Latest – Page 696
-
Reviews
On The Road To Emmaus
Dir: Markku Polonen. Finland. 2001. 77mins.Markku Polonen has been on Finland's film-making scene for nearly two decades, but On The Road To Emmaus buzzes with the irrepressible anarchic spirit of a first or second feature. Premiered in Helsinki last October, the film had local critics calling Polonen a Finnish Fellini ...
-
Reviews
The Diaries Of Vaslav Nijinsky
Dir: Paul Cox. Australia. 2002. 95 mins.One of prolific Paul Cox's most admired movies is his 1987 'docudrama' Vincent, a portrait of Van Gogh told by flowing imagery and close inspection of the paintings in situ, accompanied by voice over excerpts (read by John Hurt) from Vincent's letters to his ...
-
Reviews
Stones (Piedras)
Dir: Ramon Salazar. Spain. 2001. 130mins.Some Spanish critics have seen Ramon Salazar as Pedro Almodovar's heir, and Stones certainly looks on paper like a sequel to the latter's 1991 comedy High Heels: it tells five women's interlocking stories through their feelings about their feet. The female-dominated subject, a light scattering ...
-
Reviews
Coastlines
Dir Victor Nunez. US. 2002. 116min.Coastlines, Victor Nunez's latest film to be set on the unique landscape of Florida's unfamiliar coast, should be regarded as an instalment in his Panhandle trilogy, a follow-up to the poetic Ruby In Paradise (1993) and character-driven Ulee's Gold (1997), which featured Peter Fonda in ...
-
Reviews
Every Stewardess Goes To Heaven
Dir: Daniel Burman. Argentina/Spain. 2001. 98mins.A brooding, fatalistic romance, faintly reminiscent of Julio Medem's Lovers Of The Arctic Circle or Vincent Ward's A Map Of The Human Heart in mood, Every Stewardess Goes To Heaven establishes third-time director Daniel Burman as a talent to watch. Burman's first two films, A ...
-
Reviews
Dragonfly
Dir Tom Shadyac. US. 2002. 104min.The Mothman Prophecies meets Patch Adams in Dragonfly, a preposterously plotted, highly sentimental supernatural thriller that lacks suspense or credibility even on its own terms. A star vehicle for Kevin Costner, who has not had a decent role in a long time, this manipulative hokum ...
-
Reviews
We Were Soldiers
Dir: Randall Wallace. US. 2002. 140min.The war genre, vigorously energised with such seminal films as Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and Ridley Scott's visually impressive Black Hawk Down, takes several steps backwards with We Were Soldiers, an old-fashioned, moralistic Vietnam war movie that pays tribute not just to the soldiers in ...
-
Reviews
Walking On Water
Dir: Tony Ayres. Australia. 2002. 90 mins.An exploration of premature death and how to grieve for a loved one who had lived outside of a conventional family, Walking On Water resembles Longtime Companion (1990) and similar independent American films to emerge from the Aids epidemic in the early Nineties; it ...
-
Reviews
The Cockettes
Dir: David Weissman & Bill Weber. US. 2002. 99mins.This marvellously evocative documentary was a clear audience favourite at the Sundance Film Festival, and was equally well-received at its Panorama screening in Berlin this week. A bidding war for US rights is underway and international arthouse buyers are also likely ...
-
Reviews
On_Line
Dir: Jed Weintrob. USA. 2001. 85mins.A romantic comedy about a group of young New Yorkers looking for sex and possibly even love on the Internet, On_Line offers a refreshing alternative to such feeble Hollywood attempts to milk the theme as the Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks movie You've Got Mail. Shot in ...
-
Reviews
Monday Morning (Lundi Matin)
Dir: Otar Iosselliani. Fr/It, 2002. 122 mins.The first ten minutes of Georgian director Otar Iosselliani's delicate new film break all those script workshop rules about snappy, cut-to-the-chase montage. We see a man getting up, having breakfast, going downstairs, crossing a muddy yard, getting into his car, driving, parking, catching the ...
-
Reviews
Baader
Dir: Christopher Roth. Germany. 2002. 129mins.As all Sixties survivors know, that decade had nothing to do with political protest. This portrait of Andreas Baader, the founder, with Ulrike Meinhof, of the notorious Baader-Meinhof group, reveals what it was really about: spouting vague revolutionary slogans, listening to some rather good music ...
-
Reviews
Secretary
Dir: Steven Shainberg. US. 2002. 112min.Audacious, offbeat and darkly humorous, Steven Shainberg's Secretary, based on Mary Gaitskill's critically acclaimed novella Bad Behaviour, tells an utterly bizarre love story between an enigmatic attorney and his highly insecure secretary. Maggie Gyllenhaal renders an exquisite performance as the troubled young woman ...
-
Reviews
Queen Of The Damned
Dir Michael Rymer. US 2002. 100 min.A new star is born in Queen Of The Damned, the horror picture based on Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles and a follow-up to Neil Jordan's Interview With The Vampire, which was also produced by Warner Bros. Assuming the role of Lestat ...
-
Reviews
Crossroads
Dir Tamra Davis. US 2002. 95 min.Naive and amateurish in both the positive and negative sense of these terms, Crossroads, Britney Spears' feature screen debut, provides a decent showcase for the pop icon and youth symbol, who seems to be everywhere this month. As a coming of age yarn, ...
-
Reviews
The Trespasser (O Invasor)
Dir: Beto Brant. Brazil, 2001. 98mins.Ten years ago, Brazilian cinema was almost dead and buried. But Beto Brant's third full-length feature is further proof that the revival that hit paydirt with Walter Salles' Central Station is far from over. The Trespasser, which screened in Berlin after an outing at Sundance, ...
-
Reviews
Big Fat Liar
Dir: Shawn Levy. US. 2002. 87 mins.The appeal of rising teen stars Frankie Muniz and Amanda Bynes, coupled with some broad comedy and a parent-friendly moral message, have already been enough to give Big Fat Liar a good start at the US box office, taking $13.5m from 2,531 sites in ...
-
Reviews
Rollerball
Dir: John McTiernan. US. 2002. 100mins.Delayed from last summer and re-edited to better appeal to the youth market, John McTiernan's remake of 1970s cult favourite Rollerball finally arrives on screen as a confused and none too thrilling blur of tenuously linked action sequences. The videogame-style violence, flashy cars, semi-naked chicks ...
-
Reviews
The Three Marias
Dir Aluizio Abranches. It-Brazil. 2002. 103mins.Part Brazilian Western, part Jacobean tragedy in Tarantino sauce, Aluizio Abranches’ The Three Marias is a stylish follow up to the London-trained director’s 1999 debut, the festival-pleasing A Glass Of Rage (Un Copo De Colera). This was a surprise indie hit in Italy - which ...
-
Reviews
Amen
Dir: Costa-Gavras. France. 2001. 132mins.Costa-Gavras is no stranger to controversy; in fact, the hard-hitting political expose has become something of his stock-in-trade. But in the 20 years since Missing, the Greek-born director has struggled to find a distinctive voice. Betrayed and Music Box, his two collaborations with screenplay king Joe ...