 |
|
Many people have argued The Fighter, now out on DVD, is decent but underwhelming, a get-out-of-jail-semi-free card for a filmmaker in dire need of commercial success. (And two acting Oscars--Melissa Leo, Christian Bale-- came from the dynamic ensemble cast.) But, Vadim Rizov fights back in GC Daily's DVD of the Week, the idea that the film is business as usual, helmed a little more vigorously, is a little silly. If The Fighter looks standard-issue, that's only in comparison to David O. Russell's previous confrontational, oft-outre movies. Read more >> |
|
|
In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Persian Cats, Waste Land and more.
- What We're Watching: Film Unfinished, Tamara Drewe, Around a Small Mountain.
- Explore: SXSW "flame war."
- Contest: Jane Eyre giveaway.
|
|
|
"Director Bahman Ghobadi ( Turtles Can Fly) shot his faux documentary in secret," writes Lisa Schwarzbaum, "and the close-to-the-ground style compensates for the tenuous narrative structure by capturing the energy and variety of Tehran's music scene in all its bravery." The film, adds AO Scott in the NY Times, " is careful to avoid explicit political statement, but its reticence makes its critique of the Iranian regime all the more devastating." |
|
|
|
Lucy Walker's ( Devil's Playground) Oscar-nominated doc was filmed over nearly three years and follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, and aims to transform it. It is " Waste Land resembles Agnès Varda's great 2000 documentary The Gleaners & I, writes Scott Tobias, "particularly in its awe of tough, creative, hard-working people who live on the margins." It's "compelling and vivid," adds Empire. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
After all the films made about life, and death, in the Warsaw Ghetto – from Polanski’s award-winning The Pianist to Cannon Films' rather silly Jews-fight-back-while-falling-in-love War and Love, not to mention countless documentaries -- it is still a kick in the gut and the head to experience a movie like the new A Film Unfinished from documentarian Yael Hersonski. There is something about the reality of documentary film that wipes the floor with the romanticizing in narrative Holocaust movies, from Schindler's List to the latest Claude Lelouch, which – as much as I love his new film, Ces amours-là -- gives us this in spades. (Only Lajos Kotai's Fateless manages narrative in a way that does not end up somehow reducing the Holocaust.) I foolishly imagined that I was by now immune to further shocks about the Holocaust, but was mistaken... Read more >> |
|
|
| |
Glazed in a dusty yellow sheen, Stephen Frears' Tamara Drewe, based on Posy Simmonds' comic strip, coyly dances around a well-traveled idea: the grass is always greener on the other side. At first, this breeds comedic situations through rampant miscommunication, as deeply unhappy souls yearn for a romantic or economic situation that will produce inspiration. Eventually, these small self-deceptions turn grotesque. Tamara Drewe's collective of off-kilter characters, some purposefully and others regrettably rooted in the small English town of Ewedown, watch romantic relationships unfold from a distance, judging them with a selfish desire for tragedy that will benefit their own needs... Read more >> |
|
|
| |
One of the legendary members of the French New Wave, Jacques Rivette was always a bit more experimental than his colleagues. One of the ways in which he played around was with lengthy running times. His monumental Out 1 (1971) runs nearly 13 hours (here's hoping a DVD box set comes sometime soon). His masterpiece Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974, not on DVD in the US) runs just past three hours. Another masterpiece, La Belle Noiseuse (1991), runs four hours. Rivette has always used these immense lengths for musing, exploration and discovery. He's interested in complexities of the artistic process, or sometimes, more simply, the mystery of romance and and the romance of mystery. Read more >> |
|
|
This year's SXSW Film Festival had not even officially begun before it delivered one of those experiences that justifies the entire trip to Austin, TX—where the effort to see the most amazing movies no one's ever heard of runs headlong into what amounts to spring break for the independent film (and music and interactive) industry. It was near the end of a pre-fest preview screening of a movie called Bellflower. Steve Dollar has more on this sure-to-be-divisive film. Read more >>
|
|
|
| |
|
|
