—————— The American Directed by Anton Corbijn Action fans and George Clooney enthusiasts might well be ill-prepared for The American, which, despite its marketing as a slam-bang thriller, is actually closer in spirit to Euro arthouse fare, and features Clooney in full-on “emptied out” mode. (It’s best described as a brooding drama slightly peppered with [...]
For those of you lucky enough to be attending this year’s Fantastic Fest, they’ve released a list of films and descriptions for their second wave of programming – and there are some big ones. (Pro tip: we’ve heard great things about Carancho.) Gala: Stone (2010) US Premiere, USA, director: John Curran Director John Curran and [...]
————– If you’re facing down the Toronto International Film Fest’s immense schedule and feeling a strong urge to self-harm, you’re not alone. This year’s lineup is densely packed with enough documentaries, Oscarbait, and intriguing foreign features to drive any movie fan who can make it to TO up the wall. To help whittle it down, [...]
————— The Switch Directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck Adaptation is a difficult art. Stay too faithful and you’ll wind up importing elements not appropriate to the new form, but stray too far and you’ll annoy proponents of the original. While the latter approach has probably resulted in a greater volume of good films, [...]
————– Centurion Directed by Neil Marshall Genre director Neil Marshall is not what you might call an “ideas man.” His best film, the terrifying spelunking creature feature The Descent, thrived not on any elaborate concepts or carefully developed characters, but instead on the shrewd, cunning use of the film’s incredibly claustrophobic spaces to generate naturalistic [...]
Our column “Gone Unseen” is dedicated to those great films that many people have overlooked and or have found trouble finding distribution across the globe. My Dear Enemy Directed by Lee Yoon-ki Furthering a developing hypothesis that South Koreans are launching a charm offensive against all hallowed Western film archetypes, the splendid My Dear Enemy, [...]
Our column “Hidden Gems” is dedicated to those great films that many people have overlooked and or have found trouble finding distribution across the globe. Must Love Death Directed by Andreas Schaap Offhand, it’s difficult to think of another film that features both a “meet cute” and a nail gun, but in his first feature, [...]
—————— The Other Guys Directed by Adam McKay You’d be forgiven for hoping The Other Guys, Adam McKay’s fourth feature-length collaboration with Will Ferrell, would mark a full-on return to form for a gifted comedic performer who hasn’t had an opportunity to actually be funny since, well, McKay’s last movie, Step Brothers. As it turns [...]
The Disappearance of Alice Creed Directed by J Blakeson In the post-Tarantino era, a good crime movie is hard to find. A new generation of filmmakers watched Reservoir Dogs, True Romance and especially Pulp Fiction in awe, while also thinking, “I could do that.” Sadly the great majority of them could not, and the field [...]
————– Soul Kitchen Directed by Fatih Akin There was reason to be excited about a new Fatih Akin film. His last effort, 2008′s The Edge of Heaven, quietly tamed Alejandro González Iñárritu;s unwieldy “everything is connected” school of screenwriting into a cohesive, affecting film. Before that, he produced an entertaining documentary on the Turkish music [...]
——– High School Directed by John Stahlberg The words “stoner comedy” give rise to odious associations, making one expect a haphazard, loosely plotted, and unfunny mess – and, in almost all cases, rightfully so. John Stahlberg’s riotous and very funny High School elides such easy dismissal through a combination of inspired casting, tireless comic energy [...]
—————– Red White and Blue Directed by Simon Rumley Movies rarely open with more promise, nor fizzle out more disappointingly, than Simon Rumley’s Red White and Blue. A bizarre, intermittently effective movie that suffers from a surplus of characters, ideas and outlandish plot elements, Blue is the rare film that simultaneously exhibits serious talent and [...]
—————— Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World Directed by Edgar Wright Over the last decade, everyone from Zack Snyder to Ang Lee to the Neveldine/Taylor crew have attempted to draw inspiration from geek culture in order to create innovative, bleeding-edge films. Efforts like these wind up feeling compromised at best and ill-fated at worst, either because [...]
————– The Serbian spotlight at this year’s Fantasia Film Fest is not for the squeamish. Actually, in the case of two of its films, it might not be fit for viewing by conscious beings – making it perfect fare for the deranged cousin of Sound on Sight we like to call Sordid Cinema. The two [...]
—————— Is there a more versatile oddball working in front of the camera than Tilda Swinton? Though she’s probably still best known as the sweaty corporate stooge in Michael Clayton, the role that earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, but she’s been getting steady work since the mid-80s, specializing in Euro arthouse, with [...]
The American: Visions of damnation
A look back at “Wings Of Desire”
Abre los ojos (Open Your Eyes)
8: The Mormon Proposition
This Movie is Broken
The Last Exorcism: A surprisingly invigorating horror film
A Look Back At Spielberg’s Masterpiece “Jaws”
Fausta: The Milk of Sorrow
MIFF2010: The Illusionist
Piranha 3dThe Switch
Afterschool
Rampage
Stonewall Uprising
Toronto After Dark 2010: Doghouse (Review #1)
The Expendables
Toronto After Dark 2010: Last Lovecraft (Review #1)
