All Special Presentations articles – Page 25
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ReviewsStill Walking (Aruitemo, Aruitemo)
Dir. Hirokazu Kore-Eda. Japan. 2008. 114 mins.Adapted by Kore-Eda from a novel he wrote, evidently inspired by the death of his parents a few years back, Still Walking is a quiet, almost whispered picture in which nothing much seems to happen and may well be a ...
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ReviewsFlash of Genius
Dir. Mark Abraham. US. 2007. 119 minsMarc Abraham’s debut feature about an inventor battling the Ford Motor Company, which steals and markets his window-wiper invention, puts new mileage on the David-Goliath model. Sentimental but remarkably compelling, the saga of a little man’s victory over a corporate ...
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ReviewsMiracle at St. Anna
Dir. Spike Lee; US/Italy. 2008. 166 mins.After enjoying the biggest commercial success of his career with the tightly disciplined genre film Inside Man, Spike Lee returns to his freewheeling ways in Miracle At St Anna, an Italy-set World War II story which plays like a jazz ...
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ReviewsGenova
Dir. Michael Winterbottom. UK. 2008. 94minsA family’s struggles with loss, grief and guilt form the basis of a frustratingly insubstantial drama inGenova.Michael Winterbottom’s latest effort is commendable for its refusal to indulge in easy sentimentality but the pricefor that is an elusive, low-key tale that keeps ...
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ReviewsHeaven On Earth
Dir. Deepa Mehta.Canada 2008. 106 min.The yearnings and travails of an Indian emigre bride, a subject recently given a pictorial, naturalistic treatment inBrick Lane, gets a grittier, more mystical workout in Deepa Mehta’s slow-burning and quietly potentHeaven on Earth.The seventh feature of the Toronto-based director opened ...
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ReviewsNick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Dir. Peter Sollett. US. 2008. 89mins.The highly anticipated second feature of the New York-based independent Peter Sollett (Raising Victor Vargas) valiantly attempts to both enliven and subvert the tendencies and predictability of the teenage romantic comedy - although the whole never quite registers as forcefully as ...
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ReviewsGhost Town
Dir: David Koepp. USA. 2008. 103 mins.A minor studio comedy notable as the first Hollywood starring vehicle for UK comic Ricky Gervais, Ghost Town takes a formulaic story about a curmudgeon learning to love and spices it up with some Gervais-style sarcasm and smartass dialogue. Making ...
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ReviewsRockNRolla
Dir/scr: Guy Ritchie. UK. 2008. 114mins.RocknRolla returns Guy Ritche precisely to the world that made his name; the low-level underworld of Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (1999) and Snatch (2000) which were in turn the inspiration for a UK geezer subgenre (Sexy Beast, Layer Cake, ...
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ReviewsPlastic City (Dangkou)
Dir: Yu Lik-wai. Brazil-China-Japan. 2008. 118mins.An underdeveloped yakuza-in-Brazil storyline and a hip- hop VJ sound-and-image assault do not add up to a rounded arthouse film in Yu Lik-wai’s PlasticCity. Despite some moments of visual brilliance, this third directorial outing by Jia Zhangke’s regular cinematographer betrays the ...