Latest – Page 696
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Reviews
Spider
Dir. David Cronenberg, Can-UK. 2002. Screened in CompetitionDavid Cronenberg has described Spider as "pure". This is something of an understatement. An uncompromising portrait of mental disturbance, Spider makes Cronenberg's previous Competition entry Crash seem commercial; whereas the 1996 film promised attractions such as cars and sex, Spider has nothing to ...
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Reviews
Morvern Callar
Dir: Lynne Ramsay. UK. 2002. 97mins. Screened in Director's FortnightA mesmerising journey through the hidden depths of a woman's soul, Morvern Callar confirms writer-director Lynne Ramsay as one of the most audacious and uncompromising British filmmakers of her generation. Poetic, stunningly beautifully and untainted by crass commercial concerns, it is ...
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Reviews
Sweet Sixteen
Director: Ken Loach. UK. 2002. 106mins. Screened in Competition.Continuing the rich collaboration between director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty, Sweet Sixteen puts a very human face on the plight of the socially disadvantaged in modern Britain. The heartrending tragedy of a Scottish teenager struggling for his small share of ...
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Reviews
Spider
Dir. David Cronenberg, Can-UK. 2002. Screened in CompetitionDavid Cronenberg has described Spider as "pure". This is something of an understatement. An uncompromising portrait of mental disturbance, Spider makes Cronenberg's previous Competition entry Crash seem commercial; whereas the 1996 film promised attractions such as cars and sex, Spider has nothing to ...
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Reviews
Hong Kong's Cheung and Law plan epic Story Of Ah-Toi
Hong Kong on and off-screen partners Mabel Cheung and Alex Law are planning a giant leap in budget for their next production, provisionally titled The Story Of Ah-Toi, to be set in the US and written and directed by Law with Cheung producing.Throughout their career together, Law has written and ...
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Reviews
All Or Nothing
Dir: Mike Leigh. UK-France 2002. 127 mins.After a brief detour into history (and real-life individuals) with his 1999 Gilbert and Sullivan drama, Topsy Turvy, Mike Leigh returns to more familiar terrain with this subtle, precisely observed contemporary story of ordinary South London folk. Comic but also melancholy - although it ...
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Reviews
REVIEW: Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress
Dir: Dai Sijie. France. 2002. 116 mins.Un Certain Regard (Opening Film)The French connection makes Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress, a gentle, partly autobiographical coming-of-age tale from the Paris-based Chinese director Dai Sijie, a natural choice to open Un Certain Regard although, in the event, it emerges as on the ...
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Reviews
REVIEW: Bowling For Columbine
Dir: Michael Moore. US. 2002. 120 minsThose convinced that America is the home of the crazed and the land of the trigger happy will find ample support for their views in Bowling For Columbine. Michael Moore's emotive exploration of the constitutional right to bear arms is a wide-ranging, often shockingly ...
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Reviews
REVIEW: Kedma
Dir: Amos Gitai. Israel/France/Italy 2002. 100 mins.Following films such as Kadosh and his last Cannes entry Kippur, Kedma is the latest of Amos Gitai's provocative inquiries into Israeli history and identity. Set in 1948, seven days before the creation of the state of Israel, Kedma proposes a return to historical ...
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Reviews
REVIEW: Sex Is Comedy
Dir: Catherine Breillat. France. 2002. 92 mins.Director's FortnightA welcome reprieve from the joyless intensity of such recent succes de scandale as Romance and A Ma Soeur, Sex Is Comedy allows Catherine Breillat to reveal the kind of light touch and easy humour that some critics may have thought was beyond ...
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Reviews
REVIEW: Marie-Jo And Her Two Lovers
Dir: Robert Guediguian. France. 2001. 124 mins.In CompetitionRobert Guediguian's recent work has fallen into two distinct categories: his tough social stories set in Marseilles (A La Place Du Coeur; La Ville Est Tranquille) and the lighter "contes", or fantasies (Marius Et Jeanette; A L'Attaque!) set in L'Estaque, the working-class port ...
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Reviews
The Importance Of Being Earnest
Dir: Oliver Parker. UK/US. 2002. 97 mins. Three years ago, writer-director Oliver Parker and the UK's Fragile Films re-invented Oscar Wilde's relatively obscure An Ideal Husband for the big screen, opening out the play to delightful effect and earning critical plaudits as well as some impressive box office grosses ($18.5m ...
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Reviews
Insomnia
Dir: Christopher Nolan. US. 2002. 117 mins.Christopher Nolan, the promising writer-director behind Following and Memento, makes an elegant and assured transfer to big-budget, star-driven film-making with Insomnia, one of the rare Hollywood remakes of a European film which is as good as the original. Expertly crafted and eminently intelligent, Insomnia ...
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Reviews
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones
Dir: George Lucas. US. 2002. 143mins.It must be thankless being George Lucas. He may be wading in money, but critics and fans have treated his new Star Wars prequels with such intense scrutiny and disappointment that he has to realise his reputation as a legendary film-maker of 1970s classics American ...
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Reviews
The City Of No Limits (En La Ciudad Sin Limites)
Dir: Antonio Hernandez. Sp-Arg. 2001. 118minsAntonio Hernandez's ensemble feature is a dramatic gem, a beautifully scripted and acted film with a glossy look and universal tale that has the capacity to move audiences anywhere. It represents a marketing challenge to distributors due to its complex storyline and straddling of genres, ...
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Reviews
Smoking Room
Dirs: Julio Wallovits, Roger Gual. Spain. 2002. 89mins.This low-budget debut feature film seemingly came out of nowhere to quietly storm last week's Spanish Film Festival in Malaga, where it created buzz among critics, crowds and even international buyers gathered for a sidebar market. The film marks the debut of ...
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Reviews
Thunderpants
Dir: Peter Hewitt. UK-Germany. 2002. 84mins. The big selling point of Thunderpants for its target audience will also be the main deterrent for their chaperones: the idea of a nondescript, none-too-bright 10-year-old boy with a single extraordinary talent for farting. Our hero's peer group will, of course, love this premise. ...
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Reviews
Femme Fatale
Dir: Brian De Palma. Fr-US 2002. 110mins. With its chances and coincidences, doubles, dream sequences and alternative endings, Femme Fatale is an enigmatic European art-movie lightly disguised as a Hollywood genre thriller. There is certainly enough eye-popping sex and spectacle to steer it to decent box-office returns. In France ...
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Reviews
Australian Rules
Dir: Paul Goldman. Australia. 2002. 98mins.The Australian success of Phillip Noyce's Rabbit-Proof Fence has opened distribution doors previously locked to depictions of Aboriginal issues and racial conflict. In its wake comes Australian Rules, a biting reminder of the distance that still exists between white and indigenous communities in modern Australia. ...
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Reviews
The Repentant (La Repentie)
Dir: Laetitia Masson. France. 2002. 125minsLife is a lie. History is what you make it out to be. And so is this film. Seemingly created for and by Isabelle Adjani, La Repentie is either a triumphant return to the cinema for the enigmatic French screen goddess, after three years of ...