Llewellyn Moss is in the sort of trouble you can’t even imagine. Out hunting one morning he comes across several shot-up pickups, a half-dozen stiffs and a case full of cash. Bales of heroin in one pickup leave no doubt that the cash is off-limits, just waiting to be reclaimed. Taking it seems so easy, … Continue reading
The Cormac McCarthy adaptation train is really rolling now. With the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men one of the blazing highlights of recent film festivals (it topped the off the cuff Best Of lists of nearly everyone I talked to at Toronto last week, and will probably top mine as well) the reclusive … Continue reading
I get no small amount of amusement from the fact that the latest films from Bela Tarr and the Coen Brothers share the same plot. It’s a tribute to the infinite variability of storytelling and cinema that, despite a common narrative spine, the films couldn’t be more different. Looking at No Country For Old Men … Continue reading
I’m really struggling with the fact that the lads behind VICE Magazine have created a film that is human, touching and fully divested of put-on scenester bullshit. Heavy Metal In Baghdad applies the magazine’s DIY aesthetic to a story that is genuine, political and moving. There’s not an ostentatious tale of drug use or even … Continue reading
You’ve probably heard wrong information about Diary Of The Dead, so let’s do some bookkeeping. Yes, the film is George Romero’s dramatized recreation of the outbreak of his zombie plague. No, it is not a Blair Witch clone. Instead, Romero has made a film that resembles post-modern novels like House of Leaves and Cloud Atlas, … Continue reading
As announced on Saturday, this was the winner of TIFF ’07’s People’s Choice Award. Way to go, Canada! With Eastern Promises, David Cronenberg has made the most accessible film of his career. Applying long-standing interests in transformation and duality to familiar subjects (gangsters and their victims) he’s turned out a tale of mafia machinations that … Continue reading
Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day FiveDay Six | Day Seven | Day Eight I finally hit a wall Thursday night. The tiny of the brain that allows me to write shut down with a clank and a hiss. The overheated system just wouldn’t kickstart. And I tried … Continue reading
Neil Jordan’s The Brave One positions Jodie Foster, finally, as the butch badass we’ve always known waited within her. He goes so far as to let us watch her transformation from a blithely happy woman in love to shattered gunslinger, and Foster, for her part, plays it well. She looks so natural blowing away kids … Continue reading
You’ve probably heard wrong information about Redacted, so let’s do some bookkeeping. Yes, it’s Brian De Palma’s recreation of the rape and murder of a 15-year old Iraqi girl and the murder of her family. No, it is not made from documentary footage and other sources. It is one hundred percent dramatized. De Palma has … Continue reading