Latest – Page 658
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Reviews
House Of Flying Daggers
Dir/scr: ZhangYimou. Chi-HK. 2004. 119minsBeyond a doubt the mostvisually ravishing film on offer at Cannes this year, Zhang Yimou's return tothe sword-fighting genre - following last year's Hero - mixes action,romance and a touch of dance to uneven but often thrilling effect.Acquired by Sony PicturesClassics in the US, the film ...
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Reviews
2046
Dir/scr: Wong kar-wai. HongKong. 2004. 128 minsThe title may suggest aspace age drama but Wong Kar-Wai's long-awaited 2046 proves to be anelaborate, languorous continuation of In The Mood For Love that revisitsthe Tony Leung character as he once again struggles with the impermanence andimpossibility of true love. The restraint and ...
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Reviews
Dear Frankie
Dir:Shona Auerbach. UK. 2004. 105minsItis unfortunate, but Dear Frankie is a perfectly good film that tells astory which has been seen too many times before. It is the eternal search ofthe child for a missing parent, accompanied by poverty and a curmudgeonlygrandparent with a heart of gold.Thatsaid, Dear Frankie, which ...
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Reviews
The Holy Girl (La Nina Santa)
Dir/scr.Lucrecia Martel Arg-Spain-It. 2004. 106minsThecombination of Catholic anxiety and female sexual awakening is hardly a novelone in auteur cinema, but it receives an idiosyncratically oblique treatment inThe Holy Girl. Director-writer Lucrecia Martel made her name with debut TheSwamp (La Cienaga), which marked her out as a central figure of thenew ...
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Reviews
Look At Me (Comme Une Image)
Dir/scr:Agnes Jaoui. France. 2004. 110minsFiveyears after her hugely successful directorial debut Le Gout Des Autres,Agnes Jaoui rewards her impatient admirers with Look At Me (Comme UneImage), a wise and witty ensemble exploration of individuals attempting toovercome their own insecurities and the wounding tyranny of other people'sexpectations. Reminiscentof vintage Woody Allen, ...
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Reviews
The Edukators
Dir:Hans Weingartner. Ger-Aust. 2004. 126minsThefirst German film to screen in competition in Cannes in a decade, HansWeingartner's second feature The Edukators is a fresh and likable taleof youthful idealism. Boosted by a standout performance by Daniel Bruehl (oneof Europe's fastest-rising stars), vigorously shot in a hand-held style - whichmight best ...
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Reviews
The Assassination Of Richard Nixon
Dir:Niels Mueller. US. 2004. 103minsLastyear at Cannes, Mystic River marked out Sean Penn as an early best actorOscar contender. This year, The Assassination Of Richard Nixon doesexactly the same. Currently in the prime of his career, Penn adds to his recentrun of outstanding work with a performance that captures every ...
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Reviews
9 Songs
Dir: MichaelWinterbottom. UK. 2004. 65minsAlthough scarcely inmid-career, Michael Winterbottom has attempted almost every available filmgenre in which to test his considerable talents. 9 Songs, filmeddigitally, like his 2003 Berlin Golden Bear winner In This World, is hisbest shot at a film about sex.You could almost call it aporn movie - ...
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Reviews
Bad Santa
Dir: Terry Zwigoff. US.2003. 91mins.With little advancepublicity, Bad Santa breezed intoNorth American theatres last Christmas like a breath of fresh air. Into a genreof films - the Christmas movie - traditionally dominated by sweetness andschmaltz (see The Santa Clause, Elf et al), Terry Zwigoff'sR-rated comedy injected a dose of profanity ...
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Reviews
Fahrenheit 911
Dir/scr: Michael Moore.US. 2004. 112minsA generation ago, thedogged, unwavering efforts of investigative journalists Bob Woodward and CarlBernstein helped to dislodge a president from power. Times change but couldhistory repeat itself with Fahrenheit 911' Probably not, but MichaelMoore's blistering documentary offers such a comprehensive assault on thefailings, lies and deceptions of ...
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Reviews
The Consequences Of Love (Las Consecuencias Del Amor)
Dir/scr:Paolo Sorrentino, Italy. 2004. 100minsAn ice-coolexistential drama neatly poised on the borderline of thriller territory, PaoloSorrentino's elegant second feature marks the Neapolitan writer-director assomeone who knows just how to impose an individual stamp on idiosyncraticmaterial. A hyper-stylised, often slyly witty portrait of a loner in crisis,the film possibly gestures in ...
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Reviews
Life Is A Miracle (Zivot Je Cudo)
Dir:Emir Kusturica. Fr-Serb-Mont. 2004. 154minsExperiencingan Emir Kusturica film is like being stone cold sober in a room of drunken,overwrought revellers. Life Is A Miracle is no exception. A boisterousbear hug of a film, it explores the bitter ironies of the Bosnian-Serbianconflict with an irrepressible appetite for the joys and sorrows ...
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Reviews
Thunderbirds
Dir. Jonathan Frakes. US. 2004. 90 min.Thunderbirds, the 1960s UK television series starring action-hero marionettes and model rockets, has been given the big-screen, live-action tween treatment, and the result is a bouncing colourful kid-friendly romp. That it is entirely unrecognisable from the series is beside the point. It's a triumph ...
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Reviews
Thunderstruck
Dir: Darren Ashton. Australia. 2004. 100minsFor vitality, volume and pace the team behind high-octane rock 'n' rollroad movie Thunderstruck can't be faulted. The debut feature fromfirst-timers Darren Ashton (director), Jodi Matterson (producer) and ShaunAngus Hall (writer), it follows the members of a failed rock group, first atthe height of their ...
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Reviews
Control (Kontroll)
Dir: Antal Nimrod. Hungary. 2003. 105 mins.Displaying anenergetic drive seldom seen in East European cinema, Antal Nimrod'sdebut feature Control has enjoyed that rare feat of satisfying both thebox office (it was Hungary's biggest draw of 2003) and the critics (it has wona clutch of local awards). Successfully combining the dynamic ...
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Reviews
Casshern
Dir/scr/cine: KazuakiKiriya. Japan. 2004. 141mins.With digital technology,it is now possible to create big, visionary movies without breaking budgets -even those of the Japanese film industry. The result has been a spate ofJapanese films, such as Mamoru Oshii's Innocence, screening incompetition at Cannes, and Katsuhiro Otomo's forthcoming Steam Boy, thattake up ...
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Reviews
Mean Girls
Dir: Mark Waters. US.2004. 97 mins.A cut above the low-cost teenage movies churned out of Hollywood studiosthese days, Mean Girls is a smart comedy with an acerbic edge which hasalready found a wide audience in North America, taking more than $42m after twoweeks on release, and should carve out a ...
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Reviews
Troy
Dir: Wolfgang Petersen.US. 2004. 155mins.If, in the end, Troy fails to stir the heart as much as it dazzles theeye, it is nevertheless one of the most intelligent and ambitious tentpoleblockbusters to come out of Hollywood in some time. After all, it took someguts and not a little hubris to ...