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
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
I imagine Craig Gillespie would’ve preferred a little distance between his Toronto Film Fest fave, Lars and the Real Girl, and the wide theatrical release of Mr. Woodcock, the "comedy" from which he was "removed" a year ago. Reshot by Wedding Crashers‘ maestro David Dobkin, and frantically shuttled around the schedule by New Line like … Continue reading
America is in distress. There. I just saved you two hours and ten bucks. But if you’re still hot to see whether Paul Haggis has matured as a storyteller after ramming Crash down your gullets, In the Valley of Elah offers signs of progress; even though every perception shift is, once again, too telegraphed to … 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
The twisted team of David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen prove persuasive enough to distract from screenwriter Steven Knight’s parade of contrivance and convention in the Russian mob melodrama, Eastern Promises. Though far from Cronenberg’s best, the director is certainly more comfortable within the confines of the prestige picture than he was a decade ago with … Continue reading
In a grand orphanage on the Spanish coat, dead children are playing games. Once a childhood resident, Laura (Belen Rueda) has returned as an adult. With her husband, she’s bought the old manse to turn it once more into a home for children. Her own adopted son, Simon, initially takes to the place, playing with … Continue reading
You can’t go home again. I thought Dario Argento learned that in 1980 after making the laughably bad Inferno, ostensibly a sequel to his landmark Suspiria. But he’s back again with the third part in this so-called trilogy. Taken as a whole, the three films bear little relation to one another. Inferno and Mother of … Continue reading