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In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Roman Polanski doc, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and much more.
- What We're Watching: Skins, Save Me, Two Laws.
- Explore: Oscar Nominations.
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Reopening a case that has inspired curiosity, controversy, and confusion for over 30 years, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired is an extensive exploration of the circumstances that led up to – and the circus that followed – the filmmaker's conviction for having unlawful sex with a minor. "A mesmerizing portrait of the director as acclaimed artist and tortured human being," wrote Variety's Justin Chang. Adds the Chicago Tribune: "A superb picture, sharp, open-minded, wised-up and cinematically accomplished. " |
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It's not unusual for Woody Allen to garner a best screenplay Oscar nomination, as he did here. But this one, which Michael Sragow calls "a summery idyll" is also "his most entertaining picture since Bullets Over Broadway (1994) or maybe Sweet and Lowdown (1999)." And, adds David Denby, Allen "has put actors with first-class temperament on the screen, and his writing is both crisp and ambivalent: he works everything out with a stringent thoroughness that still allows room for surprise." |
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Skins is the Bristol-based BBC dramedy series following a group emotionally detached high school kids while they wreak utter havoc on their internal organs with drugs and alcohol. At the center of the gang is Tony (played by Ashton Kutcher/Tom Cruise human amalgamation Nicholas Hoult), a popular boy who is unjustly excellent at everything he attempts and uses his ceaseless charisma to undermine everyone around him; Michelle, his insecure girlfriend, who tries to break away upon learning of his deviousness but whose independence has been stunted as she replicates her mother's codependent tendencies with men; and Tony's best friend Sid, a painfully awkward virgin who is desperately in love with Michelle. The group is... Read review >>
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Most movies that have tackled the question of Christian "sexuality" or "ex-gays" (men who have supposedly fought and succeeded in surmounting their homosexuality via their strong belief in Jesus) -- whether a narrative film like the comedy Saved! or documentaries such as Fall From Grace and For the Bible Tells Me So -- have found the Christian part of the equation wanting. As good as these films were in some ways, the religious folk pictured were too often hypocritical, small-minded, uncaring -- or sometimes plain stupid. What makes Save Me such a find -- and a fine example of the religion-struggling-with-sexuality bind -- is that... Read review >> |
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Without a doubt one of the most significant documentaries of the last century, Two Laws addresses – and challenges – the power paradigms of Western Culture and mainstream film, its 'highest art'. By its very nature, this film is truly revolutionary. Clearly displaying the destructive machines of contemporary colonialism in action: so-called welfare, land-grabbing, racism, governments ruling people against their will, etc., the heart of the film lies in the essential concept that one culture's law cannot trump another's, and that in attempting to do so, the dominating culture commits a criminal act... Read review >> |
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The 2009 Oscar nominations were announced and as always some of the films are still in theaters now while others came out long enough to now be on DVD (or to appear on DVD soon). For your consideration: Greencine's posted a running list of the nominees that we'll update as more titles are added on DVD. The 81st Academy Award ceremony will take place on February 22nd, 2009 -- but with our help you can queue up some of the potential winners before then. And speaking of the Oscars, love 'em or hate 'em, the question is... why do we watch them? See GreenCine Daily for some thoughts.
Don't forget to enter our Coraline contest: Cool movie, cool schwag!
Lastly, another Sundance podcast for you, and a good one: Aaron Hillis chats with actor Michael Jai White about Black Dynamite, which is, in a word, dynamite. |
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Best Picture Oscar
Winners: 1930s
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