All articles by Patrick Z McGavin – Page 5
-
Reviews
School For Scoundrels
Dir: Todd Phillips. US.2006. 101mins.Todd Phillips' new comedy School For Scoundrels seems divided against itself, telling two interconnectedstories that rarely cohere. It treads on familiar territory recognisablethrough Phillips' previous work (Road Trip,Old School), enlivened here by thepeculiar love triangle ensnaring Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Hederand Jacinda Barrett.These talented actors givethe ...
-
Reviews
The Last Winter
Dir: Larry Fessenden. US-Ice. 2006. 106mins.The fourth feature from idiosyncratic American independentdirector Larry Fessenden, The Last Winter expertly conflates the psychological dread fundamentalto the horror genre, broadening it out into a deeper, existential malaise aboutthe disintegration of civilisation.A story about the madness thatengulfs a disparate group at a remote Alaskan ...
-
Reviews
Wedding Daze
Dir/scr: Michael Ian Black.US. 2006. 90mins.Those foundations of the romantic comedy, sentimental faith andoptimism, are mocked and blown wide open in ThePleasure Of Your Company, Michael Ian Black's clever and engagingly piecethat unfortunately fails to sustain its free-floating, comic riffs right to theend.Black has an extensivebackground in TV and theatre ...
-
Reviews
The Dog Problem
Dir: Scott Caan. US. 2006. 98mins.Told with a casual poignancy and unpredictability,Scott Caan's TheDog Problem is loose, funky and impressively original. Taking its titlefrom a quotation by playwright Edward Abbey, it's a detailed comedy of mannersabout the strange and complicated emotional odyssey that the title animal sparksin a struggling young ...
-
Reviews
Black Sheep
Dir/scr: Jonathan King. NZ. 2006. 87mins.A canny mix of splatter-movie aesthetics, nationaldread and ecological warning, Jonathan King's debut feature Black Sheep is a riotously funny,gleefully overdone horror exercise that more than hints at the influence of earlyPeter Jackson like Meet The Feebles, Braindead and BadTaste.Swift andentertaining, though at times too ...
-
Reviews
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
Dir: Ivan Reitman. US. 2006. 96mins.A tantalising comic premise about a beautifulsuperhero whose romantic frustration turns her into a vengeful stalker, Ivan Reitman's large budget action comedy My Super Ex-Girlfriend plays to diminished power that is all set-upand no pay-off. In particular, this flat, increasingly mannered work sabotagesa droll, inventive ...
-
Reviews
United 93
Dir/scr. Paul Greengrass. US-UK. 2006.110mins.Gut wrenching and chilling, Paul Greengrass' United 93is a visceral recreation of the September 11 terrorist attacks that sharplydraws on the film-maker's documentary background. The result is a searingcollage, couched in sorrow and conjuring up mournful chaos and dread.Features of this scaleclearly are neither made nor ...
-
Reviews
Dreamland
Dir. Jason Matzner. US. 2006. 88mins.The debut feature from video director and fine artistJason Matzner, Dreamlandlimns the emotional frustrations and personal consequence of emerging femalesexuality, tracking love, heartbreak and self-discovery among a trinity ofdamaged souls in the New Mexico desert.The movie is tender andvisually confident, although the script by Tom ...
-
Reviews
Wal-Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price
Dir: Robert Greenwald. US.2005. 95mins.The reviled and lauded US corporate behemoth Wal-Martis - depending on your viewpoint- either the end of civilisation or anillustration of the triumph of free market brilliance.The largest employer inNorth America now falls in the sights of rakish and entertaining left-wingprovocateur Robert Greenwald in Wal-Mart:The High ...
-
Reviews
Flannel Pajamas
Dir/scr: Jeff Lipsky. US. 2006. 124mins.With his reportedly autobiographical FlannelPajamas, former arthousedistribution specialist Jeff Lipsky successfully tracksthe emotional ups and downs of a relationship, moving from sublime rapture andsurrender to grim heartbreak.Guided by two excellent leadperformances and shaped by some raw writing, he reveals a finely shaded and tactilesense of ...
-
Reviews
Lucy
Dir\scr: Henner Winckler. Ger. 2006.92mins.The second feature from German director Henner Winckler, Lucy is a psychologically lucid,beguiling portrait of teenage restriction given a startling jolt of recognitionand star-making turn by German actress Kim Schnitzer.The story examines theemotional and personal consequences of the title character, eight-month-old Lucy(Hauschild), on her emotionally ill-equipped ...
-
Reviews
Ask The Dust
Dir/scr Robert Towne. US. 2005. 117mins.Robert Towne returns with an evocative, nuancedadaptation of John Fante's Depression-era novel Ask The Dust, avisually lustrous and imaginatively staged film that is given piercing depth offeeling from leads Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek.Fante's autobiographical 1939 work was a dominant literaryinfluence on Towne's greatest achievement, ...
-
Reviews
The Red Cockatoo (Der Rote Kakadu)
Dir. Dominik Graf. Ger. 2006.128mins.Sharply pitched between funny, rueful memory andcautionary tale about compromise and lost promise, DominikGraf's The Red Cockatoo confronts thetime when sex, art and American rock and roll collided with crude ideologicalpolitics.The latest production from XFilme Creative Pool, it conflates the themes andstyle of its two internationally ...
-
Reviews
The Feast Of The Goat (La Fiesta Del Chivo)
Dir. Luis Llosa. Spain/UK. 2006. 135mins.In The Feast Of The Goat, action specialist Luis Llosa(Sniper, Anaconda) moves decisively from his Hollywood assignments to somethingmore personal and troubling. Adapting from the novel by his cousin Mario VargasLlosa, it results in a wrenching and awkward study aboutthe monstrous political reign of Dominican ...
-
Reviews
Son Of Man
Dir: Mark Dornford-May. S Afr. 2006. 86minsThe second collaboration between Mark Dornford-May and Cape Town theatre collective Dimpho Di Kopane- their first was Berlinale Golden Bear winner U-Carmen eKhayelitsha- Son Of Man is a stirring fusion ofthe New Testament with African folklore, dance and choral numbers that resultsin a politically ...
-
Reviews
Puccini For Beginners
Dir/scr: Maria Maggenti. US. 2006. 82mins.Woody Allen famously observed that the greatadvantage of being bisexual was that it doubled your chance of a date on aSaturday night. Maria Maggenti's second feature, thesexual screwball farce Puccini For Beginners, appends the template of Allen's romanticcomedy landmark, Annie Hall, to thefluid, destabilising sexual ...
-
Reviews
Subject Two
Dir/scr Philip Chidel. US. 2006.92mins.Philip Chidel's secondfeature Subject Two begins with ataut, suggestive title sequence of two men battling for possession of a gun; asmart, sharp opening that provides a chilling introduction to the highly assuredand impressively staged low-budget horror film that follows.It conforms enough to thedemands of the form, ...
-
Reviews
Opal Dream
Dir: Peter Cattaneo. Aus-UK. 2005. 88mins.A sentimental fable about imagination and wonder, Opal Dream should strike a nerve withkids who understand its fragile emotional terrain and how they can create a fantasyworld to improve on their everyday existence.Following the misfire thatwas Lucky Break, Peter Cattaneo's new feature marks something of ...
-
Reviews
Freedomland
Dir: Joe Roth. US. 2006.113mins. Trying to streamline andilluminate Freedomland, Richard Price's panoramic 1998 novel,studio executive Joe Roth is working beyond his range, temperament andsensibility.Unlike other directors whohave adapted the works of Price Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Philip Kaufman,John McNaughton Roth is not a natural or ...
-
Reviews
Salvage
Dirs/scr: Joshua and Jeffrey Crook. US. 2006. 79mins.The brothers Crook, Joshua and Jeffrey,previously made an urban thriller, SuckerPunch, and the title is dismayingly consistent with their new feature Salvage. In producing a structuralhorror movie, freely mixing the irrational and the incoherent, the brothers offer conflicted scenarios in relating the story ...