NYFF 2011: ‘Shame’ a blunt look at addiction and self-nullification
Shame Directed by Steve McQueen Written by Abi Morgan and Steve McQueen 2011, UK If there is one aspect of human psychology that is truly…
NYFF 2011: ‘The Kid With A Bike’ / ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’
When we talk about modernism in cinema, we are talking about filmmaking that acknowledges the medium as part of the storytelling, a melding of form…
NYFF 2011: ‘Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory’ has an impassioned energy that raises it far above the average advocacy documentary
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory Directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky 2011, USA The cameras and filmmakers are plainly visible in Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,…
NYFF 2011: ‘This Is Not A Film’ chronicles Panahi’s creative imprisonment
This Is Not A Film Directed by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb & Jafar Panahi Written by Jafar Panahi 2010, Iran When the Iranian government moved last year…
NYFF 2011: ‘A Dangerous Method’ showcases an uncomfortable biological essentialism
A Dangerous Method Directed by David Cronenberg Written by Christopher Hampton 2011, Canada At the press conference immediately following a screening of David Cronenberg’s latest,…
NYFF 2011: Notes on Nicholas Ray’s ‘We Can’t Go Home Again’ and Occupy Wall Street
The only way to start talking about Nicholas Ray’s We Can’t Go Home Again is to first search for the words to describe how the…
‘Poetry’ – Can acts of expression still be meaningful?
Poetry Written by Lee Chang-dong Directed by Lee Chang-dong South Korea, 2010 There are the aesthetic qualities of language – phonic, visual, etc. – and…
‘The Tree of Life’ battles the medium of film only to strengthen it
The Tree of Life Directed by Terrance Malick Written by Terrance Malick 2011 “There are two ways through life,” intones the Mother, “the way of…
‘The Arbor’ represents new documentary filmmaking at its most transparent
The Arbor Directed by Clio Barnard 2011, USA In her video instillation piece Trauma 2000, the British conceptual artist Gillian Wearing placed want ads in…
‘Bridesmaids’ is hilarious
Bridesmaids Directed by Paul Feig Written by Kristen Wiig &Annie Mumolo 2011, USA Due to an incompatible temperament and worldview, I think it’s fair to…
Jafar Panahi – Keep the lighthouse in Sight
The subject is revolution. The images are of people – young and old, cops and criminals, celebratory and despairing – confined in the frame by…
Sidney Lumet: Reflections on ‘The Verdict’
The Verdict Directed by Sidney Lumet Screenplay by David Mamet 1982, USA Sidney Lumet, who passed away yesterday at age 86, was one of the…
