All articles by Peter Brunette – Page 3
-
Reviews
Rescue Dawn
Dir/scr: Werner Herzog. US. 2006. 120mins.With the escape drama Rescue Dawn, Werner Herzog has finally managed to make a pure commercialHollywood thriller, as if to prove that he always could - if he really wanted. Anopening title informs us that his new feature is "inspired by true events inthe life ...
-
Reviews
Fay Grim
Dir/scr: Hal Hartley. US. 2006. 118mins.Hal Hartley's droll sense of humourand slightly off-kilter cinematic technique has never been to everyone's taste,but hardcore fans will enjoy Fay Grim,a sequel of sorts to his breakout 1998 hit HenryFool. Others, however, may find what Hartley calls an 'internationalespionage farce' more than a bit ...
-
Reviews
The Half Life Of Timofey Berezin
Dir/scr: Scott Z Burns US.2006. 107mins.An uneasy mix of ecological warning, hyped-up Russianaccents and touching family drama, one can only leave The Half Life Of TimofeyBerezin in sadness that it squanders itspotential.The directorial debut fromScott Z Burns - co-producer of Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth - has some bits ...
-
Reviews
Copying Beethoven
Dir: Agnieszka Holland. UK-Hung. 2006. 104mins.With Copying Beethoven,workmanlike director Agnieska Holland partiallyredeems herself for such embarrassing earlier Toronto misfires like Total Eclipse (1995) - will anyoneever forget the silliness of ultra-American teen Leonardo DiCaprioas French poet Arthur Rimbaud' - but only partially.Movies thatcentre on classical music, of course, have a ...
-
Reviews
Salvador
Dir: Manuel Huerga. Sp-UK. 2006. 138mins.Based on the true story of a dashing Spanish anarchistand his execution as General Franco's last political prisoner, Manuel Huerga's Salvadoris never an overtly bad film but does pantingly flirtwith disaster during its overlong running time.While well-mounted, withexcellent production values and convincing action, theatrical prospects ...
-
Reviews
Fish Dreams (Sonhos De Peixe)
Dir/scr: Kirill Mikhanovsky. Braz-Russ-US.2006. 105mins.Russian-born Kirill Mikhanovsky makes a promising debut with Fish Dreams, which may be set in an impoverishedfishing village in Brazil but is heavily indebted to Italian neo-realism in itsreliance on non-professional actors and real locations. More specifically it recallsVisconti's masterpiece La Terra Trema (1948) in much ...
-
Reviews
Meurtrieres
France 2006 97 mins. Director Patrick GrandperretWhile it's an engaging enough diversion, especiallygiven its fetching female leads, Meurtrieres offers little that hasn't already been seen incountless other French films, from at least as far back as Agnes Varda's 1985drama Vagabond. This true-lifetale of two innocent and well-meaning 19-year old women ...
-
Reviews
You And Me (Toi Et Moi)
Dir. Ma Liwen. China. 2005.85mins.You And Me is one of thoseheartwarming, inter-generational dramas that the Chinesedo so well that is, alas, not one of the more accomplished examples of the genre.Opening the Kinderfilmfest Plus 14 section at theBerlinale, it seemed to play well enough to its targetaudience, young teens and ...
-
Reviews
Rampage
Dir/scr: George Gittoes. Aus. 2005. 118mins.Though it needs to be cut drastically, Rampage is a power-packed documentarywith lots of potential. Set mostly in one of the worst black ghettoes in Miami,the film, which was shot over the course of several years by Australianfilm-maker George Gittoes, is lively, insightful andeven shocking.Festival ...
-
Reviews
News From Home/News From House
Dir/scr: Amos Gitai. Is. 2006. 96mins.Israelis, Palestinians and others who follow MiddleEast politics closely will find little new, either conceptually or historicallyspeaking, in News From Home/News From House,the third instalment in Amos Gitai's documentarytrilogy about the Arab-Israeli conflict. But audiences around the world,especially at festivals, will appreciate the powerful feelings ...
-
Reviews
Heaven's Doors
Dirs: Swel and Imad Noury. Morocco. 2006.132mins.With their powerful, if flawed, debut feature Heaven's Doors, twentysomethingbrothers Swel and Imad Noury demonstrate an abundance of talent. Made on theproverbial shoestring budget, with mum (Pilar Cazorla) producing and dad (director Hakim Noury) in one of the key roles, it overflows with anambition ...
-
Reviews
Milarepa
Dir. Neten Chokling. Bhutan, 2005. 96mins.Milarepa is a glossy,lovely movie from Bhutan that details the life of Tibetan Buddhism's most reveredsaint, who was born as Thopaga in the eleventh century.Whilesomewhat slow-moving at times - although would one want a life-transforming awakeningaccompanied by MTV-style editing'- its stateliness, deep spirituality, gorgeous mountainscenery ...
-
Reviews
The Elementary Particles
Dir: Oskar Roehler.Germany. 2006. 105mins.Oskar Roehler's The Elementary Particles proves again thefolly of trying to adapt the blatantly unadaptable.Based on French writer Michel Houellebecq's brilliantdisturbing novel about two half-brothers who find love, only for it to besnatched from them, it will disappoint the author's many fans. Houellebecq's novel is, of ...
-
Reviews
A Prairie Home Companion
Dir: RobertAltman. US. 2006. 103 mins. RobertAltman's homage to America's favourite radio show, Garrison Keillor's APrairie Home Companion, is a largely spirited affair, despitea few sagging moments. Paradoxically, though, the film may play better in Europeand other territories than in North America, where its central plot of asoulless corporation overtaking ...
-
Reviews
The Quiet
Dir: Jamie Babbit. US. 2005. 91mins.Put DesperateHousewives on a double dose of Benzedrine and you have a roughapproximation of Jamie Babbit's The Quiet, an overheated and lurid, if beautifully mounted,American indie melodrama that verges on guilty pleasureterritory for all the wrong reasons.While Desperate Housewives, with its drooling tales of adultery ...
-
Reviews
A Little Trip To Heaven
Dir:Baltasar Kormakur. Ice. 2005. 98mins.For his latest feature A Little Trip To Heaven,Icelandic film-maker Baltasar Kormakur takes audiences on a modest littleadventure in the other direction as well and the familiar hellish genre of themodern neo-noir. This time however the focus is not on some disaffected,world-weary flatfoot and his cheating, ...
-
Reviews
The House Of Sand (Casa De Areia)
Dir: Andrucha Waddington.Braz. 2005. 103mins.No, this isn't 2003's HouseOf Sand And Fog after the mist has lifted but Brazilian director AndruchaWaddington's first feature since his well-regarded Me You Them (2000),which won the top prize at Karlovy Vary.Set in northern Brazil'sforbidding state of Maranhao, now a conservation zone, it begins in ...
-
Reviews
The White Masai (Die Weisse Massai)
Dir: Hermine Huntgeburth.Ger. 2005. 132mins.Hermine Huntgeburth's TheWhite Masai (Die Weisse Massai) is much less good than it shouldhave been. True, it's handsomely and expensively mounted, beautifully andrigorously shot in an extremely photogenic Kenya, and has a political andcultural heart that is decidedly in the right place. But at two hours-plus ...
-
Reviews
Wassup Rockers
Dir/scr: Larry Clark. US.2005. 111mins.In Wassup Rockers,Larry Clark has produced the sweetest, most loving and lovable film he's evermade - and consequently the most boring. If kids (now 10-years-old) wasdeplorable, frightening, and, to some, even degrading, it was always excitingand its hateful, rapacious teenage male lead endlessly fascinating.In his latest ...
-
Reviews
Mrs Harris
Dir: Phyllis Nagy. US.2005. 94mins.Written and directed bynoted playwright and first-time film-maker Phyllis Nagy, Mrs Harris, atleast in its first third, is a jangly, stylised onslaught on sensibilities thatwill alienate many and intrigue just as many others.However, once you becomeused to its anti-rhythms and purposeful edginess - and, truth to ...