Latest – Page 567
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Reviews
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day
Dir. Bharat Nalluri, UK, 2008, 92 minutes.Set in lavishly-decadent pre-war London, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is a grown-up Cinderella story about a middle-aged jobless governess who schemes to be social secretary to an American Lolita, who, in turn, schemes to be a singer. Bharat Nalluri's unimaginative, awkwardly-scripted farcereminds ...
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Reviews
Semi-Pro
Dir: Kent Alterman. US. 2008. 91 mins.Characteristically anarchic, loosely structured and unabashedly blue, Will Ferrell's new comedy Semi-Pro ably skewers both second-tier professional basketball and the regrettable fashion of the early 1970s, ranking in the top half of the comedian's roster of sports parodies (a list which includes Kicking and ...
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Reviews
The Investigator (A Nyomozo)
Dir: Attila Gigor. Hungary / Sweden/Ireland 2007. 110 mins.This quirky little thriller brings to mind Patricia Highsmith's Ripley series, where the perverted morality of the ending requires the reader to take sides with the villain. Here, a gruff pathologist (Anger) takes on the role of a contract killer only to ...
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Reviews
The Accidental Husband
Dir: Griffin Dunne. US. 2008. 90minsUma Thurman's recent track record with romantic comedy is not auspicious - neither Prime (2005) nor My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006) turned out to be major box-office contenders. The Accidental Husband, however, should improve her standing in this genre. There is nothing unpredictable about this glossy, ...
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Reviews
The Bank Job
Dir: Roger Donaldson. US/UK/Australia. 2008. 111 mins.The juicy combination of a Royal sex scandal, high-level corruption and the perfect crime provides The Bank Job with too many options for its own good. An entertaining recreation of true events from the 1970s, it veers between larkish, old-fashioned Italian Job-style caper, Scandal-like ...
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Reviews
Vantage Point
Dir: Pete Travis. US. 2008. 90 mins.Although it's a thriller based around a familiar, Rashomon-style concept, Vantage Point ratchets up its intensity so effectively that the film's lack of originality hardly matters. The assassination of the US president is told through the perspective of different eyewitnesses, with each variation offering ...
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Reviews
Drifting Flowers (Piao Lang Qing Chun)
Dir: Zero Chou. Taiwan, 2007. 97 mins.Following on from last year's Spider Lilies and seemingly catering for the same market - gay festivals and specialised distribution - Zero Chou's episodic drama about unrequited love through childhood, adolescence and old age is another step in her 'Rainbow Colours' project about finding ...
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Reviews
Motherland (La Terramadre)
Dir: Nello La Marca. Italy. 2008. 120mins.Italian director Nello La Marca's first narrative feature Motherland (La terramadre) is a neorealist drama about economic disenfranchisement that explores the intertwined fates of two radically different people trying to survive in the dirt-poor southern Sicilian city of Palma di Montechiaro .La Marca has ...
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Reviews
Before The Fall (3 Dias)
Dir: Francisco Javier Gutierrez. Spain 2008. 93 mins.The buzz surrounding this Spanish sci-fi thriller at Berlin was fuelled by both the co-production involvement of Antonio Banderas and the news that Euro genre giant Filmax had picked up international rights. It's difficult to see what all the fuss is about: for ...
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Reviews
Everything is Fine (Tout est parfait)
Dir: Yves Christian Fournier. Canada. 2008. 118mins.Quebec director Yves Christian Fournier's first feature, Everything is Fine, is a sombre, frequently moving portrait limning the emotional and social aftermath of a tragedy. Fournier's reach sometimes exceeds his grasp, but his complicated and nuanced study of sorrow and loss is sharpened by ...
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Reviews
Jerusalema
Dir/scr: Ralph Ziman. South Africa. 2008. 118mins.The third feature of Ralph Ziman, the new South African action movie Jerusalema is reportedly drawn from actual events. More accurately it is inspired from the watching of a lot of movies, combining and cannily poaching parts of the original Scarface, Superfly, GoodFellas, New ...
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Reviews
Heart Of Fire (Feuerherz)
Dir: Luigi Falorni. Germany/Austria. 2008. 94 mins.Inspired by the memoir of the same name by Senait G Mehari, Luigi Falorni's Heart Of Fire is valuable as a document illustrating the absurdity of using child soldiers in any conflict as well as a glimpse into the specific struggle for liberation in ...
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ReviewsI've Loved You So Long... (Il Ya Longtemps Que Je T'aime...)
Dir: Philippe Claudel. France/Germany. 2008. 110 mins.
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Reviews
Restless
Dir: Amos Kollek. Israel/ Canada/ Germany/ France/ Belgium, 2007. 100 mins.Back home in Israel after many years of self-imposed exile in Manhattan, Amos Kollek presents Restless as his most personal film to date. With a reputation as an American independent specializing in portraits of anti-social dropouts, he has apparently decided ...
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Reviews
Another Love Story (Mare, Nossa Historia de Amor)
Dir: Lucia Murat. Brazil/France/Uruguay. 2008. 105 mins.'It's the West Side Story of the Brazilian favelas'. Indeed - but for all the energy, goodwill and rhythmic drive of this colourful teen musical, what sounds great on the poster is less convincing on the screen. Though some of the dance sequences are ...
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Reviews
Beautiful
Dir: Juhn Jaihong Korea, 2007. 88minsBeautiful, whose original title in Korean is the mellifluous 'Arumbdabda', is often confused and sometimes, especially near the end, even downright silly, but it's never wholly without interest. Its first-time 30-year-old director, Juhn Jaihong, is a protege of Kim Ki-duk, the prodigiously productive and internationally-known ...
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Reviews
Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell
Dir: Matt Wolf. US. 2008. 70mins.A long-neglected cult musician gets his well-deserved moment in the limelight in Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, a moving, celebratory documentary that will turn many viewers on to its subject's strange, compelling sounds. Expect neither myth-making nor music-biz scandal from this level-headed, informative ...