All articles by Peter Brunette – Page 5
-
Reviews
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession
Dir:Xan Cassavetes. US. 2004. 120minsXanCassavetes' slightly uneven labour of love, Z Channel: A MagnificentObsession, is, at two hours, much too long for its own good but isnevertheless compulsively watchable, especially for people who love the movies.As such, while its commercial prospects may be slim, it should be of primeinterest to ...
-
Reviews
Woman Is The Future Of Man (La Femme Est L'avenir De L'homme)
Dir:Hong Sang-soo. S Korea/France. 2004. 88mins.Unfortunately,the best thing about Korean director Hong Sang-soo's Cannes competition film WomanIs The Future Of Man is its title, taken from the poet Aragon. The film ishandsomely mounted, and the glittery shine and tawdry dirt of contemporaryurban South Korea is always fascinating to behold, but ...
-
Reviews
Tropical Malady (Sud Pralad)
Dir:Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Fr-Thai-It-Ger. 2004. 118minsDeeplysubmerged within Apichatpong Weerasethakul's often impenetrable andoccasionally boring fable Tropical Malady, is a wonderful exploration of a perennialtheme: what makes a human being more than an animal' It begins promisingly witha passage from novelist Ton Nakajima: "All of us are by nature wild beasts andour duty ...
-
Reviews
Mondovino
Dir:Jonathon Nossiter. US-France. 2004 159minsSomewherewithin Jonathan Nossiter's bloated, self-indulgent new documentary Mondovinothere may lurk a fascinating hour-long offering, perfectly suitable for a spoton cable TV, that explores the contemporary world of wine but one would be hardpressed to find it. Thedirector of the genuinely affecting Sunday (1997) and the ambitious ...
-
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 ...
-
Reviews
Connie And Carla
Dir: Michael Lembeck. US. 2004. 98minsWith My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nia Vardalos, both as scriptwriter and star, demonstrated that she knew exactly how to turn run-of-the-mill TV fodder into theatrical box-office gold. Her second outing in the genre, the funny and often touching Connie And Carla, preserves and perfects ...
-
Reviews
Jersey Girl
Dir: Kevin Smith. US. 2004. 103mins.It's theoretically possible, of course, that director Kevin Smith has not used every cliche associated with the domestic genre featuring guilty yuppie parents and guilting kids, but audiences will be hard-pressed to find anything missing in Jersey Girl. As attested to in an egregious 'director's ...
-
Reviews
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Dir: Michel Gondry. US. 2004. 108minsScriptwriter Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation) and director Michel Gondry go a long way in their new film toward rehabilitating themselves after their disastrous previous collaboration, Human Nature, but the conspicuously brilliant Kaufman, especially, still seems too smart for his own good.The concept behind Eternal Sunshine Of ...
-
Reviews
Peter Pan
Dir: PJ Hogan. 2003. US. 104 minutesThis umpteenth revisiting of the familiar children's story, first mounted on the London stage a century ago, is always thoroughly competent, even generally engaging, but rarely soars. Universal, happy to have hijacked the property's profile from Disney, has obviously expended a great deal of ...
-
Reviews
Mona Lisa Smile
Dir: Mike Newell. 2003. US. 117mins.Mona Lisa Smile is a not-bad movie that is, alas, fatally at war with itself. On the one hand, it's a well-acted, convincingly-mounted period piece set in smug, elitist Wellesley College in 1953 that takes up, far more seriously than anyone had a right to ...
-
Reviews
Something's Gotta Give
Dir: Nancy Meyers.US. 2003. 123mins.In this terrific new romantic comedy, writer-director Nancy Meyers (The Parent Trap, What Women Want) has given Jack Nicholson the Christmas present of a lifetime. Turning to her (and his) advantage the actor's off- and on-screen persona as skirt-chaser who specialises in younger women, Meyers ...
-
Reviews
The Last Samurai
Dir: Edward Zwick. US. 2003. 154minsTom Cruise rides into the East in Warner Bros' stirring, beautifully mounted dramatic release, directed by Ed Zwick (Glory, Legends Of The Fall), refreshingly set in 1870s Japan. Though its plot and structure, as well as it characters, sometimes perilously skirt cliche, the end result ...
-
Reviews
Maqbool
Dir: Vishal Bharadwaj. India. 2003. 134minsShakespeare meets Bollywood in the energetic Maqbool, a two-hour-plus extravaganza expressly modelled on Macbeth, the most blood-besotted play of the Bard's maturity. Ultimately more Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Body Heat than Shakespearean, this rambunctious film borrows the playwright's characters while tarting ...
-
News
House Of Sand And Fog
Dir: Vadim Perelman. US. 2003. 126minsHouse Of Sand And Fog is a film that takes itself very seriously, and it should. Adapted from the novel by Andre Dubus III, which was featured on Oprah Winfrey's Book Club, it's drenched in poetic atmospherics that many will find haunting and others pretentious. ...
-
News
House Of Sand And Fog
Dir: Vadim Perelman. US. 2003. 126minsHouse Of Sand And Fog is a film that takes itself very seriously, and it should. Adapted from the novel by Andre Dubus III, which was featured on Oprah Winfrey's Book Club, it's drenched in poetic atmospherics that many will find haunting and others pretentious. ...
-
Reviews
House Of Sand And Fog
Dir: Vadim Perelman. US. 2003. 126minsHouse Of Sand And Fog is a film that takes itself very seriously, and it should. Adapted from the novel by Andre Dubus III, which was featured on Oprah Winfrey's Book Club, it's drenched in poetic atmospherics that many will find haunting and others pretentious. ...
-
Reviews
Nicotina
Dir: Hugo Rodriguez. Mex-Arg-Sp. 2003. 90minsNicotina, the latest candidate for admission into the School of Tarantino, is an always perfectly watchable caper-movie-cum-romantic-comedy that is spasmodically entertaining. Filled with the fast wipes and purposely nonsensical discussions about ersatz philosophical issues like smoking and coincidence that mark the Tarantinesque genre, this film ...
-
Reviews
School Of Rock
Dir: Richard Linklater. USA 2003. 100 minsOne of the best things about Richard Linklater's superb new comedy, School Of Rock, is that it doesn't take itself too seriously, as director Linklater has on occasion been wont to do. Employing the highest of high concepts - failed rock guitarist impersonates ...
-
Reviews
Evil (Ondskan)
Dir: Mikael Hafstrom. 2003. Swe. 113 minsEvil (Ondskan), the third feature of Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom, plays well enough on the big screen but, aside from likely appearances at a few of the bigger festivals like Toronto, where it showed in the Contemporary World Cinema section, it's not sufficiently accomplished ...