Are there things that are more scary than ghosts? Are close encounters with the other side, as it were, the ultimate in terror? Writer/director Alejandro Amenabar does a neat job of answering that question with THE OTHERS, a ghost story where neither good nor evil should be taken for granted. The story takes place entirely… Read More »
AMERICAN RHAPSODY, AN
It?s the sort of thing that should have been a happy ending instead of the jumping off point for an intimate, heartbreaking and ultimately triumphant family drama. But that?s the thing about real life and why it is, intrinsically, more interesting than fiction. Such is the stuff of AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY, which is based on… Read More »
BARTLEBY
Brought to the screen in a manner as stylized as its chartreuse and orange color scheme, BARTLEBY updates Herman Melvilles tale of non-conformity in a dead-end 19th-century office job, Bartleby the Scrivener, to the oppressive world of the 20th-century dead-end office job. That would be a public records office run by newly appointed Boss, David… Read More »
HER MAJESTY
Writer/director Mark J. Gordon conceived of his first feature film, HER MAJESTY, as a fairy tale, and, like all good fairy tales, this one has dark undercurrents swirling below the sunny exteriors. In particular, the crushing of the Maori by the British during their annexation of New Zealand and the fallout that has resulted. Set… Read More »
ELLING
ELLING, this years Oscar nominee from Norway as best foreign film, is that perfect little gem of a film that draws you into a new way of seeing the world. Its eponymous protagonist is a prickly, obsessive middle-aged man suffering a slew of neuroses starting with anxiety and acrophobia and so on down the rest of… Read More »
NO MAN’S LAND
NO MAN’S LAND, Danis Tanovic’s black comedy about the absurd futility of war, is a prime example of why I adore films from the former Yugoslavia and have since before it was a former. They are like a knife to the gut, they are beautiful, and they are poetic with their shattering intensity. They are… Read More »
IN THE BEDROOM
Don’t jump to any conclusions in the first 15 minutes or so of IN THE BEDROOM about where it’s heading. Though the acting is all very fine and the direction skillful, you might thing that you have pretty much figured out everything that’s going to happen after the first 10 minutes or so. And then… Read More »
EXPERIMENT, THE
S ometimes science tells us more than we really want to know. Though in these troubled times we cling to the notion that we as a species are basically decent and moral, there is that sneaking suspicion that we are perhaps clinging to a pipe dream of civilization and that the truth is something best… Read More »
DAUGHTER FROM DANANG
Gail Dolgin and Franco Vicente’s heartrending documentary DAUGHTER FROM DANANG shows not only the long-term effects of the Vietnam War in very personal terms, but also looks at how fragile the bonds of blood and family can be. Both insights are disturbing, but in the able hands of these filmmakers, the story of one family’s… Read More »
GANGSTER NO. 1
GANGSTER NO 1 is a slick and stylish tale of love and revenge set in the 60s Londons gangland scene. In the milieu that brought forth the real-life Kray brothers, known for their ultra-violence, screenwriter Johnny Ferguson brings us Freddy Mayes and his prime lackey, the eponymous gangster Number 1 who is never otherwise named. The film… Read More »