Latest – Page 670
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Reviews
8.17pm, Darling Street (20.17, Rue Darling)
Dir: Bernard Emond. Canada. 2003. 101minsInexplicable tragedy prompts a soul-searching quest for the meaning of life in 8.17pm Darling Street, a modestly effective but resolutely glum second feature from writer-director Bernard Emond whose debut, La Femme Qui Boit also screened in Critics' Week in 2001. Addressing the guilt of those ...
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Reviews
Sansa
Dir: Siegfried. France. 2003. 115minsSansa wants to be a profound and moving cinematic experience, perhaps something like a hyped-up tone poem. It is even called 'an essay' rather than a film. Toward that end, writer-director Siegfried employs every trick he can that is available in the panoply of the ...
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Reviews
Arimpara
Dir: Murali Nair. India-Jap. 2003. 90minsDirector Murali Nair's Throne Of Death and A Dog's Day were feted at Cannes, the former with the coveted Camera d'Or for best first feature. But Arimpara, which screened in Un Certain Regard, has not gone down so well, and it certainly has its problems. ...
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Reviews
The Soul Of A Man
Dir: Wim Wenders. Germany. 2003. 100minsWim Wenders' The Soul Of A Man, which screened earlier this year at Sundance and played at Cannes as a special screening, is the first in a series of seven films about that quintessential American art form, the blues. Other notable directors taking part are ...
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Reviews
A Little Bit Of Freedom
Dir: Yuksel Yavuz. Germany. 2003. 101minsAwell-intentioned attempt to explore the fate of Kurdish immigrants, both legal and illegal, living on the streets of Hamburg and the illusion of freedom they enjoy there, Yuksel Yavuz's second feature seeks to cover too much ground and ultimately delivers too little for its efforts. ...
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Reviews
La Chose Publique
Dir: Mathieu Amalric. France. 2003. 85minsAnd you thought they didn't make them like this any more' an old-fashioned political essay in film-on-film, the latest from director Mathieu Amalric - better known as an actor, though he does not cast himself here - wears its Godard influences proudly on its sleeve, ...
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Reviews
Mike Brant: Laisse Moi T'Aimer
Dir. Erez Laufer. Israel/France. 2002. 101mins.A natural for French markets, this account of the meteoric rise and fatal crash of Israeli performer Mike Brant, who became one of Paris's shiniest stars in the early 1970s, is more than a nostalgia piece. Instead it plays as a cautionary tale about a ...
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Reviews
Raja
Dir: Jacques Doillon. France-Morocco. 2003. 112mins.The latest excursion by the director of Ponette - which scooped a Venice Best Actress prize in 1996 for underage star Victoire Thivisol - is a prickly and at times inaccessible meditation on the nature of colonial and sexual power in present-day Morocco. Though its ...
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Reviews
The Boys From County Clare
Dir: John Irvin. Ireland/UK/Germany. 2003. 90 minsWarm in spirit but slight in terms of substance, The Boys From County Clare is a lightweight period charmer. Attractively photographed and ably performed, it is a nice little inoffensive film that lacks the bite or grit to make much headway in theatrical terms. ...
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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 ...