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Amongst other things, December is the magic time of the year when lists of the "Best/Most Important/Least Degrading/Most Thoughtful/Most Transgressive/Most Crowd-Pleasing Films of the Year" are compiled by critics and others, and now we've got the end of the 'Oughts and thus a number of decade-end lists, too. But Simon Abrams, writing on GreenCine Daily, comes up with something unique: best "Shaggy Dog" films, good, sometimes troubled movies that end oddly. More >> |
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In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Basterds, Headless Woman and more.
- What We're Watching: The Hangover, Lion's Den, Christmas Tale.
- Explore: Broken Lizard podcast, Kurosawa.
- Contests and Promos: Me and Orson Welles; Holiday Gift Guide.
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Quentin Tarantino's ultra-suspensful WWII actioner may be a bit of revisionist history but, argues Roger Ebert, it's "a big, bold, audacious war movie that will annoy some, startle others and demonstrate once again that he's (Tarantino) the real thing, a director of quixotic delights." Adds J Hoberman: "Energetic, inventive, swaggering fun, Basterds is a consummate Hollywood entertainment--rich in fantasy and blithely amoral." And Brad Pitt may get top billing but the main story, and the movie, belongs to Mélanie Laurent, while Christoph Waltz, as a bemused Nazi officer, steals it. |
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Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel may be one of international cinema's most interesting directors you've never heard of (her La Cienaga is also quite good). The NY Times' Stephen Holden calls his new film a "brilliant, maddeningly enigmatic puzzle of a movie." In TimeOut NY Keith Uhlich says it's "no simplistic status parable. It’s more a psychological snapshot of a person forever doomed to remain a voyeur to her own life. [It's] an astounding portrait of a person entirely out of sync with her own existence." More here. |
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Things don't start out so promisingly in The Hangover...And yet, thankfully, the story centers around the mismatched, oddball trio of men who quickly get up to their necks in trouble, and The Hangover goes off in blessedly unpredictable and often riotous directions as soon as they hit the road.Those familiar with the ouevre of Todd Phillips, who has made one mostly dreadful Outrageous Comedy in Road Trip and one surprisingly winning outrageous comedy in Old School (and one that is both, in Starsky and Hutch) may rightly expect a fair amount of grossout humor -- and they'd be right -- but it's also undeniably funny... Read review >> |
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The admirable, well-made Argentine film Lion's Den features no performers you’ll probably have ever heard of, and that's to its benefit; it adds to the film's documentary-like realism. At the beginning of Pablo Trapero's film (he also did the underrated Rolling Family), a young woman awakens in something of a stupor, looking bruised and bloodied; she showers, still in that stupor, and goes to work... Read review >> |
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Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale opens with the death of a child, but there's actually a reason for it beyond cheap audience manipulation. In fact, the child's death - which is depicted with shadow puppets - is eulogized in a profoundly joyful way by the boy's father (played pitch-perfectly by Jean-Paul Roussillon). In a tribute with language borrowed from the poet Emerson, he sees his son's death as the well from which the rest of his own life is to spring. It's surprising and complicated and... Read review >>
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Me and Orson Welles, Richard Linklater’s film opening this month, is getting some excellent reviews -- especially for newcomer Christian McKay, who does a spot-on Welles. And now thanks to Freestyle Releasing and GreenCine, you can be one of six (6) lucky winners of the excellent book upon which the film is based, in our new contest. Details >>
Last but certainly not least: If you're stuck for some last minute gift ideas for that cinephile in your life, check out GreenCine's Holiday Gift Guide, a smorgasbord of books, DVDs, comics, games, and fantasy-dream-list items. Shop 'til you drop. Gift Guide >> |
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Holiday Movies That Don't Suck
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