 |
|
No one's ever enquired how many miles Bertrand Tavernier has energetically dragged his camera across: his movies literally move fast. The Princess of Montpensier's opening grabs your attention immediately, as bodies crawl on the green to a more removed view of sword-wielding horsemen mowing soldiers down, the image craning up as the riders keep chasing their foes across a stream. Tavernier's a sincere admirer/student of classical Hollywood, and the opening moments of Princess deliver raids, duels and rousing action. Vadim Rizov has more on his pick for Film of the Week. Read more >> |
|
|
In This Dispatch:
- What's New: Harry Potter, Heartless, and more.
- What We're Watching: Marwencol, White Material, Casino Jack.
- Explore: Dallas Film Fest 2011.
- Contests: Hanna giveaway reminder.
|
|
|
The next to last HP film (based on half the epic final book) is the calm before the storm but "manages to be both a steppingstone and a reasonably satisfying experience in its own right," writes A.O. Scott, finding "notes of anxious suspense and grave emotion to send its characters, and its fans, into the last round." Adds Dana Stevens, "This installment is all about the grown-up kids. The three young leads - especially Emma Watson, who can do more with a still face than any actress her age - are all terrific " Out Friday. |
|
|
|
Cult writer/filmmaker Philip Ridley returns to directing with this occult horror film, "a moody, portentous tale of demons running amok on the streets of London," writes Nathan Rabin in AV Club, saying the film really comes alive when "the great Eddie Marsan ( Happy Go Lucky) surfaces for a game-changing supporting performance." Adds Twitch: "That it manages to take so many potentially disastrous clichés and mash them together into what is undoubtedly one of the best films to be shown this year is nothing short of a triumph." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
After nearly dying from a vicious attack that left him brain damaged, Mark Hogancamp had to learn to walk, talk and write again—only finding solace in the building of a small-scale WWII European village in his backyard. Named for this fictional, war-torn town, Marwencol is filmmaker Jeff Malmberg's four-year chronicle of Hogancamp's life and project, a film as much about the restoration of a human psyche as it is the story of an intricate art form rising out of tragedy... Read more >> |
|
|
| |
Not even the gnarliest horror film has left me as haunted as White Material. The 2010 film by Claire Denis, a kind of specialist in themes of French colonization and its repercussions, is the work of a director at the top of her game. You can sense the deep craft on display because the unusual, even confusingly enigmatic construction of a narrative – which relies on extremely subtle flashbacks – makes the movie somehow more compelling. It's a kind of mystery, really, and one that unfolds without a scrap of assistance from its key persona, the indefatigable Maria ( Isabelle Huppert), the manager of a coffee plantation in an African country that is about to boil over into civil war... Read more >> |
|
|
| |
This film's ace-in-the-hole is Kevin Spacey, once more playing the cynical, snappy type of character he made so memorable in American Beauty. He's clearly enjoying every manic moment here, throwing in the occasional celebrity impression besides, and the screenplay by Norman Snider does a nice job of feeding his frenzy. There isn't much room for others in this kind of one-man show -- such as Kelly Preston, stuck in the sidecar playing Spacey's wife -- but Jon Lovitz gets in some nice moments as a sleazy, small-time hood.... Read more >> |
|
|
On GC Daily, Steve Dollar gives us a critic's notebook for the Dallas Film Festival. In its fifth year flying solo after its partnership ended with the American Film Institute, the festival feels like a significant part of ongoing efforts to revitalize the city's urban core. But the best bets, not unlike SXSW, were micro rather than macro. More >>
|
|
|
| |
|
|
