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In the great tradition of tough-guy filmmakers like Howard Hawks, Don Siegel and Samuel Fuller, Kathryn Bigelow is one of the finest living crafters of male-bonding genre films. It may seem an odd fit, as the beautiful, elegant, highly intelligent 57 year-old woman was educated at the San Francisco Art Institute with a background in painting and hardly the eye-patch-wearing, cigar-chomping type like her Hollywood predecessors. Bigelow's latest, The Hurt Locker—based on journalist-turned-screenwriter Mark Boal's interviews and experiences—revolves around the lives of three Army bomb techs ( Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty) in the last days of their Iraq tour, circa 2004. Jeffrey Anderson chatted with Bigelow in a new interview exclusive to GC... Read more >> |
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In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Tokyo!, Charlie Banks, and more.
- What We're Watching: Two Lovers, Phoebe and Marienbad.
- Explore: NYAFF.
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Three acclaimed filmmakers ( Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, Joon-ho Bong) come together for an omnibus triptych examining the nature of one unforgettable city as it's shaped by the disparate people who live, work (and even run amok!) inside one enormous, constantly evolving, densely populated Japanese megalopolis. "A must-see for the Gondry segment, and a strange, diverting pleasure for the rest," wrote Steven Rea. "A fun jaunt around the city and a quick tour of the preoccupations of three leading directors? Now there's a bargain," adds the LA Times' Mark Olsen. |
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We're as surprised as you that a film directed by Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst (!) turned out surprisingly well, but go figure. "At first glance [it] seems a nostalgic coming-of-age drama about facing fears and forming character," writes the NY Times' Jeannette Catsoulis. "But if you narrow your eyes and tilt your head, you’ll see quite a different story: a prickly examination of the sturdiness of class boundaries and the illusion of inclusion." It lacks a certain credibility but is still a winning film; Adventureland's Jesse Eisenberg leads a nice cast. |
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What a curious title, Two Lovers. Like the movie itself and the believably grown-up affairs it depicts, that surface simplicity has multiple meanings, could be a basis for allegory, and mines rich if devastating emotion out of its ambiguities. Just try to forget for a moment that star Joaquin Phoenix is quickly becoming an eccentric performance artist of the Andy Kaufman variety in real life, and cherish what he claims will be his last film: a fantastic, sumptuously lit and shot melodrama of overlapping, shaky love triangles that is mature like nothing else yet on screens this year.... read review >> |
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Reviewer Jeffrey Anderson didn't care for this one much, though we still think it worth checking out. JA: "Despite some brilliant performances from its three female leads, Daniel Barnz's Phoebe in Wonderland is an off-putting, misguided disease-of-the-week picture that tries to disguise itself as something else before finally coming clean. Elle Fanning plays the Phoebe of the title. She's the child of two brilliant parents, both writers. Her father ( Bill Pullman) is putting the finishing touches on a book that will be published by a scholarly press..." read review >> |
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Aaron Hillis has already caused a bit of a genial ruckus by (politely) skewering this sacred cow, but he'd ultimately agree with us that no matter what, you need see Marienbad. AH: "[It's] an incontestably iconic and beautiful curiosity that simply hasn't held up as the masterpiece it's gushed to be. Perhaps in the context of 1961, this legendary collaboration between twin titans Alain Resnais and nouveau roman writer-turned-filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet was then the epitome of formalist, modernist European film artistry; it's a highly reactionary pooh-poohing of traditional narrative storytelling, academically detached from the confines of space, time and meaning to a meandering extreme of icy impenetrability..." read review >>
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If you've got the guts, you adventuresome types need to check out the final New York Asian Film Festival screening (July 2, 2:00pm, IFC Center) of South Korean actor Yang Ik-June's writer-directorial debut Breathless. Aaron Hillis has more on GreenCine Daily. More >>
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Independents Day
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