Switzerland/Armenia. 2003. 84minsThe bittersweet realities of a post-Communist world are threatening to create a mini movie genre. A good deal of the sly humour in Good Bye, Lenin! stemmed from a nostalgic longing for life before the fall of the Berlin Wall. In Vodka Lemon, a snowy, ...
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Reviews
21 Grams
Dir: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. USA. 2003. 124 mins.Emotionally draining but formally brilliant, the long-awaited second feature by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu is for those of us who are passionate about cinema, and who don't mind taking a few body blows in a dark room in the process. The high ...
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Reviews
Touching The Void
Dir: Kevin Macdonald. UK. 2003. 106 minsAn extraordinary story of human survival is transformed into an exceptional human interest documentary in Touching The Void. Director Kevin Macdonald's first theatrical project since the Oscar-winning One Day In September is as dramatic and compelling as any Hollywood fiction but carries a much ...
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Reviews
The Five Obstructions (De Fem Benspaend)
Dir: Lars von Trier, Jorgen Leth. Denmark. 2003. 91 mins.This two hander by the Great Dane, Lars Von Trier, and his older colleague and compatriot Jorgen Leth, is one of the most thought-provoking slices of cinema we are likely to see this year. It is in many ways a more ...
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Reviews
Goodbye Dragon Inn
Dir. Tsai Ming-Liang. Taiwan, 2003. 82 mins.Tsai Ming-Liang will once again be taking his new film to all the festivals in sight and will see it displayed at a select choice of art houses around the globe, for another mystifying encounter that will delight his fans and baffle everyone else. ...
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Reviews
Underworld
Dir: Len Wiseman. US-UK-Germany-Hungary. 2003. 121 mins.A laughable exercise in Gothic gloom and pulpy horror movie cliches, Underworld is strictly for genre fans. The potential novelty of an age old blood feud between vampires and werewolves quickly fades in a film that sticks rigidly to the tried and trusted elements ...
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Reviews
The Company
Dir. Robert Altman. US-Germany. 2003. 112mins.A feast for balletomanes, but with very little else to offer the rest of the audience, Robert Altman's new film may be a splendid promo reel for Chicago's Joffrey Ballet Company. But do not expect anything like his brilliant forays into American music in Nashville, ...
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Reviews
Shattered Glass
Dir: Billy Ray. US. 2003. 99 mins.An utterly absorbing dramatisation of contemporary true events, Shattered Glass is a welcome reminder of the serious-minded venture that was once more prevalent in mainstream American cinema. A modern morality tale that reflects the clash between ambition and integrity, it recalls the kind of ...
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Reviews
In The Cut
Dir: Jane Campion. US/Fr. 2003. 113 mins.Describing Jane Campion's latest opus In The Cut as a serial killer thriller is as simplistic as calling The Piano a coming-of-age story. Yes, the skeleton of the film is a genre thriller about a woman caught among a string of suspects in a ...
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Reviews
In The Cut
Dir: Jane Campion. US/Fr. 2003. 113 mins.Describing Jane Campion's latest opus In The Cut as a serial killer thriller is as simplistic as calling The Piano a coming-of-age story. Yes, the skeleton of the film is a genre thriller about a woman caught among a string of suspects in a ...
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Reviews
In The Cut review
Dir: Jane Campion. US/Fr. 2003. 113 mins.Describing Jane Campion's latest opus In The Cut as a serial killer thriller is as simplistic as calling The Piano a coming-of-age story. Yes, the skeleton of the film is a genre thriller about a woman caught among a string of suspects in a ...
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Reviews
Girl With A Pearl Earring
Dir: Peter Webber. UK/Luxembourg. 2003. 95 mins Crafted with all the delicate judgement and fine brushstrokes of an Old Master, Girl With A Pearl Earring is an exquisitely understated period drama rich in atmosphere and emotion. A faithful adaptation of the Tracey Chevalier best-seller, this marks an auspicious feature debut ...
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Reviews
A Good Lawyer's Wife
Dir: Im Sang Soo. Korea. 104 mins. 2003As an examination of the sexual shenanigans of a bourgeois couple, A Good Lawyer's Wife is a polished domestic drama, rich in energetic sex scenes and frank dialogue. And it carries a gut-wrenching twist mid-way through. For Korean audiences the elements of social ...
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Reviews
Bright Young Things
Dir: Stephen Fry. UK. 2003. 105 mins Actor, author, wit and incomparable awards host, Stephen Fry can now add auteur to his considerable list of achievements. The renaissance man of British entertainment, Fry has captured all the anxious, frazzled spirit of Evelyn Waugh's novel Vile Bodies in an exuberant directorial ...
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Reviews
Goodmorning, Night (Buongiorno, Notte)
Dir: Marco Bellocchio. Italy. 2003. 105 mins.Marco Bellocchio's passionate but controlled psychological study of Red Brigade terrorism is not the masterpiece that some Italian critics would claim; nor was Bellocchio 'robbed' of the Golden Lion at this year's Venice festival, which went to a better film, Andrey Zvyagintsev's The Return. ...
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Reviews
Out Of Time
Dir: Carl Franklin. US. 2003. 114 mins. This lightweight sub-noir thriller from director Carl Franklin is not merely implausible, it is preposterous. A star vehicle for Denzel Washington, who was reportedly paid $20m for his efforts, the film just about gets by on his megastar screen presence but stretches the ...
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Reviews
The Return (Vozvrashcheniye)
Dir. Andrei Zvygatinsev. Russia, 2003. 105 min.This intimate, almost metaphysical study of rebellion against parental authority does everything a Hollywood picture doesn't. Not only because it is refreshing to see, for a change, that adolescence does not relate only to sexual glands, but also because it takes a considerable risk ...
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Reviews
Gun-shy (Schussangst)
Dir. Dito Tsintsadze. Germany. 2003. 105 min.Gun-shy is a slow-burning yet always engaging psychological thriller that plots a merciless course to its devastating but inevitable conclusion. A story of compulsion leavened by surreal elements - there is dark humour but no quirkiness for quirkiness' sake - it should find a ...
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Reviews
The Saddest Music In The World
Dir. Guy Maddin. Canada. 2003. 99 min.Canadian auteur Guy Maddin is considered by many an unheralded cinematic genius. The Saddest Music In The World will change that at home: Canadian audiences will give this raucous comedy the art-house welcome it richly deserves. Abroad, it will test the ingenuity of international ...