 |
|
In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Waltz With Bashir, High Hopes and more.
- What We're Watching: Hanselt + Gretel, Important Thing, Inkheart.
- Explore: Ari Folman (redux).
|
|
|
Ari Folman's stunning animated documentary investigating an incident from his stint in the Israeli army during the Lebanon War in the early 80s is "provocative, hallucinatory, incendiary, this devastating animated documentary is unlike any Israeli film you've seen," wrote Kenneth Turan. "More than that, in its seamless mixing of the real and the surreal, the personal and the political, animation and live action, it's unlike any film you've seen, period." AO Scott calls it "a memoir, a history lesson, a combat picture, a piece of investigative journalism and an altogether amazing film." Read our interview with Folman, too. |
|
|
|
One of our favorite Mike Leigh movies is finally out on DVD here. The film, his second feature, is "is an alive and challenging film," wrote Roger Ebert in 1988, "one that throws our own assumptions and evasions back at us. Leigh sees his characters and their lifestyles so vividly, so mercilessly and with such a sharp satirical edge, that the movie achieves a neat trick: We start by laughing at the others, and end by feeling uncomfortable about ourselves." Janet Maslin wrote in the NY Times that it "manages to be enjoyably whimsical without ever losing its cutting edge." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
When Eun-Soo (Jeong-myeong Cheon) wakes after a car crash, he's pleased to see a young girl -- wearing a little red riding hood, natch -- has found him. She offers to lead the dazed man back to her home, which welcomes him with a sign reading "Home for Happy Children" -- a good indicator that things are just not going to go well here. It's a house not made of gingerbread but seemingly too good to be true... And that's just the first few minutes of Hansel and Gretel, director Yim Phil-sung's ( Antarctic Journal) memorably dark fable inspired by, but also transposing, the titular Grimm fairy tale... read review >> |
|
|
| |
The opening seven minutes of Polish iconoclast Andrzej Zulawski's first French production—adapted with Christopher Frank from his novel La nuit américaine (no relation to Truffaut's Day For Night)—tease with such psychodramatic intensity that one might mistakenly brace for the button-pushing provocations of an exploitation flick. It opens with hard-luck actress Nadine Chevalier ( Romy Schneider, who won a Best Actress César award in 1976 for the film) staring at the camera... read review >> |
|
|
| |
Inkheart is more or less a distant second cousin to The Princess Bride (1987); they're both based on fantasy books for young people and reading is a part of their plots, but that's about where the comparison stops. Whereas The Princess Bride is warmly crisp and unerringly funny and breathlessly romantic, Inkheart is ... read review >>
|
|
|
As mentioned above, with the film now out on DVD it's a good time to re-visit this one: If you ever doubted that animation could convey deep and complicated human emotions, see Waltz with Bashir. Ari Folman's elaborate animation began with a live-action filmed version of the story, followed by original drawings of the same script. David D'Arcy talked with Folman about what makes an animated film vital long after its technical wow-effect wears off.. More >>
Congrats are in order for the lucky winners of our Away We Go contest: lanirovzar, Ray Lin, Hondohoopster, Daniel Morrell and Jessica Dobbs. Look on the site for more cool contests soon! |
|
|
| |
Troma-tic.
|
|
