Latest – Page 630
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Reviews
Bee Season
Dirs: Scott McGehee,David Siegel US. 2005. 104mins.Makers of hand-craftedindividual items rather than mass-produced merchandise, directing partnersScott McGehee and David Siegel have built a career on the unpredictable. Theirmuch admired, low-budget indie drama Suture (1993) was eventuallyfollowed by The Deep End (2001), an icily elegant re-imagining of theMax Ophuls film noir ...
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Reviews
North Country
Dir: Niki Caro. US. 2005.123mins.After scoring a worldwidehit with the Oscar-nominated Whale Rider, New Zealand director Niki Caromakes a strong follow-up with her first Hollywood movie North Country.Loosely based on the truestory of a Minnesota woman crusading against sexual harassment in theworkplace, the film is compelling social issues storytelling in ...
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Reviews
Perhaps Love (Ruguo Ai)
Dir: Peter Ho-sun Chan.HK-Ch-Malay. 2005. 108mins.The seeming Chineseanswer to Moulin Rouge, Perhaps Love is a lavish butinsubstantial musical love story with pan-Asian cinema and music stars Zhou Xun(Suzhou River, The Little Chinese Seamstress) and TakeshiKaneshiro (Chungking Express, House Of Flying Daggers) in theNicole and Ewan roles.It's an odd mix: arthouse ...
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Reviews
Initial D (Taumanchi D)
Dirs: Andrew Lau, AlanMak. HK. 2005. 107mins.After the InfernalAffairs trilogy, directing duo Andrew Lau and Alan Mak seem to have theMidas touch. This year's summer blockbuster in Hong Kong, Initial D nudged a$5m gross at home - more than War Of The Worlds and Batman Beginsput together.Loosely working from ShiuchiShigeno's ...
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Reviews
Fragile (Fragiles)
Dir: Jaume Balaguero.Sp-UK. 2005. 98mins.Fragile's the word.Spanish horror specialist Jaume Balaguero fails to impress with his follow-upto the psycho-thriller Darkness, which grossed over $22m at the US boxoffice, despite downbeat reviews. A stale spooky-hospital yarn, Fragilesuffers from poor suspense management and the gelid obnoxiousness of thecentral nurse character, played by ...
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Reviews
Separate Lies
Dir: Julian Fellowes. UK2005. 85mins.Actor-turned-screenwriter-turned-novelistJulian Fellowes adds another string to his bow with Separate Lies, anauspicious directorial debut that produces a staunchly old-fashioned butnonetheless taut and adult marital drama.Based on a 1951 novel byNigel Balchin, the film applies insightful psychological realism to tensionsbetween well-heeled middle-class adults. As such it is ...
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Reviews
Walk The Line
Dir: James Mangold. US. 2005. 135mins.More the story of the romance between Johnny Cash and JuneCarter than a straight biopic of Cash, the eagerly awaited Walk The Line isa winning Hollywood entertainment dominated by two bright star performancesfrom Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.Wide audiences will lap up the drama, especially ...
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Reviews
Just Like Heaven
Dir: Mark Waters. US.2005. 95mins.Despite another winningstar turn from Reese Witherspoon in the lead role, Just Like Heaven feelslike a convoluted blend of other movies from Ghost to While You WereSleeping to Sleepless In Seattle to What Dreams May Come.Set to be released byDreamWorks in North America on Sept 16 ...
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Reviews
Don't Tell
Dir:Cristina Comencini. It-UK-Sp-Fr. 2005. 120mins.Thestrongest of the three Italian films in competition at Venice this year, Don'tTell will nevertheless struggle to extend worthy local director CristinaComenicini's limited international appeal.GiovannaMezzogiorno's gritty performance as a soon-to-be-mother forced to deal for thefirst time with the ghosts of child abuse in her childhood netted ...
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Reviews
Capote
Dir. Bennett Miller. US. 2005. 110mins.Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers agalvanising and awards-worthy performance in Capote, the superbdramatisation of US novelist Truman Capote at the zenith of his career: the sixyears from 1959 to 1965 that he devoted to his ground-breaking 'non-fiction'novel In Cold Blood.But the real star of the show ...
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Reviews
Tristram Shandy: A Cock And Bull Story
Dir: Michael Winterbottom. UK. 2005. 91mins.Michael Winterbottom's deliriously funny film-about-a-filmof 18th century novel Tristram Shandy is the prolific director's mostenjoyable feature to date. Based around the gigantic comic talents of SteveCoogan, A Cock And Bull Story is both Winterbottom's affectionate homageto film-making itself and a snapshot of UK talent and ...
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Reviews
Mrs Henderson Presents
Dir: Stephen Frears. UK.2005. 103mins.A jaunty combination ofsocial history, screwball comedy and theatrical kitsch, Mrs HendersonPresents offers a sparkling, emotion-charged stroll down memory lane. Adeliciously witty script by Martin Sherman is seized upon with relish by JudiDench who gives a spellbinding, tour de force as the merry widow behindLondon's Windmill ...
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Reviews
Shopgirl
Dir: Anand Tucker. US.2005. 106mins.Shopgirl is a love letter to Clare Danes. The camera caressesher features, gazes adoringly into her tear-filled eyes and celebrates hertalent in a way that has rarely been seen since the MGM heyday of George Cukor.If you weren't besotted byher before then you should be after ...
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Reviews
Shopgirl
Dir: Anand Tucker. US.2005. 106mins.Shopgirl is a love letter to Clare Danes. The camera caressesher features, gazes adoringly into her tear-filled eyes and celebrates hertalent in a way that has rarely been seen since the MGM heyday of George Cukor.If you weren't besotted byher before then you should be after ...
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Reviews
Thank You For Smoking
Dir. Jason Reitman. US.2005. 92mins.First-time director JasonReitman pulls off the miraculous feat of creating a single-issue comedy thatretains its freshness and drive throughout with his satire Thank You ForSmoking.It's a bristling, wickedlysmart portrait of a lobbyist named Nick Naylor (Eckhart), who makes his living orrather, in the running motif that ...
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Reviews
L'Enfer
Dir: DanisTanovic. Fr-It-Bel-Jap. 2005. 98mins.Forget everythingyou thought you knew about Danis Tanovic, whose debut feature No Man's Land(2001) won the best foreign language Oscar. L'Enfer, his sophomoreeffort, leaves behind his native Balkan territory and its stalemate politics totackle a far more subtle, complex and less evident theme.The script he useswas ...
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Reviews
Sympathy For Lady Vengeance
Dir: Park Chan-wook. SKor. 2005. 113mins.Few contemporarydirectors are able to mix genres and moods as confidently as Park Chan-wook -and get away with it. The third and final part of the Korean director'sJacobean revenge trilogy, after Sympathy For Mr Vengeance and Oldboy,is the most daring of the lot in the ...
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Reviews
Edmond
Dir: Stuart Gordon. US.2005. 81mins.You never know how aDavid Mamet adaptation is going to turn out. The best of the last 10 years, Oleanna,was the one that stayed closest to its stage original in the college settingand the claustrophobic one-to-one stand-off of the two main characters.William H Macy starred thereand ...
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Reviews
Pride & Prejudice
Dir Joe Wright. 2005UK-US-Fr. 127mins.There'sno question that 19th-century English novelist Jane Austen still has shapelylegs. Ang Lee's Sense & Sensibility (1995) enjoyed seven Oscarnominations (including best picture) and $134m box-office worldwide, $43m fromthe US alone, while Colin Firth owes his career to a 1995 BBC version of Pride & Prejudice ...
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Reviews
Mary
Dir: Abel Ferrara.It-Fr-US. 2005. 83mins.Watching Abel Ferrara's Maryis like watching an odd religious ritual taking place in a language we onlyhalf understand. We recognise the power of the ceremony, and the commitment ofthose involved - but as for what the hell is going on, and what it all means,and whether ...