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"I think I'm running out of things to make film about in my conscious world," Ang Lee tells Sean Axmaker in a conversation about his new film Lust, Caution that quickly moves to the Oscar-winning director's entire oeuvre. "Starting from The Ice Storm, I started to go the other side. I think up to Sense and Sensibility, I did everything that I know of myself consciously... But I like to keep that mystery and make movies about what I need to find out." Read article >> |
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In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Allegro, Sheep, and much more.
- What We're Watching: Dance, Film Crew in review and Sansho.
- Explore: 12:08 East of Bucharest.
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"An existential masterpiece," raved Michael Ferraro in Film Threat of Christoffer Boe's Allegro. "Merging the stylistic direction of Jean-Pierre Jeunet with the existential sensibilities of Charlie Kaufman, creating one of the most memorable films ever made." If some of the other reviews were mixed, Variety points to how much the film "is remarkably original and reps further evidence of a unique directorial vision." Read our interview with the Danish director here. |
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A gory Kiwi horror comedy, Black Sheep is essentially an ovine Shaun of the Dead, as an experiment to breed super sheep goes horribly awry in all sorts of very baaaaaad ways. A mix of cute down under spirit and extremely gross bits intermingle (with some animatronic help from Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop). "You'll laugh, you'll groan, you'll never buy wool again," wrote Premiere's Eric Alt. |
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First shown in 1997 but never seen on American television nor available on video until now, A Dance To The Music Of Time offers what seem to me the most effortlessly entertaining characters, conversations and story that may ever have appeared in a miniseries. Lavish praise, but these four discs--totaling around 7 hours of time--scale the heights in terms of providing a literate, ironic view of upper-class England over several decades. That this is due to the series of novels by Anthony Powell, from which Hugh Whitemore adapted... read review here >> |
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Craig Phillips has the low-down on the quartet of DVD offerings from the Film Crew, ending with today's newest release: their takedown of The Giant of Marathon, a Greek sandals epic starring Steve Reeves: "All told, it's a worthy effort, once again full of bon mots, like 'It's all about posing and drumming with these people - they're gonna bore their enemies to death!' remarks Bill Corbett during yet another pointless marching-into-battle scene.... Random, and hilarious. Just like the best moments on Mystery Science Theater. Film Crew isn't MST, of course, but again, it's as good a replacement as we'll get these days and that's nothing to sneeze at." Read review here >> |
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Sansho the Bailiff is one of those rare films so superbly crafted there don't seem to be honorable enough words to describe it. It will make you feel grateful for your own life. This heart-wrenching masterwork, beautifully restored in its black and white glory by Criterion, won Japanese director Kenji Mizoguchi his second Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1954. (Incidentally, that's the same year Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai came out--a stellar year for Japanese cinema.) Read the rest here >>
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Scary Anime
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