The secret life of children is fertile territory. The unsullied logic of those for whom preconceived notions and ossified received wisdom are phenomenon yet to come make for a piquant commentary on both. The innocence, the unrestrained emotion, and the intellect unfettered by the conventions of society are a potent combination in VITUS, a delightful… Read More »
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
There is something as magical about the sequels in the Harry Potter series as there is about the witches and wizards who inhabit the Harry Potter universe. Bucking the tradition of sequels getting weaker with each addition, HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX continues the track record of its predecessors, building on what… Read More »
RENAISSANCE
RENAISSANCE is a film that can be appreciated, idolized even, for its stunning visual artistry, as well as admired for its unsentimental homage to the film noir genre it reproduces with such precision. Relying neither on the gimmick of having the motion-capture animation reduced to only black and white, this is not cinematic stunt rather… Read More »
NO RESERVATIONS
NO RESERVATIONS is a prime example of everything that is wrong with Hollywood remakes of terrific foreign language films. Take challenging characters, piquant situations, homogenize the high heckola out of them and, poof, everything that was wonderful in the original is gone. To be fair, even without knowing MOSTLY MARTHA, said original, there is little… Read More »
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES
Jennifer Baichwal’s documentary MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES starts with one of the most arresting sequences in cinema. It works both as a dazzling technical achievement, and also as a commentary on what is to come. The camera slowly tracks across the manufacturing floor of a Chinese factory and then it continues to track, and then it continues… Read More »
DELIRIOUS
DELIRIOUS is like a tidy little zen koan from Tom DiCillo. The story is about paparazzi and the celebs that they stalk, but both the comedy and the tragedy in this gentle satire comes from the schizophrenic struggle between public image and reality in those lives. The lesson involves three stories that intertwine by chance… Read More »
AN UNREASONABLE MAN: RALPH NADER, HOW DO YOU DEFINE A LEGACY?
There is no doubt that Ralph Nader has been one of the most influential private citizens of the 20th century. Before he got riled up about it, car safety was optional as far as manufacturers were concerned, environmental degradation was the province of wild-eyed counterculture radicals, and food safety was an illusion. By being AN… Read More »
THE LOOKOUT
With fearless performances in Greg Araki’s poetically disturbing MYSTERIOUS SKIN, in Rian Johnson’s piquantly original BRICK and now in writer/director Scott Frank’s THE LOOKOUT, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has established himself as one of the finest actors of his generation. As good as Frank’s script is, and make no mistake, it is superb, it’s Gordon-Levitt who takes… Read More »
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