MATT'S 2014 FILMS
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- DirectorArild Østin OmmundsenStarsSilje SalomonsenTomas Alf LarsenEgil BirkelandA woman goes to prison for murder. After being released back into society, she tries to create a new life for her and her now-nine-year-old daughter. But her dark past comes back to haunt her and threaten both of their lives.WINNER OF NORWAY'S BEST FILM INCLUDING CINEMATOGRAPHY, AND MUSIC COMPOSED FOR THE FILM. THIS TRULY WAS A FINE PRODUCTION AND IN GENERAL EXCELLENCE IN CINEMA IS INCREASING IN SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES WHILE FALLING IN THE PREVIOUSLY TOP OF THE HEAP....ITALY AND FRANCE. THIS FILM TO ME REFLECTS THE UNDYING LOVE OF MOTHERHOOD. SAD THAT THESE WONDERFUL FILMS ARE AVAILABLE IN THEATRES AT FESTIVALS. HOWEVER THERE ARE MANY WEBSITES DEVOTED TO THESE RARE TITLES.
Silje Salomonsen plays Jenny, a girl that tries to stay away from her old bad acquaintances after spending several years in jail, following an incident linked to drug smuggling and murder. At the time of this mistake she was pregnant, and gave birth in prison to a little girl called Merete. Fortunately this one could be raised outside jail in normal conditions, and becomes a very joyful and clever kid. So, when Jenny can get out, she wants Merete to join her in the hope of restarting her life were it had stopped abruptly. But the bad guys from her past are still around, waiting to spoil her new beginning. Distinctly and engagingly directed by Nordic filmmaker Arild Østin Ommundsen, this finely paced fictional tale which is narrated mostly from the protagonist's point of view, draws a diverse and riveting portrayal of a Norwegian mother and ex-con whom whilst looking for ways to make her new home as decent as possible for her daughter befriends a former schoolmate named Gary and some vengeful criminals from her past. While notable for it's naturalistic and atmospheric milieu depictions, sterling cinematography by Arild Østin Ommundsen and use of sound, colors and light, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about a mother's love for her daughter, the people who won't leave her alone and let her get on with her life and ultimately about a filmmaker's love for his family, depicts a rare study of character and contains a great score by Norwegian composer Thomas Dybdahl. - DirectorCharles-Olivier MichaudStarsKelly BlatzRichard JenkinsKim BasingerA former track coach decides to train a student with natural athletic talent. Tragedy strikes, forcing the student to confront everything that has been holding him back.A SO-SO LITTLE SPORTS STORY WITH UPBEAT NARRATIVE, BUT DONE WITH TV SPECIAL QUALITY
Unfortunately, the narrative is so formulaic as to feel immediately contrived, with seemingly every plot device taken from another film.
Additionally, director Charles-Olivier Michaud's formal approach is to treat the film like something between a made-for-TV movie and a Gatorade commercial, with lugubrious slow-motion photography and roving Steadicam shots that convey motion but not movement. Lacking self-awareness, the film suffers from its inability to understand its presentatio - DirectorAndrea SegreStarsMatteo MarchelJean-Christophe FollyAnita CaprioliFROM ITALY COMES THIS GORGEOUS LITTLE FILM ABOUT GRIEF AND LOSS.
First Snowfall is a quietly mournful film about coping with loss and the acceptance of death. Both Dani and Michele have locked away their feelings in one way or another, and it’s not until they communicate with each other, and find solace in the restful nature of the Alps and the simple pleasure of craft, that they are truly able to grieve. The natural landscape is breathtakingly captured and is as integral to the film as the central characters – swaying trees and tranquil mountains hold a transcendent beauty, something eternal that will never know death. Underpinned with a doleful accordion score this is an effortlessly moving experience of engaging humanity that sweeps us into two contrasting lives both marked by loss. - DirectorSteve JamesStarsRoger EbertChaz EbertGene SiskelThe life and career of the renowned film critic and social commentator, Roger Ebert.ROGER TOOK THE PLACE OF PAULINE KAEL FOR ME AS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON TO PROMOTE ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE IN CINEMA. HIS WRITING WAS SO EASY TO UNDERSTAND AND YET SO ARTICULATE. HE MADE EVERY ONE AROUND HIM SO COMFORTABLE AND LOVED TO SPONTANEOUSLY SHARE DISCUSSIONS ON FILM WITH ANYONE, ME INCLUDED. UNFORTUNATELY, HE WILL BE HARD TO REPLACE.
The film, like its subject, gives a thumbs-up to life, whatever shape it takes
Full Review… | January 15, 2015
Chris Barsanti
Film Racket
Tremendously, gorgeously life-affirming and soul-stirring ... The film is impeccably constructed, making bold choices which are followed through with integrity and conviction.
Full Review… | January 5, 2015
CJ Johnson
ABC Radio (Australia)
This is a sometimes painful but always inspiring tribute to one of the great members of our profession.
Full Review… | January 5, 2015
David Stratton
The Australian
Movies help us think about who we are and how we live together. And as a movie, Life Itself is a heartfelt, clear-eyed tribute to a master.
Full Review… | January 5, 2015
Alissa Wilkinson
Christianity Today
With Ebert's blessing and encouragement, Life Itself is a warts-and-all look at how the son of an Illinois electrician and housewife became a prolific writer who spent 46 years as the film critic at the Chicago Sun Times. - DirectorMartin ProvostStarsEmmanuelle DevosSandrine KiberlainOlivier GourmetViolette Leduc, born a bastard at the beginning of last century, meets Simone de Beauvoir in the years after the war in St-Germain-des-Prés. Then begins an intense relationship between the two women that will last throughout their lives, a relationship based on the quest for freedom through writing for Violette and conviction for Simone to have in their hands the fate of an extraordinary writer.A WONDERFUL FRENCH FILM EXPLORING THE LIFE AND RELATIONSHIPS OF Simone de Beauvoir. IT STARS ONE OF MY VERY FAVORITE EUROPEAN ACTRESSES, EMANNUELLE DEVOS. EASY TO FIND THIS FILM ON DVD.
The enigmatic Violette Leduc was never admitted to French literature's inner sanctum, and her struggle to get her voice heard is limned with intelligence and insight in this stylish biopic. As in Séraphine (2008), director Martin Provost empathises with his outsider heroine without losing sight of her flaws. Leduc (Emmanuelle Devos) is first seen operating as a black marketeer in the wartime provinces, giving as good as she gets in the fractious relationships she has with her mother, Berthe (Catherine Hiegel), and gay Jewish writer Maurice Sachs (Olivier Py). But everything changes when Leduc moves to Paris and is encouraged to write by Simone de Beauvoir (Sandrine Kiberlain), who willingly acts as her mentor while resisting the bisexual Leduc's amorous advances. Provost's film unfolds over a series of chapters that covers the period 1942-64, and he ably conveys the agonies of the creative process and the romance of books. But it's Devos's outstanding performance that ensures this compels as both cultural history and human drama. A woman in post-Second World War France ostracised for being born out of wedlock meets writer Simone de Beauvoir. An inseparable relationship develops between the pair, as de Beauvoir seeks to hone her friend's artistic talents and grant her the freedom of expression she longs for. Fact-based period drama, with Emmanuelle Devos and Sandrine Kiberlain. In French. - DirectorClint EastwoodStarsJohn Lloyd YoungErich BergenMichael LomendaThe story of four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic 1960s rock group The Four Seasons.MUSIC IS GOOD, DIRECTION AND STAGING FLAT. CLINT SHOULD STAY OUT OF THIS GENRE. At first, it looks so smart that it's easy to miss the emptiness behind the sharp design and snappy patter. In the end, it's a collection of scenes sticking to a simplistic adage: 'You can take the boys out of Jersey but not Jersey out of the boys.'Jersey Boys features brilliant art direction but frustrates in equal measure by straddling too many decades, with the scant emotions of an off-set death clearly defining the problem. I just found myself enjoying the music more than the events taking place on-screen.
- DirectorWes AndersonStarsRalph FiennesF. Murray AbrahamMathieu AmalricA writer encounters the owner of an aging high-class hotel, who tells him of his early years serving as a lobby boy in the hotel's glorious years under an exceptional concierge.WES ANDERSON IS JUST TO SILLY FOR ME TOO GRASP. HOLLYWOOD APPARENTLY LOVES THIS FILM. I DID NOT! plenty of major stars have a role, but many of them are either too short or too simple. Situations are sometimes built up and then let off easy. I think Anderson has tried a bit too hard to pack stars and visuals in, that the film's direction has resulted in some shortcomings.
- DirectorAmma AsanteStarsGugu Mbatha-RawMatthew GoodeEmily WatsonThe biracial daughter, Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), of Royal Navy Captain Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode) is raised by aristocratic Great-uncle Lord William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) in 18th century England.A FASCINATING PERIOD DRAMA TOLD WITH THE USUAL BRIT ELEGANCE. Belle” is a movie that instantly joins the ranks of the screen’s great period piece romances.
Imagine a Jane Austen adaptation, with all its Empire waistlines and romantic longing, but a film in which the obstacles to love are far greater than mere social standing, a story that transcends its comedy of manners frame and is actually about something — slavery.
“Belle” is loosely based on the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the daughter of an aristocratic Royal Navy captain (Matthew Goode) and a Negro woman. That sort of thing happened in 18th century England, but polite people didn’t speak of it. And a child born of such a union faced a hard life of the same drudgery that faced England’s slaves and freed blacks — servants, as a class. - DirectorJohn MaloofCharlie SiskelStarsVivian MaierJohn MaloofDaniel ArnaudA documentary on the late Vivian Maier, a nanny whose previously unknown cache of 100,000 photographs earned her a posthumous reputation as one of the most accomplished street photographers.TO ME THIS WAS ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING OF THE DOCUMENTARY OSCAR NOMS. OF COURSE MY INTEREST IN STREET PHOTOGRAPHY HAS ALWAYS BEEN HIGH.
When Vivian Maier, who worked most of her life as a nanny in the tony suburbs of Chicago’s North Shore, died in 2009 at the age of 83, a storage facility auctioned off her voluminous personal effects. John Maloof, a 26-year-old amateur historian, purchased a box of undeveloped negatives of hers, then set them aside after a cursory look-see. Two years later he revisited the trove and realized Maier’s work was as good as anything by Weegee, Helen Levitt, or Dorothea Lange. Here’s the strange part: In her lifetime, Maier shot more than 100,000 photos and yet didn’t print or even develop most of them. Had Maloof not bought that box, it’s likely her work would have been jettisoned to a junk heap. “Finding Vivian Maier,” a documentary by Maloof and Charlie Siskel, is a great detective story. How could it be that someone so gifted could limit herself mostly to nannydom all those years? And why did she keep her work hidden away, unexposed even to herself? - DirectorMark LevinsonStarsDavid KaplanFabiola GianottiSherwood BoehlertAs the Large Hadron Collider is about to be launched for the first time, physicists are on the cusp of the greatest scientific discovery of all time -- or perhaps their greatest failure.“ AS RAY MULLIO TOLD ME, MY HEAD WOULD SPIN WITH ALL THE POSSIBLITIES THAT THIS ATOM SPLITTING CAN CREATE. EXTREMELY WELL DONE FILM ASKING MANY QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR UNIVERSE. IT HAS CERTAINLY COME A LONG WAY SINCE MY PHYCSICS/CHEMISTRY DAYS AT CAL IN THE 50'S. 95% ROTTEN TOMATOES: Particle Fever explores with awe-inspiring precision, and in remarkably accessible language, how 10,000 scientists and engineers from around the world built what in effect is the ultimate test tube for particle physics
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsEllar ColtranePatricia ArquetteEthan HawkeThe life of Mason, from early childhood to his arrival at college.CAN YOU IMAGINE INVESTING IN A PROJECT THAT WOULD TAKE 12 YEARS TO FILM AND ALL THE ACTORS MUST REMAIN THE SAME. WELL HE ACCOMPLISHED AN ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TASK AND THE FILM ITSELF WAS SO POLISHED AND WELL WRITTEN THAT THE NEARLY 3 HOUR LENGTH FLEW BY FOR ME. HOW DOES RICHARD LINKLATER HAVE SO MUCH INSIGHT INTO YOUTH, PARENTING AND THE REALITIES OF FAMILY LIFE. MY HIGHEST PRAISE TO HIM FOR THIS ACCOMPLISHMENT.
Among the most distinctive gifts of filmmaker Richard Linklater is his uncanny ability to take the simplest of stories and craft something profound and emotionally complex out of them. He did it with his "Before Sunrise" series, a moving and multi-layered trilogy of romantic dramas about two people who -- for the most part -- simply walk around and discuss the nature of relationships.
As they do, however, they are beyond compelling, shining a light on universal themes of what makes us drawn to one another as human beings. Even if Linklater had decided to never again shoot another frame of film after those projects, they would stand as a testament to his mastery of nuance and his keen insight into human nature.
But now he's done it again -- and even more effectively -- in "Boyhood." Like the "Before Sunrise" films, its plot is the picture of simplicity. This one can be summed up in but four words: a boy grows up. - DirectorKurt KuenneStarsKurt KuenneAndrew BagbyDavid BagbyA filmmaker decides to memorialize a murdered friend when his friend's ex-girlfriend announces she is expecting his son.I SAW THIS AS A DVD AND WAS MOVED TO SOBBING AT SEEING PARENTS SO WANTING TO SEE THE CHILD OF THEIR MURDERED SON. HIS LIFE WAS SO MEANINGFUL, YET THE REJECTED LOVER MURDERED HIM WHILE PREGNANT WITH HIS CHILD.
It is a controlled explosion. Kurt Kuenne began the film as a tribute to his friend, Dr. Andrew Bagby—all but certainly murdered by his unstable girlfriend, Dr. Shirley Turner, who fled the U.S. to her hometown in St. John, Newfoundland, and announced, while awaiting extradition, that she was pregnant with Bagby’s son. No problem, right? The crime was brutal, the evidence of guilt overwhelming, the woman transparently a nutjob: Imprison. Impanel. Extradite. But not so fast: It’s Canada, Jake. As Bagby’s stricken parents, David and Kathleen, took up residence in St. John’s and awaited the birth of their grandchild and their seemingly inevitable custody, the courts postponed and postponed; Turner’s psychiatrist, John Doucette, put up the money to keep her out of jail; and Turner had a baby boy who was the image of Andrew Bagby. She named him Zachary. Now Kuenne had an even larger mission: to make a record of Bagby’s life for the son who would never know him. - DirectorJohn Michael McDonaghStarsBrendan GleesonChris O'DowdKelly ReillyAfter he is threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.A MAGNIFICENT IRISH DRAMA THAT CHALLENGES MANY OF OUR LONG HELD RELIGIOUS ISSUES. ALTHOUGH TALKY, THE SHOOT WAS AMAZINGLY WELL DONE, AND THOUGH USUALLY STAGEY FILMS MAKE ME DROUSY, THIS ONE CAPTURED MY ATTENTION THROUGHOUT. THE PERFORMANCES DOWN THE LINE WERE EASILY OSCAR WORTHY. CREDIT FOR THIS WONDERFUL FILM GOES TO John Michael McDonagh, WHO PREVIOUSLY BROUGHT US THE SENSATIONAL FILMS OF "THE GUARD" & "NED KELLY". THIS FILM SHOULD BE THE NEXT ONE YOU SEE AND IS NOW LOCALLY AVAILABLE.
Writer-director John Michael McDonagh and actor Brendan Gleeson made a big international splash with 2011’s “The Guard,” a terrifically entertaining action-comedy that offered little indication of the depths of humor, compassion, despair and grace they would achieve in their masterful follow-up, “Calvary.” Grounded by a performance of monumental soul from Gleeson as a tough-minded Irish priest marked for death by one of his parishioners, the film offers a mordantly funny survey of small-town iniquity that morphs, almost imperceptibly, into a deeply felt lament for a fallen world. A completely sincere work about the persistence of faith and the Catholic Church’s soul-shattering legacy of abuse, this literate, beautifully crafted picture should translate near-certain critical plaudits into a distinguished arthouse reception worldwide. - DirectorStéphane AubierVincent PatarBenjamin RennerStarsLambert WilsonPauline BrunnerAnne-Marie LoopThe story of an unlikely friendship between a bear, Ernest, and a young mouse named Celestine.“ A SWEET PLEASANT ANIMATED FILM THAT CAN BE ENJOYED BY ALL AGES. THANK YOU SHERI AND SANDI. 97% RT:Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets, tucked away in networks of winding subterranean tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer - and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for ursine troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond. But it isn't long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-fearing and mice-eating communities. Fresh from standing ovations at Cannes and Toronto Ernest & Celestine joyfully leaps across genres and influences to capture the kinetic, limitless possibilities of animated storytelling. Like a gorgeous watercolor painting brought to life.
- DirectorJohn TurturroStarsJohn TurturroWoody AllenSharon StoneFioravante decides to become a professional Don Juan as a way of making money to help his cash-strapped friend, Murray. With Murray acting as his "manager", the duo quickly finds themselves caught up in the crosscurrents of love and money.“ WOODY ALLEN'S TIMING FOR SOME VERY FUNNY LINES IS OUTSTANDING. THE SCRIPTING, DIRECTION AND ACTING BY TURTURRO IS EXCELLENT. HIS LAST FACIAL EXPRESSION IN THE FILM IS PRICELESS. THE MUSIC BY ITSELF WAS SENSATIONAL, THUS I GAVE IT AN EXTRA POINT. CLEVER AND CERTAINLY ORIGINAL AND I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED IT. BEING JEWISH AND UNDERSTANDING A LITTLE YIDDISH HELPED. DAVID EDELSTEIN: What hallucinogen was Turturro on when he came up with this plot? It’s so crazy that it’s … fun. You have to set aside the endless improbabilities and impossibilities and accept Fading Gigolo as a fairy tale devised by a man who’s philosophically committed to the idea that life is a romantic commedia and that the only sin is not acting on one’s feelings. It’s okay to cringe from time to time
- DirectorShawn LevyStarsJason BatemanTina FeyJane FondaAfter their father passes away, four grown siblings are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and an assortment of spouses, exes, and might-have-beens.“ RAT-A-TAT HUMOUROUS DIALOGUE WITH A TERRIBLY FRACTURED NARRATIVE THAT SEEMS TO BE WRITTEN BY A BUNCH OF INVESTORS. Even comedy all-stars can't breathe life into the contrived situations and underwritten neurotics in this family-at-a-funeral dramedy.
- DirectorRitesh BatraStarsIrrfan KhanNimrat KaurNawazuddin SiddiquiA mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an older man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox.A DELIGHTFUL FILM TOLD IN A DELIBERATE METICULOUS MANNER THAT NEVER FEELS RUSHED YET ONE BECOMES TOTALLY INVOLVED. WORTH YOUR EFFORT FOR INSIGHT INTO THE SCENE OF INDIA, ESPECIALLY THE LUNCHBOX DELIVERY SYSTEM. I DO APPRECIATED FILMS INVOLVING FOOD AND ROMANCE. RT 96%: Middle class housewife Ila is trying once again to add some spice to her marriage, this time through her cooking. She desperately hopes that this new recipe will finally arouse some kind of reaction from her neglectful husband. She prepares a special lunchbox to be delivered to him at work, but, unbeknownst to her, it is mistakenly delivered to another office worker, Saajan, a lonely man on the verge of retirement. Curious about the lack of reaction from her husband, Ila puts a little note in the following day's lunchbox, in the hopes of getting to the bottom of the mystery. This begins a series of lunchbox notes between Saajan and Ila, and the mere comfort of communicating with a stranger anonymously soon evolves into an unexpected friendship. Gradually, their notes become little confessions about their loneliness, memories, regrets, fears, and even small joys. They each discover a new sense of self
- DirectorNadav SchirmanStarsMosab Hassan YousefGonen Ben YitzhakSheikh Hassan YousefThe son of a founding leader in the Palestinian organization, Hamas, becomes a spy for the Israelis.THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST DOCUMENTARIES SEEN BY ME THIS YEAR. ANOTHER EXCELLENT FILM FROM THE TEAM THAT BROUGHT US SUGARMAN AND MAN ON WIRE. A FASCINATING STORY OF SPECIAL INTEREST WHO FOLLOW iSRAEL HAMAS EVENTS. FULL OF AMBIGUITIES AND PROVOCATIVE QUESTIONS.
Scour the works of John Buchan, W. Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, and John le Carré and you'd be hard-pressed to find a spy story as compelling or fantastical as The Green Prince, an Israeli espionage film set during the second Palestinian Intifada.
It is part of a mini-invasion of spy stories about the Israeli-Arab conflict, including Bethlehem, Omar, and, to a certain extent, Big Bad Wolves. Yet director Nadav Schirman's movie, which tells the story of a young Palestinian who spies for Israeli intelligence, isn't a scripted thriller but a documentary. - DirectorBennett MillerStarsSteve CarellChanning TatumMark RuffaloU.S. Olympic wrestling champions and brothers Mark Schultz and Dave Schultz join "Team Foxcatcher", led by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont, as they train for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, but John's self-destructive behavior threatens to consume them all.A BRILLIANT INSIGHTFUL EXPLORATION OF A BAFFLING TRUE STORY AND ESPECIALLY THE MIND OF JOHN DUPONT AND WHAT COULD HAVE BROUGHT HIM TO THAT TRAGIC REALITY. HURRAH FOR THE DIRECTION OF BENNETT MILLER(MONEYBALL, CAPOTE) AND ESPECIALLY STEVE CARRELL WHO PORTRAYED THE SICKO MIND OF DUPONT MAGNIFICENTLY. TO ME A GUARANTEED OSCAR NOD. A mesmerizing hybrid of true crime and sports drama, Foxcatcher is destined to be one of the year's most talked-about films. It tells the fascinating, tragic story of wrestling champions Mark and Dave Schultz; specifically, the two brothers' fateful encounter with multi-millionaire coach John du Pont. Exemplifying the greatest strengths of Academy Award-nominated director Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher locates a balance of excitement and burgeoning dread, and keeps us firmly in its hold until its harrowing finish.
- DirectorSergey LoznitsaA look at the 2013 and 2014 civil unrest in the Ukrainian capital's central square.A VISUAL FEAST THROUGHOUT THAT CAPTURES THE UKRAINIAN REVOLUTION WITHOUT BORING DIDACTIC NARRATIVE. YOU HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF FEELING LIKE YOU WERE THERE. Celebrated Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa (In the Fog) creates one of the essential cinematic experiences of our time with this epic, formally audacious documentary chronicle of the historic protests in Kiev’s Maïdan square. Capturing impassioned speeches, songs and prayers, and the terrifying heat of battle, Loznitsa's long takes ultimately reveal the might of the masses to come together and rally for freedom and independence. Eschewing interviews and talking-head commentary, Loznitsa also refutes the jittery, hand-held camerawork of so many formless "Occupy" films or direct-reportage docs. Comprised almost entirely of static master shots.
- DirectorPascale FerranStarsJosh CharlesAnaïs DemoustierRoschdy ZemIn an airport hotel on the outskirts of Paris, a Silicon Valley engineer abruptly chucks his job, breaks things off with his wife, and holes up in his room. Soon, fate draws him and a young French maid together.AN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESSMAN QUITS HIS JOB AND FAMILY WHILE IN PARIS. A HOTEL MAID BECOMES A BIRD AND FLYS AROUND ENDLESSLY....ENOUGH ALREADY! This is a film about people breaking free, and when they realize that common subtext to their lives at the end of the story, it has some undeniable thematic resonance. However, it takes WAY too long to get there. Ferran is prone to “flights of fancy,” pardon the pun, as some scenes in her film go on unchecked while others aren’t allowed nearly the right amount of time to develop. The scene in which Gary officially breaks his marriage is interminable, with long silences and what sound like improvised emotional beats.
- DirectorDavid DobkinStarsRobert Downey Jr.Robert DuvallVera FarmigaBig-city lawyer Hank Palmer returns to his childhood home where his father, the town's judge, is suspected of murder. Hank sets out to discover the truth; along the way he reconnects with his estranged family.SKIP THIS HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER. DOWNEY AND DUVALL DESERVE BETTER MATERIAL. There are moments that have all the grace and subtlety of housebreaking a dog – Dobkin rubs your face in his emotional mess, ensuring that he gets his point across. And why does the Judge not remember anything from that night?
I can assure you that the answers to these question are entirely disinteresting, as is most everything else in this picture. - DirectorFrançois OzonStarsRomain DurisAnaïs DemoustierRaphaël PersonnazA young woman makes a surprising discovery about the husband of her late best friend.AN UNPREDICTABLE TWISTED TALE THAT WILL YIELD MANY OMG'S FROM ITS AUDIENCE WILL SERVE TO APPRECIATE THE IMAGINATIVE SCREENPLAY FROM ITS AUTEUR FILMMAKER, FRANCOIS OZON. ALMOST ALL OF HIS FILMS ARE CREATIVE MASTERPIECES. Like the wittiest dinner guest imaginable, François Ozon tells tales that sizzle. Lust, longing, and broken taboos fill his scenarios, all relayed with precision and style. Last year's Jeune & jolie (Young & Beautiful) provoked both pleasure and censure with its story of a wilful teen prostitute. In The New Girlfriend Ozon does it again, but with increased empathy. Claire and Laura have been best friends since childhood; their lives intertwined. When Laura falls ill and dies, Claire reaches out to comfort Laura's husband, David. It's then that she discovers David's secret. From that simple, saucy premise, Ozon takes The New Girlfriend down an ever surprising path
- DirectorRamin BahraniStarsAndrew GarfieldMichael ShannonLaura DernA recently unemployed single father struggles to get back his foreclosed home by working for the real estate broker who is the source of his frustration.THERE ARE VERY FEW THINGS THAT FROST ME MORE THAN THE INEQUALITY OF INCOMES AND THE INSENSITIVITY OF THOSE SITTING AT THE TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN. THERE, YOU HAVE IT, COMPASSION AND SENSITIVITY FOR THE LESS FORTUNATE IS A MAJOR PART OF WHO I AM. THE WEALTHY OWN MULTIPLE MILLION DOLLAR HOMES AND THE STRUGGLING FAMILY WORKING THEIR TAILS OFF AND BARELY KEEP THEIR HOMES, YET THE BANKERS WILL THROW THEM OUT. IT IS SO UNFAIR AND THAT IS WHY THIS IMPORTANT FILM GETS A 10 FROM ME. MICHAEL SHANNON IS A GREAT ACTOR AND IS EXCELLENT AS THE BAD GUY PROTAGONIST. Ramin Bahrani, in such acclaimed films as Man Push Cart, Chop Shop, and Goodbye Solo, American director Ramin Bahrani created compassionate portraits of ordinary people struggling to survive within a society that does little to aid them. Set amid the US housing-market meltdown of the last decade, his latest feature, 99 Homes, is his most compelling to date: an intimate and moving chronicle of a family that has become one of the many casualties of a culture of relentless consumption and economic overextension.
- DirectorMorten TyldumStarsBenedict CumberbatchKeira KnightleyMatthew GoodeDuring World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians while attempting to come to terms with his troubled private life.IMMEDIATELY PLACE BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH NEAR THE TOP OF YOUR OSCAR BALLOT. HIS PERFORMANCE WAS PERFECT FOR THIS VERY INTERESTING COMMENT ON THE MAN WHO PROBABLY WON THE WAR FOR US PLUS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EARLIEST COMPUTERS. HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHIES ARE A FAVORITE GENRE OF MINE AND THIS ONE WAS SO INSIGHTFUL INTO THE LIFE OF ALAN TURING. BRILLIANT AND PRODUCTIVE BUT WAS TRAGICALLY DISMISSED FROM PROFESSORSHIP AT CAMBRIDGE FOR DECENCY LAWS THAT WERE IN EFFECT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. THE SHAME OF THOSE RESPONSIBLE CAN NEVER BE FORGIVEN. THE UGLINESS AND UNFAIRNESS OF HOMOPHOBIA IS ONE OF THE STRENGTHS OF THIS FILM.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as brilliant Cambridge mathematician, cryptanalyst and pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing, who spearheaded the Enigma code-breaking operation during World War II and was later persecuted by the British government for his homosexuality. At Cambridge University, the young Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) quickly establishes himself as a groundbreaking thinker with his theories about the potential of computing machines. When war between Britain and Germany is declared, these theories are put into active practice. Turing easily passes a test to become a member of a top-secret group assigned to decode critical German naval communications. Much to the surprise of the commanding officers, so does a woman, Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley also appearing at the Festival in Laggies). Turing and Clarke become fast friends, and are soon engaged to be married. But Turing is gay, struggling with his identity at a time when it is illegal and subject to terrible punishment. - DirectorDavid Gordon GreenStarsAl PacinoHolly HunterHarmony KorineLeft heartbroken by the woman he loved and lost many years ago, Manglehorn, an eccentric small-town locksmith, tries to start his life over again with the help of a new friend.DAVID GORDON GREEN, THE BRILLIANT YOUNG FILMMAKER OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, COMBINES WITH A SHOE-IN FOR OSCAR NOD THIS YEAR, AL PACINO. IN MY OPINION, HIS BEST PERFORMANCE SINCE SCARECROW. A SENSITIVE CURMUDGEON WALLOWING IN SADNESS OVER THE LOSS OF A LOVE 40 YEARS BEFORE. A.J. Manglehorn (Al Pacino) is a storefront philosopher, toiling every day at his lock-and- key business but consumed inside by memories of the great love he let slip through his fingers. "I need you, Clara," he writes in one of the many letters that shape the mood and story of David Gordon Green's latest film. "Loving you is the only thing I ever done right. No one compares. They never will." That hope of love seems long in Manglehorn's past, but in this magical portrait of a surprising man, there is room for second chances. . The long-maned bank teller he visits — played by the remarkable Holly Hunter — yearns for a date to match her romantic fantasies, but finds she must deal with Manglehorn's peculiar perspectives. "You look good," he tells her gamely. "You look like a racehorse or something." As it grows from its quiet character-study beginnings to engage bigger questions of love and human connection, Manglehorn finds moments of pure poetry. This humble locksmith's daydreams have a surreal quality. We see life through the lens of his experience, tinged by a hard-won wisdom that's equal parts pragmatism and whimsy.
- DirectorDan GilroyStarsJake GyllenhaalRene RussoBill PaxtonWhen Louis Bloom, a con man desperate for work, muscles into the world of L.A. crime journalism, he blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.THE SCENES OF L.A. AT NIGHT ALONE IS WORTH YOUR EFFORT TO SEE THIS SLICE OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. THE INSIGHT INTO THE TELEVISION NEWS SCENE IS FASCINATING AND DISTURBING. A drifter and petty thief (Jake Gyllenhaal) joins the nocturnal legions of scuzzy freelance photographers who scour the city for gruesome crime-scene footage, in this gripping portrait of the dark side of L.A. from veteran screenwriter and first-time director Dan Gilroy. When dusk falls on Los Angeles, the nightcrawlers come out. Roaming the streets, cameras at the ready, they outrace ambulances to get to the scene of an accident or crime first, looking to bag footage they can sell to local television stations. In this gripping portrait of LA's dark side from first-time director Dan Gilroy, local TV feeds on local crisis. Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a loner and petty thief adrift in the LA night when he happens upon the nightcrawlers in action. He gets himself a cheap video camera and a police radio scanner and begins the chase. Fresh car accidents, robbery victims, home invasions — everything is fair game. But the competition is stiff: Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) is already a seasoned professional with police contacts and a reliable buyer in TV producer Nina (Rene Russo).
- DirectorAbel FerraraStarsWillem DafoeNinetto DavoliRiccardo ScamarcioA kaleidoscopic look at the last day of Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1975.ABEL FERRARA MAKES FILMS IN A VERY UNUSUAL WAY AND FOR THIS REASON I EXPECT SCORN FROM MY READERS CHALLENGING TO WHY I FOUND ANYTHING WORTHWHILE IN THIS FILM. NEVER THE LESS, LIKE MOST OF HIS FILMS, I FOUND THIS SENSATIONAL IN MANY RESPECTS. THIS MAN BEHIND THE CAMERA HAS TURNED OUT SOME GENIUS FILMS, MY FAVORITE BEING BAD LIEUTENANT WITH HARVEY KEITEL. THIS ONE STARS WILLEM DAFOE AS THE PROTAGONIST PASOLINI. IF IT WERE NOT SO WEIRD, HE WOULD GET AN OSCAR NOD. TO ME THIS WAS 5 PLUS AURAL VISUAL POETRY. VERY MUCH LIKE A TRAGIC OPERA.
Willem Dafoe uncannily embodies the legendary Italian filmmaker, poet and novelist Pier Paolo Pasolini in this biopic from controversial director Abel Ferrara. Pier Paolo Pasolini is a figure Italians still struggle to come to terms with. Poet, novelist, agitator, journalist, filmmaker, playwright, actor, painter, philosopher, communist, Catholic, homosexual; these descriptors do not fully contain the depth and scope of the man's restless genius. Described by many, including writers like Alberto Moravia, as the most important postwar poet in Italy, Pasolini devoted the second part of his career to the cinema and made some enduring masterpieces in the process. American director Abel Ferrara, another outlaw talent, has clearly found a soulmate in Pasolini. Starring Willem Dafoe, a dead ringer for Pasolini, Pasolini offers a kaleidoscopic view of the last day of the artist's life, in 1975. Struggling with the censors as he is about to finish Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, pausing for an interview with a journalist that allows him to reflect on ideas of sex and politics, having lunch with his beloved mother with whom he shared a house, welcoming friends and former lovers — these are all moments that allow Ferrara to piece together the complex jigsaw puzzle that is Pasolini. And then, of course, there is his obsessive predilection for cruising the nocturnal streets of Rome in search of furtive sex. - DirectorChristian PetzoldStarsNina HossRonald ZehrfeldNina KunzendorfAfter surviving Auschwitz, a former cabaret singer has her disfigured face reconstructed and returns to her war-ravaged hometown to seek out her gentile husband, who may or may not have betrayed her to the Nazis.YET ANOTHER HOLOCAUST FILM FROM GERMANY WHERE THE STORIES ARE EVERYWHERE. IF THIS FILM WERE NOT FROM GERMANY, NINA HOSS WOULD BE A SHOE IN FOR AN OSCAR NOMINATION. SHE IS ONE OF THE VERY BEST ACTORS WORKING TODAY. THE SAME CAN BE SAID ABOUT CHRISTIAN PETZOLD, THE AUTEUR FILMMAKER WHO CREATED THE RECENT SENSATIONAL FILM "BARBARA". YOU MAY HAVE TO CHASE THIS FILM DOWN AT FESTIVALS IN USA.
With his internationally acclaimed films The State I Am In, Yella and Jerichow, Christian Petzold established himself at the forefront of the loosely affiliated group of contemporary German filmmakers known as the Berlin School. Following the success of his previous film, Barbara (which screened at the 2012 Festival), Petzold returns with another story of a fiercely determined woman — and the deeply divided society to which she belongs — caught between a tragic past and an uncertain future. Emerging from a concentration camp at the end of World War II, Nelly Lenz (played by the formidable Nina Hoss, Petzold's regular star) undergoes significant reconstructive surgery to repair a serious facial injury caused by a bullet wound. Nelly wants everything to be exactly the way it was before the war — including her appearance — but it isn't. - DirectorRoy AnderssonStarsHolger AnderssonNils WestblomViktor GyllenbergSam and Jonathan, a pair of hapless novelty salesmen, embark on a tour of the human condition in reality and fantasy that unfold in a series of absurdist episodes.ROY ANDERSSON FROM SWEDEN RETURNS WITH ANOTHER BLACK COMEDY. LIKE SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR, I LAUGHED TILL MY SIDES HURT. IF YOU ARE NOT APPRECIATIVE OF DRY SILLY HUMOUR, THEN SKIP THIS ONE. A mixture of absurdist, hilariously deadpan humour, shock, and utter horror. A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence presents a series of darkly comic vignettes organized around two narrative strands. In one, two hapless novelty salesmen wander around town trying to sell their inventory of vampire fangs and rubber masks, all the while bickering like an old married couple; in the other, Charles XII, Sweden's most bellicose king, reappears in modern times to carry on his series of disastrous defeats. Shifting between nightmare, fantasy, reverie, and even an impromptu musical number, the film culminates with a blistering indictment of what Andersson presents as humanity's stunning lack of empathy. Though he's been called a slapstick Bergman and compared to Fellini, Andersson is closest to Luis Bunuel in both his surrealist flourishes and the rage — as well as the genuine empathy and sorrow — that underlies his twisted humour
- DirectorMichael WinterbottomStarsAva AcresDaniel BrühlKate BeckinsaleBoth a journalist and a documentary filmmaker chase the story of a murder and its prime suspect.A BAD FILM IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD. THE ITALIAN MURDER OF MEREDITH KERCHER IS EXPLORED HERE IN A DISASTOUROUS WAY. A TERRIBLE DISAPPOINTMENT FOR ME FROM AN OTHERWISE EXCELLENT FILMMAKER, MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM. In 2007, a twenty-one-year-old British student named Meredith Kercher was brutally murdered in Perugia, Italy. Suspicions turned almost immediately to her American flatmate, Amanda Knox. The ensuing arrests, trial, and convictions — which involved Knox's Italian boyfriend, a bar owner, and a young drifter originally from Ivory Coast — made for a major international story and occupied immense tabloid space
- DirectorFabrice du WelzStarsLola DueñasLaurent LucasHéléna NoguerraFervidly dark lovesick horror inspired by the real-life criminal duo, the Lonely Hearts Killers.THIS IS THE THIRD VERSION OF THIS FILM NOIR STORY AND ENJOYED BY ME IMMENSELEY. THE LIGHTING, SHADOWS AND INTENSITY ARE CAPTURED PERFECTLY IN THE BEST TRADITIONS OF THIS GENRE. Inspired by the true-crime story of Lonely Hearts Killers Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez — whose murderous exploits were previously brought to the screen in Leonard Kastle's cult 1969 film The Honeymoon Killers and Arturo Ripstein's 1996 Deep Crimson — the new film from Fabrice Du Welz (whose debut feature Calvaire played in Midnight Madness in 2004) paints a beautiful, disturbing, and, at times, shockingly violent picture of demented and devoted love. Encouraged by a friend to start dating, single mom Gloria (Lola Dueñas) reluctantly meets Michel (Laurent Lucas, who starred in Calvaire) for a drink. Immediately attracted to him, she refuses to accept the soon plainly evident fact that he is a con man who seduces and robs lonely older women like herself. Refusing to let Michel go, Gloria joins him in his work of grifting unsuspecting lonely hearts, and the two prove to be a perfect team — until Gloria's jealousy starts getting in the way of Michel's wooing.
- DirectorEthan HawkeStarsSeymour BernsteinEthan HawkeSam BachelderMeet Seymour Bernstein: a beloved pianist, teacher and true inspiration who shares eye-opening insights from an amazing life. Ethan Hawke helms this poignant guide to life.AN ELEGANT AND TOUCHING BIODOCUMENTARY ON A TRUE MENSCH. Ethan Hawke directs this intimate documentary portrait of classical pianist, composer, author, teacher and sage Seymour Bernstein.
Seymour Bernstein isn't well known, but he's deeply cherished by those who do know him. Living in a small Manhattan apartment at age eighty-five, he appears fully content with his choice to forgo a promising career as a concert pianist in order to teach music. Now Ethan Hawke, one of his greatest admirers, takes us into Bernstein's world with this delicately crafted film, offering a wise and charismatic reflection on art and life. - DirectorHarold CrooksStarsAngus CameronSaskia SassenBrigitte AlepinA documentary on the history and present-day reality of big-business tax avoidance, which has seen multinationals depriving governments of trillions of dollars in tax revenues by harboring profits in offshore havens.THERE ARE NOT MANY THINGS THAT GET ME ANGRIER THAN THE REALIZATION THAT THE BIG COMPANIES GET BALED OUT BY THE TAXPAYER WHEN NEEDED, YET WHEN THE EARNINGS COME IN, THEY DO NOT PAY TAXES, BUT PUT IT IN OFFSHORE ACCOUNTS. PLUS THEIR SALARIES ARE HUMONGOUS. THE SYSTEM IS SO UNFAIR TO THE AVERAGE PERSON.
Smart, eye-opening and incendiary, The Price We Pay examines the timely issue of tax avoidance — specifically, the widespread use of tax havens by multinational corporations and the super-rich, allowing them to stash trillions of dollars offshore and deprive governments of hundreds of billions in corporate-tax revenue each year. This practice is (arguably) legal — but is it fair? With meticulous research and remarkable breadth and depth, director Harold Crooks — whose previous collaborations on such key documentaries as The Corporation and Surviving Progress exposed the world of big-time corporate malfeasance — takes us on a fascinating journey as he analyzes the origins, damaging repercussions, and complex moral issues arising from corporate tax dodging. - DirectorCédric JimenezStarsJean DujardinGilles LelloucheCéline SalletteA French police magistrate spends years trying to take down one of the country's most powerful drug rings.THIS WAS AN ATTEMPT AT REMAKING THE WONDERFUL WILLIAM FRIEDKIN 1971 FILM FRENCH CONNECTION WITH GENE HACKMAN INVOLVING DRUGS AND GANGSTERS. THEY FAILED MISERABLY NOT EVEN COMING CLOSE TO THE ORIGINAL. HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT FOR ME. Academy Award-winning actor Jean Dujardin (The Artist, The Wolf of Wall Street) stars in this high-octane crime epic chronicling a violent six-year campaign to bring down the kingpin of a major narcotics ring. Director Cédric Jimenez hurls us back to the 1970s for a bold European twist on William Friedkin's action classic The French Connection.
- DirectorMikael MarcimainStarsDavid DencikSverrir GudnasonDavid Fukamachi RegnforsBeaten up, bruised, and scared, a young writer hides in a Stockholm apartment, writing the story of its disappeared inhabitants: the flamboyant and charismatic Morgan brothers.ANOTHER BRILLIANT FILM OUT OF SWEDEN EXPOSING THE ELITE AND THEIR SELFISH INHUMANISTIC GOALS. POSTWAR SWEDEN TALE OF CONSPIRACY THAT CAPTURES YOUR ATTENTION FOR THE ENTIRE 141'. NOT EASY TO DO. MIKAEL MARCIMAN JOINS THE RANKS OF THE SWEDISH FILMMAKERS WHO REALLY KNOW THIS GENRE OF FILM NOIR. I DO HOPE THAT YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO WITNESS THIS FILM. PROBABLY YOUR BEST SHOT WILL BE PSIFF 2015. counter-history of postwar Sweden, a would-be novelist discovers the story of a lifetime when his host — a bon vivant and possible spy with friends in the highest of places — reveals the existence of a decades-spanning conspiracy by Europe’s ultra-wealthy elite, who are secretly remodelling the continent to serve their own sinister needs.
- DirectorBenoît JacquotStarsBenoît PoelvoordeCharlotte GainsbourgChiara MastroianniA tax inspector, his new bride and her sister become entwined in a love triangle.PREVIOUSLY SEEN AT PSIFF 2014 AS A FRENCH ROMANTIC SOUFFLE, EXCEPT THIS ONE HAS 2 SISTERS IN LOVE WITH THE SAME MAN, YET TOTALLY UNAWARE OF THE CONNECTION.
Not only does 3 Coeurs feature an outstanding cast of some of France's most famous actors, who bring a note-perfect tone to the proceedings, it also features a filmmaker at the height of his powers, relishing the delectable intricacies of plot while never shying from the deeper emotions at play. This is a fun ride for everyone — except the characters onscreen! - DirectorErnesto DaranasStarsAlina RodríguezYuliet CruzArmando Miguel GómezAging teacher Carmela has a special heart for pupils from broken homes and is challenged by the headmaster to follow up 12 year old Chala which is infatuated in Yeni. They are both poor, and has severe home troubles.THE RECOGNITION OF THE EXCELLENCE IN CUBAN CINEMA IS OVERLOOKED. OFTEN WITH HEARTWARMING NARRATIVE, FIRST RATE ACTING, BEAUTIFUL CINEMATOGRAPHY ALL DONE ON MINISCULE BUDGETS BUT WITH METICULOUS CRAFTMANSHIP, THIS FILM SHOULD BE SEEN, BUT WILL BE NOT EVEN BE A FILM FESTIVAL OFFERING.
A breakout hit in Cuba, Ernesto Daranas's Behavior has galvanized audiences with its willingness to tackle taboo topics and reveal the less picturesque realities of life on the island. In this sensitive portrayal of the friendship between a young boy and a woman more than five decades his senior, Daranas exposes how internal bureaucracy, dogma and poverty are eroding Cuba's oft-envied education system. - DirectorGiulio RicciarelliStarsAndré SzymanskiAlexander FehlingFriederike BechtA story that exposes the conspiracy of prominent German institutions and government branches to cover up the crimes of Nazis during World War II.AKA LABYRINTH OF LIES. THIS IS A FASCINATING FILM ABOUT THE GUILT OF POSTWAR NAZI GERMANY TO COVER UP THE TRAGIC TRUTH ABOUT THEIR COUNTRY. EXPLORING THE HOLOCAUST TO ME WILL ALWAYS BE OF INTEREST. THIS WOULD BE OF GREAT INTEREST AT THE JEWISH FILM FESTIVALS. GOOD LUCK CRAIG.
This auspicious feature-film debut from filmmaker Giulio Ricciarelli is a lucid and compelling look at postwar Germany. Paralleling personal drama with issues of a national scale, Labyrinth of Lies opens our eyes to the ways in which we allow ourselves to forget events that we find too painful to acknowledge. - DirectorLucas BelvauxStarsÉmilie DequenneLoïc CorberySandra NkakeParisian philosophy teacher Clément is sent to Arras where he meets pretty hairstylist Jennifer who becomes his lover. Free in their hearts and bodies, they could share this perfect love if the cultural and social divide were not as deep.AKA NOT MY TYPE, SEEN BY ME JANUARY 2014 AT PSIFF, BUT ??? PREMIERING AT TIFF 2015??? THERE ARE ALWAYS SOME STRANGE RELEASE DEALS WITH FOREIGN FILMS. I WOULD PUT THIS FILM IN THE OLD FASHIONED FRENCH UNREQUITED ROMANCE CATEGORY. FUN TO WATCH.
A Parisian philosophy professor transferred to a dull provincial town (Loïc Corbery) learns to cut loose and live a little after he meets a brassy blonde coiffeuse (Emilie Dequenne), in this charming romance from director Lucas Belvaux. When handsome young Parisian philosophy professor Clément (Loïc Corbery) is transferred to the northern French town of Arras, his world is turned upside down. In this small working-class community far from the wonders of Paris, Clément finds himself living in a hotel without emotional, intellectual or physical stimulation. And then he meets Jennifer (Émilie Dequenne), the charming and brassy blond coiffeuse from a local hair salon. On the surface, Clément and Jennifer have nothing in common. She's a single mother who reads tabloid magazines and has a weekly karaoke date with her girlfriends; he reads Proust and attends gallery openings. But despite their differences, there's something deeper between them, and before long this seemingly ill-matched couple begin to share in each other's lives and passions. - DirectorKiki ÁlvarezStarsClaudia MuñizMaribel Garcia GarzónMarianela PupoHavana, summer of 2012. Mayelín, Mónica and Violeta are three friends employed in a hairdressing salon. On payday they spend a night out on the town together, and at dawn they share a common dream: Venice.IT IS MARVELOUS TO SEE THIS OFFERING FROM A SMALL POOR NATION, CUBA, SUCCEED IN SO MANY WAYS BETTER THAN THE WELL FUNDED U.S. PROJECTS. ALL OF THE ACTORS ARE OBVIOUSLY ON THE SET TOGETHER AND THE WHOLE PRODUCTION SHOWS SO MUCH EXCELLENCE. THE MUSIC ALONE IS WORTH YOUR ATTENDANCE.
It's payday at the hair salon where Mónica (Maribel Garcia Garzón), Violeta (Claudia Muniz), and Mayelin (Marianela Pupo) work in Old Havana, and the three women decide to venture out together and spend their paycheques. Moving from a dress shop to a restaurant, they begin to share details of their lives and problems. Mónica reveals the reason behind the argument she had with her lover earlier in the day, and a new intimacy develops between the three as Violeta and Mayelin help her confront an unexpected circumstance. Day quickly turns to night. As the women expose darker desires, Álvarez introduces us to a side of Havana most tourists rarely see. A highlight is the discovery of a nightclub where patrons are welcomed with intense electronic music from a DJ wearing a pig mask. It is here that the women separate, each looking for fulfillment that she cannot share with the others. Shot independently, a rare occurrence in Cuban cinema, Venice presents a grittiness that we are not used to in films from the island. The ensemble cast, who improvised most of the dialogue, brings a rare sense of realism to the film. - DirectorSean EvansRoger WatersStarsRoger WatersDave KilminsterSnowy WhiteDetails one of the most elaborately staged theatrical productions in music history as Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters performs the band's critically acclaimed album The Wall in its entirety.IN 3-D THIS MAY BE THE BEST CONCERT FILM THAT I HAVE EVER SEEN AND HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO MY READERS. DO SEE IT IN 3-D IF GIVEN THE OPTION. ROGER WATERS, PINK FLOYD, THE WALL, ETC. ARE TOTALLY UNFAMILIAR TO ME. IF YOU WANT ANY KNOWLEDGE ON THESE SUBJECTS, CONTACT THE EXPERT, GEORGI KOLSKY.
Fans of Roger Waters and Pink Floyd's monumental The Wall, get ready. This immersive experience of Waters's The Wall Live tour, shot in three cities across two continents, is a rib-rattling, sonically stupendous piece of filmmaking. With its 500-foot set, which is gradually built throughout the show into the famed wall, the ambitious and immensely successful concert production features one of the most iconic pieces of extended imagination that rock 'n' roll ever produced, and will remind many of the sheer ambition and scope of music in the 1970s, the era in which it was first created. - DirectorKrzysztof ZanussiStarsRiccardo LeonelliAgnieszka GrochowskaAgata BuzekAngelo and Kasia met in Italy in the Focolare Movement where their love and faith in God brought them together. Their relationship's in broken by the girl's return to Poland and her decision on entering the convent. Angelo arrives in Warsaw in order to persuade Kasia to change her mind. He takes up a job in an international corporation while waiting for her decision...FROM POLAND AND MASTER FILMMAKER COMES THIS TELEVISION QUALITY MELODRAMA THAT REFLECTS THE SAME CORPORATE INSENSITIVITY THAT EXEIST HERE. ALTHOUGH SILLY IN MANY SPOTS, PARTS WERE ENJOYABLE.
Polish master Krzysztof Zanussi has always acted in part as the conscience of his country, mining the moral and spiritual health of his society. In Foreign Body, he takes an uncompromising look at contemporary Poland largely through the eyes of two very different women whose lives intersect through their common relationship with a young man. When we first meet Angelo (Riccardo Leonelli), a dashing young Italian, he is deeply in love with Kasia (Agata Buzek), a Polish woman who, despite the entreaties of both Angelo and her father, has decided to become a nun. - DirectorShariff KorverStarsNasrdin DcharWalid BenmbarekRachid El GhazaouiSam was born in the Netherlands as the son of a Moroccan father and Dutch mother. After his father abandoned him and his mother, he throws himself fully to his career as a police officer. He is driven by the ambition to really mean something for society. To make a difference on the streets, but also in how people think about Moroccans. His desire for acceptance by his peers and superiors at the Amsterdam police drives him to search the boundaries within the law. If he is asked to infiltrate in a Moroccan drug family, he sees it as a chance to show his qualities. When he becomes part of the family a long-suppressed feeling comes up: finally it feels like he has a home. The Moroccan family is less criminal than he thought, and his relationship with two of the members is getting stronger. Eventually Sam comes to stand for a moral conflict: he must choose between his career as a police officer and the family.AKA THE INTRUDER, THE DUTCH REACH TO THE HIGHEST LEVELS IN THRILLER FILM NOIR PRODUCTIONS THAT CLAIM THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF EXCELLENCE IMAGINEABLE. THE STORY IS COMPLEX DEALING INTO MANY LEVELS, RACIAL DIVIDE, CORRUPTION, INJUSTICE AND VIOLENCE. THE GUT WRENCHING EXCITEMENT WILL KEEP YOUR EYES GLUED TO THE SCREEN.
Shariff Korver's feature debut is a smart, bracing thriller that plunges its hero into Amsterdam's underworld so as to explore how the city divides its citizens and facilitates injustice. The child of a Dutch mother and a Moroccan father, twenty-eight-year-old Sam Almaleh (Nasrdin Dchar) has always lived between two worlds. He joined the Amsterdam police force to prove his worth and find acceptance, but he also wants to prove something to those of his countrymen who insist on maintaining viciously racist attitudes toward Moroccans. When Sam is ordered to go undercover and infiltrate a Moroccan drug family, he is initially galvanized by the opportunity. But the deeper he embeds himself in the family's inner circles, the more he realizes that he may have found something like a real family, one that offers him the feeling of brotherhood that has until now eluded him. He also begins to see the ways in which these criminals can be honourable and the authorities corrupt. As pressures from both sides mount, Sam needs to decide: on which side does he truly belong? - DirectorGregorio GraziosiStarsJúlio AndradeSabrina GreveLola PeploeIn the heavily populated city of São Paulo, Brazil, a young architect discovers a clandestine cemetery while walking through the work-site of his first important project. As terrible memories float back, he must struggle with his conscience and question his own heritage.FROM BRAZIL COMES THIS PROBING VIEW OF THE MENTAL ANGST SUFFERED BY A 4TH GENERATION WORLD FAMOUS ARCHITECT. A PROVOCATIVE INSIGHT INTO THE CEREBRAL DILEMMAS, FRUSTRATIONS ON THE PLANNING DECISIONS. IT IS WORTH A 10/10 RATING FOR THE MAGNIFICENT BLACK AND WHITE VISUAL AND AURAL POETRY. THIS IS WHY ONE GOES TO FILM FESTIVALS.
Writer-director Gregorio Graziosi uses stark cinematography and dense soundscapes to give palpable presence to the city of Sao Paulo in this technically striking debut feature about a man compelled to uncover the shadowy truth about his origins. - DirectorMichele AlhaiqueStarsPierfrancesco FavinoGreta ScaranoClaudio GioèMimmo, a worker respected by his friends and colleagues, actually collects debts with violent methods on behalf of his uncle. After meeting with young escort Tania, Mimmo decides to redeem himself from a life that let him down.ITALIAN MAFIA PICTURES ARE SO MUCH BETTER MADE THAN IN HOLLYWOOD. RAW, GRITTY, REALISTIC IN PERFS AND CINEMATOGRAPHY. IT HAS BEEN A WHILE SINCE THEY STEPPED UP TO THE PLATE. THIS ONE IS WORTH YOUR PRESENCE IF IT CAN EVER GET A USA DISTRIBUTION. TOO BAD IF IT DOES NOT. OMG, THANK YOU FOR THE INTRODUCTION TO GRETA SCARANNO, A 28 Y/O ITALIAN ACTRESS WHO IN MY OPINION WILL SOON BE ON OUR SCREENS.....SHE IS GORGEOUS AND REALLY AN EXCELLENT ACTRESS. HER POUTY LOOKS WILL MELT YOU, REMINDS ME OF B.B. IN HER YOUNGER DAYS.
Michele Alhaique's debut feature has the rawness of reality caught as it happens, in front of the camera. And through its protagonist, a great bear of a man, Senza nessuna pietà finds its heart among the downtrodden — ordinary people who ultimately want little more than respect and freedom. Mimmo is a mob enforcer, the guy the boss sends out on dirty jobs when the money needs to be collected. He's a loyal soldier who keeps his head down, something that's getting increasingly difficult to do with the boss's son, Manuel, a serial womanizer, growing too big for his boots. When things turn ugly during Manuel's "date" with an escort Mimmo was sent to pick up, Mimmo snaps. - DirectorIm Kwon-taekStarsKim Gyu-riKim Ho-jungPark Jeong-sikA middle-aged man who has recently lost his wife to cancer indulges in fantasies about a young woman at his work.AKA REVIVRE, REFLECTING THE EXCELLENCE OF FILM PRODUCTION FROM SOUTH KOREA. THEY NOW OCCUPY A LEADING PRESENCE ON THE WORLD STAGE OF CINEMA. THIS IS A HUMAN DRAMA THAT STAYS RESPECTFUL TO THE VERY END. THIS WILL BE A DELIGHTFUL CINEMA ADVENTURE FOR THOSE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO SEE IT.
A middle-aged man who has recently lost his wife to cancer indulges in fantasies about a young woman at his work, in the new film from Korean master Im Kwon-taek (Chunhyang). Justly revered as the father of modern Korean cinema, Im Kwon-taek returns to the Festival with the 102nd feature in an extraordinary career that has spanned nearly six decades. Adapted from a prize-winning short story by Kim Hoon, his latest is a skilful and sensitively rendered study of the conflicting and confusing emotions at play within a man whose wife is entering the final stages of a long fight with cancer. - DirectorChad StahelskiStarsKeanu ReevesMichael NyqvistAlfie AllenAn ex-hitman comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters who killed his dog and stole his car.DO NOT PISS OFF JOHN WICK.....THE RUSSIAN MAFIA LEARNED NOT TO MESS WITH HIS DOG OR HIS CAR. A BLOOD BOILING REVENGE FILM....MAYHEM TO THE MAX
John Wick, is not only a return to badass form for the actor, it's also one of the most excitingly visceral action flicks I've seen in ages.
The movie's setup is almost comical in its simplicity. Reeves plays the hero of the title, a legendarily unkillable (almost Keyser Söze-like) hitman who retired from the profession five years earlier when he fell in love. But his wife has just passed away, and some hot-headed Russian gangster (Game of Thrones' Alfie Allen) has foolishly interrupted his grieving by stealing his 1969 Ford Mustang, beating the snot out of him, and killing his dog. And you just don't mess with a man's dog. John Wick is back in busines - DirectorJean-Marc ValléeStarsReese WitherspoonLaura DernGaby HoffmannA chronicle of one woman's 1,100-mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy.REESE WITHERSPOON ALONE IS WORTH YOUR TIME. I STAYED AWAY AS WALKING THE PACIFIC COAST TRAIL SOUNDED TOO CONFINING SO SKIPPED IT'S WORLD PREEM AT TIFF. I GUARANTEE HER OSCAR NOD AND EXCEPT FOR JULIANNE MOORE IN STILL ALICE, WOULD PROBABLY WIN. HER WORK HERE IS COURAGEOUS, HEARTFELT AND HAUNTING, BUT DO KNOW IN ADVANCE, THIS IS NOT AN EASY FILM TO WATCH.
"Wild," the latest film from director Jean-Marc Vallee, is not what I expected. I knew it was about a woman hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. That's 2,663 miles, from the US border at Mexico to the US border at Canada. I didn't know why she was hiking or what kind of drama the film would try to wring from the trip, and honestly, the concept didn't hook me in a way that made the film a priority. What I saw, though, was something tough and honest and unsentimental, and it's a pretty major piece of work for star Reese Witherspoon. Nick Hornby's adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's autobiographical book is structured beautifully, only gradually pulling back the curtain on all of the damage that has led Cheryl to hit the PCT. This is not a hike for her; it's a scourging, a penance. What she's doing penance for is the heart of the film, and instead of front-loading all of that information, Hornby tries to give it to us in a way that feels more natural, more like the organic shape of memory, where things bubble up and connections are made between things and you sometimes have no real control over what comes to the surface. Little by little, Cheryl finds herself pounded by these things she's tried to keep pushed down and bottled up, and eventually, she has no choice but to deal with them because there's nowhere for her to hide. - DirectorEvan GoldbergSeth RogenStarsJames FrancoSeth RogenRandall ParkDave Skylark and his producer Aaron Rapaport run the celebrity tabloid show "Skylark Tonight". When they land an interview with a surprise fan, North Korean dictator Jong-Un Kim, they are recruited by the CIA to assassinate him.ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE....NOTHING IN ANY WAY REDEEMING.
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsBradley CooperSienna MillerKyle GallnerNavy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home with his family after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind.A SOLDIER HERO FILM DONE IN THE BEST OF THE EASTWOOD TRADITION. UNFORTUNATLY NOT BALANCED, ALL MUSLIMS ARE BAD SEEMS TO BE THE THEME, AND THE TRAGEDY OF WAR BEING INFLICTED ON THE YOUNG MEN COMING BACK WITH THE SEVERE PSYCHOLOGIT DEFICIT OF PTSD. SOME OF THE INTENSE SCENES SO REMINDED ME OF KATHRYN BIGELOW'S HURT LOCKER.
American Sniper” isn’t some flag-waving political movie. It’s a powerful, intense portrayal of a man who was hardly the blueprint candidate to become the most prolific sniper in American military history. And yet that’s what happened. Smack dab in the middle of one of those movie star runs when an actor can seem to do no wrong, Bradley Cooper put on 40 pounds, grew a full beard and disappeared into a Texas accent to portray Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL who had some 160 confirmed kills in four tours of duty. - DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsJoaquin PhoenixJosh BrolinOwen WilsonIn 1970, drug-fueled Los Angeles private investigator Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend.YUK....MADE ME SICK TO MY STOMACH, NOT WORTHY OF YOUR TIME
- DirectorTim BurtonStarsAmy AdamsChristoph WaltzDanny HustonA drama about the awakening of painter Margaret Keane, her phenomenal success in the 1950s, and the subsequent legal difficulties she had with her husband, who claimed credit for her works in the 1960s.INTERESTING STORY BUT POORLY TOLD. NOT A GOOD MOVIE. Campy and cartoonish, Burton’s Big Eyes is not the return to form many were hoping for. It is another phony and hollow piece of sugary kitschploitation masquerading under the guise of an “important true story” that places a nearly grotesque premium on style over any traces over substance.
- DirectorDamien ChazelleStarsMiles TellerJ.K. SimmonsMelissa BenoistA promising young drummer enrolls at a cut-throat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are mentored by an instructor who will stop at nothing to realize a student's potential.JK SIMMONS AS THE DRUM TEACHER GIVES THE PERFORMANCE OF A LIFETIME. THIS ALONE IS WORTHY OF YOUR TIME.
Fletcher's,SIMMONS, abusive tirades are operatic and brilliantly delivered by Simmons, a frequently-seen character actor who now grabs this rare meaty co-lead with both hands and gnashing teeth. His razor wit, sheer outrageousness, inventive taunting and vulgar insults are at once appalling and blackly funny. In Andrew, he has found his perfect victim. It's clear Andrew has little in his life except for drumming. He has no friends, but does go out to the cinema with his father (Paul Reiser) where he meets and tries for a fleeting romance with Nicole (Melissa Benoist), the girl at the popcorn concession. When he talks about drumming, Andrew is quick to alienate others with his contempt for the meagreness of their ambition compared to his own. In one particular scene, a family meal goes horribly, horribly wrong as our protagonist vehemently defends his art. Fletcher manipulates, bullies, goads and rips into his charges with a relentless glee and fury in the pursuit of musical excellence. If truth be told, the question lingering throughout the entirety of Chazelle's film is how much Fletcher's methods are genuinely motivated by a pure belief in excellence - he cites Charlie Parker's early humiliation as a necessary moment in the creation of Parker's genius. - DirectorPhilippe FalardeauStarsReese WitherspoonArnold OcengGer DuanyA group of Sudanese refugees, given the chance to resettle in the U.S., arrive in Kansas City, Missouri, where their encounter with an employment agency counselor forever changes all of their lives.A SWEET CAUSE FILM ENLIGHTENING US TO LITTLE KNOWN STORIES ABOUT THE WORLD WE LIVE IN. SEEN AT TIFF 2014. A touching, generous-hearted movie that treats the immigrant experience with grace. Inspired by the experience of the thousands of so-called “Lost Boys of Sudan,” the Sudanese refugees of both genders who were allowed to emigrate to the U.S. from the 1980s to the early 2000s, The Good Lie is a touching, generous-hearted movie, sensitively directed by Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar).
- DirectorCraig JohnsonStarsKristen WiigBill HaderLuke WilsonHaving both coincidentally cheated death on the same day, estranged twins reunite with the possibility of mending their relationship.CONTRIVED AND A WASTE OF MY TIME. SHARON'S DATE NIGHT SELECTION...SHE LOVES SNL It may not always work as a drama but "The Skeleton Twins" proves to be a fine showcase for Wiig and Hader, showing they are both capable of dramatic material.
- DirectorAlejandro G. IñárrituStarsMichael KeatonZach GalifianakisEdward NortonA washed-up superhero actor attempts to revive his fading career by writing, directing, and starring in a Broadway production.THIS FILM NOT ONLY EXTREMELY WELL DONE, BUT VERY ENTERTAINING...LOVED IT THROUGH EVERY FRAME. NOT TO BE MISSED.
A quarter-century after “Batman” ushered in the era of Hollywood mega-tentpoles — hollow comicbook pictures manufactured to enthrall teens and hustle merch — a penitent Michael Keaton returns with the comeback of the century, “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” a blisteringly hot-blooded, defiantly anti-formulaic look at a has-been movie star’s attempts to resuscitate his career by mounting a vanity project on Broadway. In a year overloaded with self-aware showbiz satires, Alejandro G. Inarritu’s fifth and best feature provides the delirious coup de grace — a triumph on every creative level, from casting to execution, that will electrify the industry, captivate arthouse and megaplex crowds alike, send awards pundits into orbit and give fresh wings to Keaton’s career. - DirectorAbderrahmane SissakoStarsIbrahim AhmedAbel JafriToulou KikiA cattle herder and his family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu find their quiet lives -- which are typically free of the Jihadists determined to control their faith -- abruptly disturbed.A FILM OF IMMEDIACY FROM SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA MALI/MAURITANIA IN SPITE OF ITS MAGNIFICENT BEAUTY REVEALS THE SENSELESS BRUTALITY OF THE FUNDAMENTALISTS IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD. DAILY NEWS TODAY GIVES THE FILM CURRENT RELEVANCE.
Following the recent jihadist takeover of northern Mali, a proud cattle herder comes into fateful conflict with the fundamentalist rulers of the provincial capital, in this luminous, lyrical and poetic drama from the great African filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako. A gazelle strides across the desert, under the sound of a car's rumbling engine; seconds later, bullets cut the animal down in its tracks. The opening sequence of Abderrahmane Sissako's magisterial Timbuktu — which premiered to acclaim at this year's Cannes — encapsulates the essential truth of violent extremism: to destroy grace and beauty, not only with impunity but with an ironclad self-righteousness. Set during the early days of the 2012 fundamentalist takeover of northern Mali and inspired by real people and real events, Timbuktu is a searing drama about the everyday woes and resistance of ordinary people in a city overrun by extremist foreign fighters. - DirectorGabriel MascaroStarsDandara de MoraisGeová Manoel Dos SantosMaria Salvino Dos SantosThe August winds gust and a poetic duel between life, death, loss, memory, the wind and the sea ensues.THIS AUDIO VISUAL POEM IS A BEAUTIFUL ACHIEVEMENT WILL PLEASE VERY FEW OF MY READERS, BUT TO ME THIS IS WHAT MAKES FESTIVALS SO WORTH WHILE. MINIMAL ENTERTAINMENT VALUE TO THE AVERAGE MOVIE ATTENDEE, BUT A JOY TO THOSE APPRECIATE THE EXCELLENCE IN FILMAKING.
Gabriel Mascaro’s narrative film debut quietly observes the young inhabitants of a small coastal village in Brazil. Shirley and Jeison work on a plantation, where they find time to sneak away and make love among the coconuts. The couple spend their free time at sea, where Jeison dives for octopus and Shirley sunbathes and listens to rock music. When Jeison makes a surprise discovery in the water, the two are forced to confront the realities of life and death in their village. Primarily a documentary filmmaker, Mascaro (who here serves as director, screenwriter, cinematographer and even supporting actor) takes a dynamic and intimate approach to narrative filmmaking, resulting in a poetic and beautifully lensed meditation on life and death, loss and memory, the wind and the sea. —Jenn Murphy - DirectorHüseyin KarabeyStarsTuncay AkdemirSelim BulutSabahettin DAGThis is the story of two women on opposite ends of a life-time, a very young, curious Jiyan and her life-weary but resistant grandmother Berfe, in order to save the person who links them to each other.FROM TURKEY'S KURDISH SECTION COMES THIS MINIMALIST TALE OF A MOTHER AND DAUGHTER TRYING TO RESCUE THEIR SON/FATHER FROM TYRANNICAL REBEL FIGHTERS. THE INSIGHT INTO THE VILLAGE LIFE WAS THE MAIN ATTRACTION FOR ME. In a snowy Kurdish mountain village, in Turkey, an old woman Berfe and her young granddaughter Jiyan are troubled when the only man in the household, Temo, the son of one and the father of the other, is arrested by the local gendarme. The Commanding Officer has got the information that the villagers are hiding guns from them. It is announced that all the men in the village will be kept arrested until their family resigns and hands over the guns they are hiding. But the real trouble is there are no guns. Berfe and Jiyan will have to embark on a long journey in search of a gun which they could exchange for their beloved Temo.
- DirectorStéphane DemoustierStarsOlivier GourmetValeria Bruni TedeschiCharles MérienneJérôme, a senior executive, has just left his company. Determined to never work for nobody else ever again, he attempts to set up his own company, come what may, even ignoring the reluctance of his wife Laura. Ugo, their 11-year-old son, is a tennis player and a promising champion. To reach his goal, he must make it into the Roland Garros national training center. Just like his dad, he's willing to do whatever it takes to make it. Together, Ugo and Jérôme will realize that not all rules can be bent in the quest for success.THIS FILM IS SO DARDENESQUE THAT IT IS SCARY. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT I MEAN, THEN CHECK OUT THE BELGIUM DARDENNE BROTHERS FILMS ROSETTA AND LA PROMISE. TRULY FILMS ABOUT STRUGGLING PEOPLE AND THEIR PROBLEMS. REAL PEOPLE WITH REAL PROBLEMS. THE TECHNIQUE AND STORY TELLING IS MARVELOUS AND THE PRODUCTION VALUES ARE OF THE HIGHEST ORDER. IF THE OSCAR VOTERS WOULD WATCH THESE FILMS, THEY WOULD BE NOMINATED. The dismissal of Jérôme (Olivier Gourmet) in the shoe Wholesale runs atypically warm. The entire staff seems to have compassion on the last working day, and there are kisses and hugs exchanged. The patron of the old school but knows that he does not easily occur with his limited English skills and over 50 to a new job. While he tries to import your own shoe line, but he soon realizes that he had better put his time in the talent of his tennis enthusiasts son Ugo.
- DirectorOrlando von EinsiedelStarsAndré BaumaEmmanuel de MerodeMélanie GoubyA team of brave individuals risk their lives to protect the last mountain gorillas.STRONG RECOMMENDATION FROM JARED AND FOUND IT ON NETFLIX STREAMING. A POWERFUL WELL DONE DOCUMENTARY ON THE CHAOS OF THIS AREA OF THE CONGO. VERY SAD AND DEPLORABLE FOR THE ANIMALS AND THOSE WHO LOVE THEM TO SAY NOTHING OF THE HUMAN COTASTROPHE. Urgent investigative report and unforgettable drama, "Virunga" is a work of heart-wrenching tenderness and heart-stopping suspense. Director Orlando von Einsiedel set out to chronicle the day-to-day dangers the rangers face in Virunga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He's on the ground with them when they track down poachers and when they come upon gruesome evidence of the poachers' merciless work. With the help of a young French journalist, he surreptitiously documents a chain of bribes involving a British company with designs on oil reserves in the park, a World Heritage Site. And he's right in the middle of it — "it" being a war zone — when a military rebellion devastates the country's eastern region. With its long, sorry history of colonization and exploitation of its natural resources, the Congo remains a place that generates enormous wealth while most of its people are impoverished. Von Einsiedel's gutsy, damning film makes it clear that the colonial spirit lives on in the form of Western corporate interests. But amid the mercenary reality is one built on profound, loving commitment. At the core of "Virunga" are three rangers, compassionate and brave. One is a former child soldier; another, the park's director, is a member of the Belgian royal family. The third, who cares for a small group of orphaned gorillas in a park facility, is not being rhetorical when he speaks of them as family.
The documentary's central characters, the wardens of Africa's oldest national park, are heroic beyond measure. They're conservationists and frontline soldiers, risking their lives to protect endangered species, chief among them the world's last remaining mountain gorillas. - DirectorAndrey ZvyagintsevStarsAleksey SerebryakovElena LyadovaRoman MadyanovIn a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man's arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.HURRAH FOR IT'S OSCAR NOM AND GOLDEN GLOBE WIN.
AS OF NOW, MY FAVORITE OF TIFF 14. A RUSSIAN BEAUTY WITH PHILLIP GLASS SCORE THAT WAS SUCH A PLEASURE TO WATCH AND LISTEN. THE CORRUPT CITY HIERACHY WERE VILLAINOUS AND VICTORIUS TO THE END. THIS IS THE FIRST DIRECTORIAL EFFORT SINCE HIS THE RETURN IN 2003. THE WINNER OF CANNES 2014 BEST SCREENPLAY. Andrey Zvyagintsev's magnum opus, Leviathan, premiered at this year's Cannes to unanimous acclaim, winning the Best Screenplay award and establishing him as a true master of cinema. With the film's magisterial opening — the coastal landscape of the Barents Sea, set to the clarion call of Philip Glass's symphonic score — Zvyagintsev sets the stage for a story in which human intrigues are indistinguishable from forces of nature. - DirectorGabe PolskyStarsViacheslav FetisovVladislav TretiakScotty BowmanThe story of the Soviet Union's famed Red Army hockey team through the eyes of its players.FASCINATING SPORTS DOCUMENTARY ON RUSSIAN HOCKEY PLAYERS MELDING INTO THE NHL. THIS WOULD BE ENJOYED BY ALL EVEN IF NOT SPORTS ENTHUSIASTS. I WAS MESMERIZED BY THE HISTORICAL INFORMATION PRESENTED SHOWING THE SUCCESS ENJOYED BY THE HOCKEY STARS IN THE USA AFTER THE SOVIET UNION COLLAPSE.
A smash hit at this year’s Cannes, director Gabe Polsky’s exhilarating documentary chronicles the rise and fall of Soviet hockey in the 1980s.
During the Cold War, battles between East and West played out in sports as much as international politics. Stalin and his successors saw their athletes as ambassadors of ideology. Red Army reveals one of the most colourful chapters of this history, focusing on the Soviet hockey team and its rivalries with Canada and the USA. At the centre of the story is Slava Fetisov, one of the greatest players to experience the highs and lows of Soviet hockey prior to the USSR's collapse. He stood up to a powerful system and paved the way for Russian players to change their circumstances. As Soviet communism gave way to global capitalism, the lure of NHL money unravelled the legendary team known as the Red Army. - DirectorAbderrahmane SissakoStarsIbrahim AhmedAbel JafriToulou KikiA cattle herder and his family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu find their quiet lives -- which are typically free of the Jihadists determined to control their faith -- abruptly disturbed.A FILM OF IMMEDIACY FROM SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA MALI/MAURITANIA IN SPITE OF ITS MAGNIFICENT BEAUTY REVEALS THE SENSELESS BRUTALITY OF THE FUNDAMENTALISTS IN THIS PART OF THE WORLD. DAILY NEWS TODAY GIVES THE FILM CURRENT RELEVANCE.
Following the recent jihadist takeover of northern Mali, a proud cattle herder comes into fateful conflict with the fundamentalist rulers of the provincial capital, in this luminous, lyrical and poetic drama from the great African filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako. A gazelle strides across the desert, under the sound of a car's rumbling engine; seconds later, bullets cut the animal down in its tracks. The opening sequence of Abderrahmane Sissako's magisterial Timbuktu — which premiered to acclaim at this year's Cannes — encapsulates the essential truth of violent extremism: to destroy grace and beauty, not only with impunity but with an ironclad self-righteousness. Set during the early days of the 2012 fundamentalist takeover of northern Mali and inspired by real people and real events, Timbuktu is a searing drama about the everyday woes and resistance of ordinary people in a city overrun by extremist foreign fighters. - DirectorJean-Pierre DardenneLuc DardenneStarsMarion CotillardFabrizio RongioneCatherine SaléeLiège, Belgium. Sandra is a factory worker who discovers that her workmates have opted for a EUR1,000 bonus in exchange for her dismissal. She has only a weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses in order to keep her job.THE BELGIUM DARDENNES BROTHERS AGAIN PROBES THE CHALLENGES OF THE WORKING CLASS PEOPLE THAT REFLECTS THE WORLD WIDE PROBLEMS OF INCOME INEQUALITY AND THE WORKERS BEING MISTREATED BY UPPER MANAGEMENT. THIS IS SO CONTEMPORARY IN ITS DEPICTION OF UNFAIRNESS. A YOUNG MOTHER WHO DESPARATELY NEEDS HER JOB, MUST CONVINCE HER FELLOW WORKERS TO VOTE AGAINST HER BEING FIRED GIVING UP THEIR 1000 EURO BONUS IF SHE IS FIRED.
The Dardenne brothers deliver again. Never afraid to tackle difficult subject matter, this time around the celebrated Belgian filmmakers take on the European economic crisis. Two Days, One Night tells the story of Sandra (Marion Cotillard), a working-class mother who loses her job, but who has a fighting chance — and one weekend — to get it back. Almost immediately after returning to her factory job following a mental health leave, Sandra is laid off because her fellow line workers voted to receive a bonus rather than to keep her as the seventeenth person on the team. When she learns that their team leader persuaded them to vote against her under false pretenses, Sandra convinces the plant manager to hold a second, secret vote - DirectorRuben ÖstlundStarsJohannes KuhnkeLisa Loven KongsliClara WettergrenA family vacationing in the French Alps is confronted with a devastating avalanche.A WORD OF MOUTH SENSATION AT 2014 CANNES. AN ACT OF COWARDICE IMPULSIVE DECISION BY A YOUNG FATHER COMPROMISES HIS MARITAL RELATIONSHIP AND CREATES AN INTERNAL GUILT THAT NEARLY DESTROYS HIM. IF YOU HAVE AN INTEREST IN HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AS I DO, THEN THIS FILM BELONGS TO YOU.
One of the most daring and audacious filmmakers to emerge in the last decade, Ruben Östlund hit a new peak with Force Majeure, a critical hit at this year's Cannes. As in his previous films Involuntary and Play, with his latest Östlund turns a keenly analytic eye on those principles we supposedly live by, and explores what happens when the codes of conduct enforcing those principles are abruptly stripped away.
On a family skiing vacation in the French Alps, Tomas (Johannes Bah Kuhnke) and Ebba (Lisa Loven Kongsli) are enjoying lunch with their two children when their meal is suddenly interrupted by thunderous booms emanating from the mountain above them. The complacent Tomas initially dismisses the possibility of danger — but when it appears that there may be an avalanche, he grabs his cellphone and bolts, leaving his wife and children to fend for themselves. The remainder of the film monitors the fallout from this fateful incident, as husband and wife hotly debate what actually occurred, and what Tomas's proper response should have been — a battle that eventually threatens not just Tomas and Ebba's relationship, but those of the people around them. - DirectorBent HamerStarsAne Dahl TorpLaurent StockerHildegun RiiseWhen Norwegian scientist Marie attends a seminar in Paris on the actual weight of a kilo, it is her own measurement of disappointment, grief and, not least, love, that ends up on the scale.IF YOU HAVE A TASTE FOR DROLL ICELANDIC/NORWEGIAN HUMOUR, THEN THIS IS YOUR FILM. BRENT HAMER OF KITCHEN STORIES BRINGS US ANOTHER COMEDY THAT WILL NOT BRING MOST PEOPLE TO LAUGHTER. A FILM FILLED WITH "HUHS" BUT SO TYPICAL OF FILMS FROM THIS PART OF THE WORLD. SKIP IT IF YOU CANNOT APPRECIATE SUBTLE HUMOUR. BASICALLY THE FILM EXPLORES THE ACCURACY OF WEIGHTS......IS THIS TRULY REAL?
Full of Hamer's trademark offbeat humour, 1001 Grams sharply critiques those dichotomies — rural versus urban, precision versus poetry, science versus mysticism, romance versus logic — that Marie routinely accepts. As she explores her new possibilities, the film seems to unfurl magically, beautifully, the way the first real day of summer seems to spill over with promise and renewal. Recently divorced, Marie devotes her life to measurements, spending her days inspecting ski slopes while studiously avoiding her ex. The pride of the institute where she works is a perfect kilogram weight, a model for all measurements in the country, which Marie is supposed to take to a big conference in France. It's her first time going, and the first time her father, a fellow scientist and a legend in their field, will not be attending. - DirectorMaxime GirouxStarsMartin DubreuilHadas YaronLuzer TwerskyIn Félix and Meira, an unusual romance blossoms between two lost souls who inhabit the same neighborhood but vastly different worlds.THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITES OF TIFF 2014 BECAUSE OF THE INSIGHTFUL JOURNEY INTO ORTHODOX JEWRY. METICULOUSLY CRAFTED WITH WONDERFUL PERFORMANCES FROM RELATIVELY UNKNOWN ACTORS. THERE IS AN EXCELLENT DIRECTOR AT WORK HERE. IF I WERE PROGRAMMING A JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL THIS WOULD BE MY NUMBER ONE SELECTION FROM THIS YEARS CROP.
In Félix et Meira, an unusual romance blooms between two lost souls who inhabit the same neighbourhood but vastly different worlds. Maxime Giroux's latest feature is a sensitive study of tradition, religion, and desire in present-day Montreal.
Meira (Hadas Yaron) is a young Hasidic Jewish wife and mother living in Montreal's Mile End district. Discontented with her marriage and life, she rebels secretly against her faith by listening to soul music and taking birth control pills. Secular francophone Félix (Martin Dubreuil) is an odd loner living nearby, grieving over the recent death of his estranged father. Intrigued by Meira, Félix hopes her religious devotion will provide insight into his loss. Though she rebuffs him at first, they begin to meet in secret; a mutual affection soon arises, and she acquires a taste for life outside the strictures of her faith. As Meira's desire for change becomes harder for her to hide, and her husband becomes more suspicious, the tension between them builds. Ultimately Meira must choose: leave her community to be with Félix, or stay. - DirectorSzabolcs HajduStarsIsaach De BankoléRazvan VasilescuOrsolya Török-IllyésAn African football player committed a crime and has to escape. He finds refuge on a farm deep in the Hungarian flatland. Soon he realizes that the farm is a modern slave camp where he is forced to fight for his freedom and his life.A NEW GENRE IS EMERGING AND I WOULD TITLE IT "GYPSY COWBOY" COMING FROM HUNGARY, TURKEY, ROMANIA AND SURROUNDING COUNTRIES. THERE IS AN AMAZING DREAMLIKE TYPICALLY GYPSY-LIKE REVERIE TO THESE FILMS. I FIND THEM DELIGHTFUL. THE MALE PROTAGONIST, Isaach De Bankolé, IS A GENUINE FIND AND I PREDICT WILL BECOME A MAJOR USA STAR BUT WITH A DIFFERENT NAME. I HATED TO SEE THIS FILM END.
Directed by Szabolcs Hajdu, Mirage follows Isaach De Bankolé's mysterious, nameless character as he arrives at a country farm and subsequently begins to stir up trouble. There's ultimately something oddly hypnotic about Mirage, as filmmaker Hajdu has infused the proceedings with a deliberate and visually sumptuous feel that's heightened by the mystery surrounding the central character's very existence (ie who is he? what's he up to? where's he going? etc, etc). - DirectorDanis TanovicStarsEmraan HashmiGeetanjali ThapaDanny HustonAyan, a pharmaceutical salesman in Pakistan, takes on the multinational health care corporation he works for after he realizes they knowingly marketed a baby formula that's responsible for the death of hundreds of babies everyday.THIS ONE GETS A 10/10 FOR ITS EXPOSURE OF THE INSENSITIVITY OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY. BOTTOM LINE IS ALL THAT IS IMPORTANT TO THEM NO MATTER WHO THEY HURT.
Multinationals' activities in the developing world come under harsh scrutiny in Danis Tanovic's hard-hitting new drama Tigers. No stranger to controversy, the Academy Award-winning director is unafraid to stick his nose into contentious subject matter. Here, he explores Pakistan's fascination with Western drugs, basing his film on a true story — its real-life protagonist lives in Toronto — involving a corporation aggressively trying to increase its market share through the sale of baby formula to new mothers. - DirectorRobert KennerStarsFrederick SingerNaomi OreskesJamy Ian SwissA documentary that looks at pundits-for-hire who present themselves as scientific authorities as they speak about topics like toxic chemicals, pharmaceuticals and climate change.THIS FILM TO ME REVEALS HOW GREED AND FINANCIAL GAIN TRUMP TRUTH AND FAIRNESS. AS A PHYSICIAN SCIENTIST AND THE SCIENTIFIC PROOF OF MAN MADE GLOBAL WARMING SO OVERWHELMING THAT IT IS BEYOND MY COMPREHENSION HOW INTELLIGENT PEOPLE STILL BUY INTO THE REDICULOUS SPIN CREATED BY THE DENIERS. "I'm not a scientist, but I play one on TV," says Marc Morano, a man frequently cited as a specialist on climate change. Merchants of Doubt explores the shadowy world of purported experts who stake claims contrary to scientific consensus. Their efforts have spread confusion and delayed action over cigarettes and toxic chemicals. Now their main battleground is denying the man-made causes of climate change. Director Robert Kenner previously investigated how corporations affect what we eat in his breakthrough documentary Food, Inc. Here he reveals how corporations affect what we think. He traces the birth of the doubt industry to the 1950s, when tobacco companies began fighting the perception that cigarettes are harmful. Those efforts succeeded for decades, and have been replicated as a model for climate-change denial. A vast majority of legitimate scientists warn that we can't afford to delay action any longer. So what drives the merchants of doubt: is it money, ideology, or both? Kenner profiles key climate skeptics, uncovering their credentials and motivations. He shows how they navigate the media, think tanks, and government circles. He interviews scientists such as James Hansen, who raised a prominent alarm about global warming in the 1980s only to see his work attacked. "Most scientists are not good communicators," Hansen concedes.
- DirectorPawel PawlikowskiStarsAgata KuleszaAgata TrzebuchowskaDawid OgrodnikA novice nun about to take her vows uncovers a family secret dating back to the German occupation.THIS FILM IS A MASTERPIECE IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD. TRULY ONE OF MY FAVORITES FOR 2013 WHEN I SAW IT, AND 2014 WHEN IT WAS RELEASED. THE NARRATIVE WAS CAPTIVATING AND THE MAGNIFICENT BLACK AND WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY TOOK YOUR BREATHAWAY
A successful American director returns to Poland to bring us a drama on an infant Jewish girl raised in a convent to save her from the Nazis who as an adult learns of her heritage. Acclaimed director Pawel Pawlikowski (Last Resort, My Summer of Love) returns to his homeland for this moving and intimate drama about a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who, on the verge of taking her vows, discovers a dark family secret dating from the terrible years of the Nazi occupation. In this spare, stark, and oh-so-beautifully directed film, Pawel Pawlikowski returns to his native Poland for the first time in his career to confront some of the more contentious issues in the history of his birthplace. Few subjects are as controversial and as emotional as what passed between Polish Catholics and Jews during the Second World War. Pawlikowski, who created his reputation in England with films like Last Resort and My Summer of Love, has made what is surely one of the most powerful and affecting films of the year. - DirectorPhilippe MuylStarsBaotian LiXiaoran LiHao QinThe story of an elderly man and his granddaughter who walk together through China with a bird in a cage.A SWEET POIGNANT FILM WITH MANY LIFE LESSONS. BASICALLY THE STORY OF A GRANDFATHER AND AN ANNOYING GRANDDAUGHTER AND A BIRD IN A CAGE WALKING THROUGH CHINA. THE CHINA SCENERY CINEMATOGRAPHY IS MAGNIFICENT. It’s a pleasant road movie, but only captivates because of the great images of Beijing and rural China. If this were shot in France with an arrogant Parisian kid going to a village in the Auvergne, it would never have gotten a theatrical release. It wouldn’t even attract viewers on television. But maybe the Chinese would watch it. Different cultures always intrigue more. The two main actors are great to watch, even though the kid’s character is extremely annoying for the first half hour of the movie. There are some beautiful shots and the filmed road trip (leaving the ultramodern metropolis to the charming rural villages) makes you want to book a trip to China and backpack around on your own. Some references to the globalisation of data and technology (iPhone, Skype, Wii) make the movie accessible
- DirectorKristina GrozevaPetar ValchanovStarsMargita GoshevaIvan BarnevIvan SavovIn a small Bulgarian town Nadezhda, a young teacher, is looking for the robber in her class so she can teach him a lesson about right and wrong. But when she gets in debt to loan sharks, can she find the right way out herself?FROM BULGARIA COMES A WONDERFUL DARDENNES BROTHERS LIKE DRAMA ABOUT A REAL DESPERATE PERSON WITH REAL PROBLEMS GOES THROUGH TO BALANCE HER LIFE. THE FILM IS LOADED WITH OMG'S AND YOU WILL BE WORN OUT AT THE END. this debut fiction feature from directing duo Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov doggedly follows its heroine as she tries anything to save her family's home from getting gobbled up by the bank. But even as she redoubles her efforts — exhausting her options, and soliciting assistance from shadier and shadier characters — none of her travails bear financial fruit
- DirectorAlonso RuizpalaciosStarsTenoch HuertaSebastián AguirreIlse SalasTomas is too much for his lone mother so she sends him to live with his older brother Federico, aka Sombra, in Mexico City.LIGHTING, BLACK AND WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY MAGNIFICENT....WORTH A 10, NARRATIVE MINIMALIST AT BEST. WORTH A 6. “To be young and not a revolutionary is a contradiction,” reads a protest banner in “Gueros,” a feisty Mexican indie in which two brothers — one dark-skinned, the other pale — idly fritter away a few days while those around them stage a massive student demonstration. Such politics exist on the periphery of Alonso Ruizpalacios’ playful yet realistically grounded debut, which poses as a road trip (or, for the more generously inclined, a lackadaisical “chase movie”) in which the siblings conceivably discover their place in society while searching for an elusive folk singer. Pic faces modest returns, but foretells a promising career.
- DirectorFranco LolliStarsBrayan SantamariàCarlos Fernando PérezAlejandra BorreroEric, 10, finds himself almost overnight living with Gabriel, his father, who he barely knows. The man has trouble keeping their heads above water and building a relationship with his son. Maria Isabel, the woman Gabriel works for as a carpenter, decides to take the child under her wing.EXTRA POINTS FOR THIS FILM RECOGNIZING THE LOVE OF A FATHER FOR HIS SON REGARDLESS OF HIS ECONOMIC OR SOCIAL POSITION. I KNOW THIS VERY WELL CONSIDERING THE STATE OF MY 52 YEAR OLD BABY SON AT THIS TIME. THIS FILM RECOGNIZES THE DEVOTION OF THE FATHER. The story's emotional center is Eric (Bryan Santamaria), a 10-year-old boy sent to live with his impoverished handyman father (Carlos Fernando Perez) in a grungy quarter of downtown Bogota. One of his more well-heeled clients is Maria Isabel (Alejandra Borrero), a kindly matriarch who takes pity on both Eric and his father, inviting them to stay at her family's luxurious country villa over the Christmas holiday when they would otherwise face eviction. But tensions soon begin to crackle between the rich owners and their poor guests, exposing the gap between festive pieties about Christian charity and the starker realities of the class structure.
Santamaria is Lolli's secret weapon, giving a superbly naturalistic performance as an innocent young soul slowly waking up to social and economic injustice. His emoting never feels forced or studied, while his conversations with the other child actors have the freewheeling, random texture of observational documentary. - DirectorMipo OhStarsGô AyanoChizuru IkewakiMasaki SudaTwo troubled souls living on the fringes of a port town fall in love, but their trials are far from over.A METICULOUSLY CREATED JAPANESE CINEMA GEM WITH A VERY SAD HOPELESS STORY. The ugliness of life on society’s shadow edges is boldly observed in Japan’s official submission for the Oscars, The Light Shines Only There (Soko nomi nite Hikari Kagayaku), a grim portrait of self-loathing tempered by compassion which might have appealed to Fassbinder. Taking a break from her cheery earlier work (The Sakai’s Happiness and Here Comes the Bride, My Mom!), talented director Mipo Oh plunges into a fierce character study of three young people on the way down. Despite their mega-problems, the trio has a poignant honesty that gets under the viewer's skin,
- DirectorGeorge OvashviliStarsIlyas SalmanMariam ButurishviliIrakli SamushiaThe river creates and the river destroys in an eternal cycle that even man can't escape.FROM GEORGIA COME THIS MAGNIFICENT 10 FILM. A FILM THAT I HOPE ALL MY READERS WILL GET A CHANCE TO SEE. NEARLY WORDLESS YET NARRATIVE AND CINEMATIC ACHIEVEMENT ORIGINAL, CHALLENGING AND VERY INTERESTING. NOT TO BE MISSED. PUT IT ON EVERY FILM SEARCH ENGINE YOU KNOW. THERE ARE MANY OUT THERE. THE PROTAGONIST PERF WAS WONDERFUL. The Inguri River forms a natural border dividing Georgia from Abkhazia. Tensions between the two nations have not abated since the war of 1992–93. This fable-like drama, shot on 35mm, captures the inexorable cycle of life in this harsh place, which is nevertheless full of wild, expressive beauty. Every spring the river brings fertile soil from the Caucasus down to the plains of Abkhazia and northwestern Georgia, creating tiny islands. The islands are havens for wildlife and occasionally also for local peasants who find them perfect for the cultivation of a crop to supplement their income. An old Abkhaz farmer builds a hut for himself and his teenage granddaughter on one of these islands. He ploughs the earth and together they sow corn. As his granddaughter blossoms into womanhood and the corn ripens, border patrol boats from the two feuding countries frequently pass, reminders of the dangers of cultivating in no-man’s land. “An astonishing feat of cinema presented with the utmost modesty… an unparalleled big screen experience.
- DirectorPirjo HonkasaloStarsJohannes BrotherusJari VirmanAnneli KarppinenA fourteen-year-old boy in a stifling Helsinki slum takes some unwise life lessons from his soon-to-be-incarcerated older brother.THIS IS ANOTHER MAGNIFICENT BLACK AND WHITE FILM WITH MINIMALIST NARRATIVE. VERY FEW WILL ENJOY THIS 24 HOUR ODYSSEY. Shot in stunning black-and-white, Concrete Night is a dream-like odyssey through Helsinki over the course of one night. Simo, a 14-year-old boy and his older brother Ilkka are the sons of a helpless and unpredictable single mother. Their chaotic home is located deep in the heart the capital’s concrete jungle. Ilkka has one day of freedom left before starting his prison sentence, and at their mother’s urging the two brothers roam the city together. “Adapted from Pirkko Saisio’s 1980 cult novel, which we see sitting on a shelf at one point, this film is billed as having been updated to the present, but really it could be set at any time in the past century. […] A powerful piece of work, beautifully depicted…There isn't a single misjudged note among the performances.
- DirectorMartti HeldeStarsLaura Peterson-AardamTarmo SongMirt Preegel"Risttuules" is a very emotional, tragic movie about mass deportation to Siberia based on the memories of Erna. It all started on June 14, 1941, when trucks came for the innocent families with their children where they headed to the train station and later by animal wagons to Siberia. "How to survive hunger, cold, humiliation, losing friends and freedom, but still keep living on, when almost all hope is lost?"AKA....IN THE CROSSWIND......THE ORIGINALITY AND INNOVATIVNESS OF THE FILM MAKING PROCESS BLEW ME AWAY. TOLD IN TABLEU FASHION WITH CAREFULLY CREATED PHOTOS. TO ME THIS WAS THE MOST ORIGINAL FILM OF THE YEAR. MAGNIFICENT TECHNICALLY AND THE HISTORICAL CONTENT WAS ENLIGHTNENING TOTALLY UNKNOWN TO ME BEFORE THIS FILM. This black-and-white art film audaciously creates tableaux vivants to provide a requiem for inhabitants of the Baltic States who, in the summer of 1941, were deported to Siberia or killed on Stalin’s orders. A voiceover narration draws on the actual diary of an Estonian wife and mother, Erna. Before June 14, 1941, she lives in a rural idyll with her husband and their young daughter. But from the moment the Soviet forces arrive at their farm, time takes on another dimension for Erna. To underscore this radical change, the style of the film changes radically too. Helde’s extraordinary visual techniques convey a sense of stasis that won’t be to all tastes, but those open to a different sort of cinema will find this a very poignant experience.“An eerie, stylized effect is created by Erik Pollumaa’s lyrical, painterly cinematography and the free-wheeling camera that weaves through immobile groups of actors from a dreamer’s point of view. It’s a shock to find actors moving again in the final scenes […] At this point, heart-breaking emotion floods the screen
- DirectorTomislav MrsicStarsSasa AnocicZivko AnocicMatija AntolicEight outsiders are trying to create a theater play while breaking every rule of theater craft.CROATIA'S OSCAR SUBMISSION IS SOOOOO SLOW AT THE BEGINNING BUT PERKS UP FOR THE LAST REEL SAVING THE FILM FROM TOTAL OBLITERATION.
Helping adapt his own play for the screen, Sasa Anocic plays Sasa, a theater director returning from the city to his hometown after some unspecified setbacks and a bout with cancer. He's been offered a chance to mount a small play, mainly to give townsfolk something to see in their underused civic hall, but the pickings are slim: Five nobodies show up for auditions, and though most can't even articulate why they're interested in the play (eager-to-please Javor, played by Hrvoje Barisic, is the exception), he's forced to cast them all. After the late addition of a girl to the cast (singer Ivana Rushaidat, playing mousy Marica), Sasa figures he has all the necessary ingredients for a Western. - DirectorJamshid MahmoudiStarsNoor Agha AhmadiMahdi EbadiHasiba EbrahimiA romance blooms between a young Iranian man working in a factory in Tehran and the daughter of an Afghan worker.FROM AFGHANISTAN COMES THIS SWEET ROMANTIC FILM. YES THERE ARE SOME TRULY NICE PEOPLE IS THIS BELEAGUERED COUNTRY. Set in a shantytown on the outskirts of Tehran where a factory owner employs a horde of illegal Afghan workers, this affecting social issues drama centers on a forbidden relationship. Without belaboring the point, it also makes clear the (at best) second-class status Afghans have in Iran and how this rankles their pride.Orphaned teen Saber is part of an Iranian team laboring at a ramshackle scrap-metal workshop. Afghans work alongside Iranians, but they receive only half the salary of their local counterparts because they have no working papers. Moreover, if police come to inspect the facility, they must quickly grab their children and tools and hide in a drainage pipe, knee-deep in water.Saber is involved in a chaste but charming relationship with an Afghan girl, Marona. The two youngsters meet daily, hiding from prying eyes inside an empty, rusting container in the cargo yard next door, where they exchange gifts, share confidences and make plans for the future. But Marona fears the consequences if Saber were to ask her dour, ailing father for her hand.
- DirectorDamián SzifronStarsDarío GrandinettiMaría MarullMónica VillaSix short stories that explore the extremities of human behavior involving people in distress.THIS IS A HIGHLY ENTERTAINING FILM FROM ARGENTINA THAT HAS MADE THE FINAL 5 FOREIGN LANGUAGE SUBMISSIONS, SO IT SHOULD BECOME READILY AVAILABLE, IT IS WORTH YOUR TIME AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED. I GUARANTEE YOUR ENJOYMENT. SIX VERY CLEVER FILMS, MY FAVORITE BEING THE #6 JEWISH WEDDING. For pure viewing pleasure, the one wild card in the Cannes competition this year is unlikely to be beaten. Argentine helmer Damian Szifron’s “Wild Tales” is a wickedly delightful compendium of six standalone shorts united by a theme of vengeance — the kind that explodes in spectacular bursts after a put-upon soul is screwed over too many times. While not all the episodes are equally successful, and most are variations on formulas seen elsewhere, the overall enjoyment rarely flags. “Pasternak,” which rolls before the credits, is such a terrific opener that Szifron only intermittently manages to match its level of hilarity later on. Model Isabel (Maria Marull) boards a plane for a business trip and strikes up a conversation with Salgado (Dario Grandinetti), seated across the aisle. Soon they discover they’re not the only people onboard with a connection to a certain Gabriel Pasternak. Beautifully set up and expertly followed through, the short hasn’t an inch of fat and immediately sweeps audiences up with its unexpected energy.
Also fun is “The Rats,” in which a waitress (Julieta Zylberberg) in a nighttime roadhouse diner discovers her sole customer (Cesar Bordon) is the loan shark who drove her father to kill himself. When the ex-con cook (the always welcome Rita Cortese) hears how dreadful the guy is, she encourages her co-worker to take revenge. Next comes “Road to Hell,” where Diego (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a hotshot businessman in a new Audi, gives a redneck Peugeot driver (Walter Donado) the finger. Things don’t go so well when the Audi busts a tire and the Peugeot pulls up. This is the most classic of revenge fantasies, with its well-worn theme of arrogant urbanite vs. yokel tormentor, yet Szifron’s consummate skill at narration and setup, combined with inventive absurdity, makes it fresh and thoroughly entertaining. - DirectorJane MagnussonHynek PallasStarsTomas AlfredsonWoody AllenWes AndersonA group of filmmakers visit Ingmar Bergman's house on the remote Swedish island of Faro to discuss his legacy.IF YOU ARE A STUDENT OF FILM, THIS IS A MUST SEE. MANY OF THE WORLD'S BEST FILM MAKERS COMMENT ON THE IMPACT OF BERGMAN ON THE WORLD OF CINEMA. Mixing awe and irreverence, this informative, entertaining cinephile’s delight explores the legendary Swedish auteur Ingmar Bergman’s home, life, films and legacy with the help of other world cinema heavyweights. Listening to filmmakers such as Michael Haneke, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Wes Craven, Takeshi Kitano, Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou discuss the impact that films such as Summer with Monika, The Seventh Seal, Persona and Fanny and Alexander had on their lives and careers will inspire a passionate desire to view (or re-view) Bergman’s classics as well as the works of the interviewed filmmakers. The playful, smartly crafted documentary combines previously unseen behind-the-scenes footage from the making of Bergman’s films, well-chosen clips and a chronology of his career with candid conversations with the other filmmakers, some shot at Bergman’s remote Faro Island home and others at locations around the world. To be in the master’s home inspires a range of emotions among the visitors. Birdman director Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu exclaims, ”If cinema was a religion, this would be Mecca, the Vatican,” while Lars von Trier offers characteristically saucy, tongue-in-cheek commentary.
- DirectorKornél MundruczóStarsZsófia PsottaSándor ZsótérLili HorvátThirteen-year-old Lili fights to protect her dog Hagen. She is devastated when her father eventually sets Hagen free on the streets. Still innocently believing love can conquer any difficulty, Lili sets out to find her dog and save him.THIS IS A VERY CHALLENGING FILM, VERY HARD FOR ME TO GRASP NOT KNOWING WHETHER I HATED IT OR APPRECIATED IT. STILL THINKING ABOUT IT. MY LOVE OF DOGS CREATES MY CONFUSION. HUNGARIAN FILM OFTER PUTS ME OFF BALANCE. The premise of this Hungarian/German/Swedish co-production is solid, even if the execution feels a little slack and the running time too long. Production values are also strong, with some impressive technical elements, notably the highly-trained animal castmembers. oung big-screen newcomer Zsofia Psotta gives a confident, convincingly surly performance as 13-year-old Lili, a solitary only child in contemporary Budapest forced to move in with her ill-tempered father (Sandor Zsoter) when her mother takes a job abroad. But dad has little patience for Lili's best friend, a handsome and unusually smart mongrel named Hagen. With new political laws banning cross-breed dogs coming into force, Hagen cannot stay in the apartment long.
Cruelly dumped alongside an urban highway, Hagen begins his journey through Budapest's shady underworld. Sold into an illegal dog-fighting ring, he is trained to become a ruthless killing machine before escaping from his savage human captors. In a four-legged twist on Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Hagen then masterminds a mass breakout from the city dog pound, leading an army of fellow hounds on a roaring rampage of revenge against mankind. Lassie's come home -- and this time he's boiling mad. According to Mundruczo, White God is intended as a statement of solidarity for marginal and oppressed people. There are certainly strong echoes of Nazi-style ethnic cleansing in his depiction of an intolerant society imposing harsh new laws against mongrels, an increasingly timely theme in the light of recent election gains by Hungary's neo-Nazi party Jobbik. Another anti-racist allusion is coded in the film's title, a play on Sam Fuller's cultish 1982 movie White Dog, about a vicious German Shepherd trained to attack dark-skinned people. - DirectorTudor Cristian JurgiuStarsVictor RebengiucSerban PavluLaurentiu LazarWhen a flood strikes Costache's village in Romania, his wife Maria and all of their possessions are swept away. Now in a village shelter, Costache refuses to sell his land and move onward. He has plans to re-build and refuses help and advice from his neighbors. The village is all he has left, except for an estranged son now living in Tokyo. But when his son Ticu hears of his mother's death and father's plight, he arrives unexpectedly with his Japanese wife and son to bring Costache back home with him. This will not be simple. Ticu fled Romania with many issues left unresolved, the biggest being his relationship with his father. Now there is a whole new family for Costache to deal with, old scores to settle, and painful goodbyes to say.FROM ROMANIA COMES THIS FAMILIAL DRAMA ABOUT COMPASSION AND UNDERSTANDING AND ACCEPTANCE OF DIFFERENCES AND MISUNDERSTANDING. NOT FOR EVERYONE. A moving tale of loss and recovery reminiscent of the work of Yasujiro Ozu, this humanist drama about family reconciliation centers on 80-year-old Costache. Recent floods in rural southern Romania have swept away his wife and his belongings. Now, after 20 years, his estranged son Ticu arrives with his Japanese wife and young son. The unexpected visit forces father and son to relearn how to communicate, to become a family again. Costache becomes a real grandfather to his seven-year-old grandson, while Ticu straightens out past mistakes. “A satisfying, unexpectedly upbeat film, superbly played, in which hope is always just about visible through the tragedy.” The Hollywood Reporter “Handsomely shot to privilege nature’s prime position in rural life, this deceptively simple tale, told in beautifully self-contained scenes that dispense with unnecessary exposition, boasts a sterling performance by Victor Rebengiuc, the best-known Romanian actor of his generation, in a role of unassuming dignity
- DirectorAva DuVernayStarsDavid OyelowoCarmen EjogoOprah WinfreyA chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.WOW, A FIRST CLASS FILM EXPLORING THE RIGHT TO VOTE OF BLACK AMERICANS. VERY WELL DONE AND I AM SURPRISED IT DID NOT RECEIVE MORE OSCAR PRAISE. David Oyelowo's PERF WAS CENTAINLY WORTHY OF AN OSCAR NOD. A half-century on from Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic voting-rights march from Selma, Alabama to the state capitol in Montgomery, director Ava DuVernay revisits those events with startling immediacy, dramatic force and filmmaking verve in “Selma.” A far cry from the dutiful biopic or ossified history lesson it could have become in lesser hands (or the campy free-for-all the project’s original director, Lee Daniels, might have made of it), DuVernay’s razor-sharp portrait of the civil rights movement — and Dr. King himself — at a critical crossroads is as politically astute as it is psychologically acute, giving us a human-scale King whose indomitable public face belies currents of weariness and self-doubt. Bolstered by Paul Webb’s literate, well-researched script and David Oyelowo’s graceful, majestic lead performance, DuVernay has made the kind of movie that gives year-end “prestige” pics a good name, which should equate to considerable box-office and awards-season gold for this Dec. 25 Paramount release.
- DirectorPaula van der OestStarsSallie HarmsenMarwan KenzariBarry AtsmaA young assistant DA puts a serial killing nurse behind bars, only to discover evidence that may prove her innocence.THE MOST RECOGNIZED MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE IN DUTCH HISTORY IS EXPLORED IN THIS VERY FRUSTRATING FILM. THE ACTRESS PERF WAS WORTHY OF GREAT PRAISE, BUT AS A DUTCH FILM WILL BE IGNORED. A Dutch nurse with a clear-cut professional conscience but no social skills to match is suspected of and then sentenced for the killing of several patients that died on her watch in Accused (Lucia de B.), a forceful drama that’s inspired by one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in recent Dutch history. Starring a convincing Ariane Schluter in the Dutch title role. Like French filmmaker Vincent Garenq’s Guilty, in which a man was imprisoned for years on false charges of pedophilia, it is the prosecutors and judges’ desire to protect defenseless people from harm that makes them overlook the possibility that the people before them may be innocent. And also like that based-on-true-events feature, it is the harrowing real-life story that’s the real star of the film. To that purpose, Schluter, one of the country’s most famous theater actresses, completely disappears into the very complex and meaty role of an entirely unsympathetic but innocent woman whose clear innocence and terrible fate rather than her own behavior finally warm her to the audience. Indeed, van Oest’s commitment to something akin to realism rather than facile emotional high- and lowlights throughout is commendable, especially since the lack of immediately identifiable emotions was another reason a lot of people suspected Lucia of possibly being a killer. Harmsen’s role is not well developed enough to make her character’s sudden change of heart credible and all the other roles are essentially bit parts.
- DirectorLucie BorleteauStarsAriane LabedMelvil PoupaudAnders Danielsen LieThirty-year-old Alice's occupation is rather unusual for a woman: she works as an engineer on a freighter. She loves her job and does it competently but even in a greasy blue overall a woman will be a woman, with her heart, her desires and her seduction - In such conditions can an all-male crew really remain totally insensitive to her charms? A situation all the more complicated as not only does Alice leave her fiancé Felix behind but she also discovers on board the Fidélio that the captain is Gaël, her first love.FROM FRANCE COMES THIS NEW VOICES, NEW VISION AVANT GARD FILM FROM A FEMALE DIRCTOR. EXTREMELY WELL DONE AND VERY INSIGHTFUL ABOUT LIFE ON A FREIGHTOR AT SEA. A VERY COMPLICATED ENTERPRISE THAT IS 99% MALE. ONE INTERESTING COMPONENT WAS THE DEATH OF A FROM AN ENGINE ROOM INCIDENT. THEY HAD A DIGNIFIED RESPECTFUL BURIAL AT SEA BUT TOLD HIS FAMILY THAT HE HAD FALLEN OVERBOARD. THE FEMALE PERSPECTIVE IN FILM CREATION ADDS MANY UNKNOWN DIMENSIONS FOR ME. Promising debut navigates the hazardous crosscurrents of work, love, sex and gender. Juggling romantic, dramatic and melodramatic elements against an unusual nautical backdrop, Borleteau shows sufficient ambition to ensure a fair wind of critical support. Even her title hints at wide-ranging cultural depths, combining as it does Beethoven, Homer and Lewis Carroll. And there's also a nod towards Antonioni via the detail that the much-traveled freighter Fidelio was previously known as the Eclipse, back when Alice (Labed) first served aboard in her earliest days below decks. Alice operates by the maritime maxim "what happens at sea stays at sea."
- DirectorPaolo VirzìStarsFabrizio BentivoglioMatilde GioliValeria Bruni TedeschiThe destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.HOW SAD THAT A COUNTRY WITH A PROUD LEGACY OF FILM EXCELLENCE SHOULD SUBMIT THIS PIECE OF CRAP. CORRUPTION, AND MONEY ISSUES PROBABLY INFLUENCED THE SELECTION OF WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE BEST FILM OF THE YEAR FROM THE NOMINATION PROCESS. WHO SITS ON THAT COUNTRY'S FILM SOCIETY. REMEMBER, ITALY GAVE US VISCONTI, FELLINI, ROSELLINI, WERTMULLER, ANTONIONI AND MANY OTHERS. THIS IS A SHONDA.....THANK YOU VERY LITTLE TO BERLUSCONI.
- DirectorAndreas ProchaskaStarsSam RileyTobias MorettiPaula BeerThrough a hidden path, a lone rider reaches a little town high up in the Alps. Nobody knows where the stranger comes from, nor what he wants there. But everyone knows that they don't want him to stay.ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF EUROPES INCREASING VENTURE INTO THE COWBOY GENRE......WELL DONE AND ENJOYABLE....HEROES AND VERY BAD GUYS WITH SATISFYING REVENGE ENDING. More than any other, the Western is the genre that lends itself to reinvention, from the Mediterranean spaghetti western to the German “Easterns”. In this moody, occasionally almost Gothic genre piece from Austrian editor-turned-director Andreas Prochaska (who cut Michael Haneke’s early films), the genre’s mainstays are all in place: Brooding hero, operating solo? Check. Isolated town full of secrets? Check. Revenge motif? Check. Evil, mustache-twirling villain? Check. But the majestic backdrop against which the archetypical tale plays out is something quite different: the imposing peaks and valleys of the Alps, captured in stark, painterly shots that heighten the drama. The protagonist, a daguerreotype-wielding, German-speaking American played to perfection by Sam Riley (the raven-like sidekick in this year’s Maleficent), is equal parts lonesome cowboy and alpine avenging angel. “The hills are alive with the sound of gunfire in this alpine revenge drama, a superior genre piece which applies classic western tropes to a remote Austrian mountain village in the late 19th century.
- DirectorJuly JungStarsBae DoonaKim Sae-ronSong Sae-byeokA young police officer is sent to work in a small village and takes in a teenager to protect her from her abusive stepfather.ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE EXCELLENCE OF KOREAN CINEMA...GREAT STORY AND FIRST CLASS CREDITS. After a personal scandal, Police Academy instructor Lee Young-nam is transferred from Seoul to become station chief in a quiet, remote fishing village. All her subordinates at the station are men and most are older. Trying to fit in, Young-nam keeps a low profile and tolerates the drunken excesses of the locals; she herself hides soju in her water bottles. Lonely, she drinks herself to sleep.She soon meets Do-hee, a timid and withdrawn 14-year-old girl covered in cuts and bruises, bullied by her classmates and physically abused by a violent stepfather. Concerned, Young-nam lets the teenager stay at her house during the summer vacation despite the scrutiny this unusual arrangement attracts from the villagers. The two women find solace in each other’s company, until Young-nam’s former girlfriend shows up… “Resolutely left-field and refreshingly off-kilter, A Girl At My Door is an engagingly strange drama, that weaves in abuse, sexual manipulation and racism into its apparently low-key story… The film is given heart and soul by a magnetic performance by the excellent Doona Bae.
- DirectorIsa QosjaStarsIrena CahaniLuan JahaDonat QosjaIn a traditional village where life is gradually being rebuilt, schoolteacher Lushe is driven by her conscience to give an interview to an international journalist. During the interview, Lushe admits that she and three other women from the village were raped by Serbian soldiers. When the men from the village find out that it was Lushe who spoke to the journalist, they start a hate campaign against her and her little boy.FROM KOSOVO COMES THIS EXCELLENT INSIGHTFUL DRAMA IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE SERBIAN WAR AND THE RAPING OF KOSOVO WOMEN. THE SHAME INFLICTED ON THE HELPLESS MEN BY THE MEN IN THE VILLAGE IS DISGUSTING. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO SYMPATHY. IS THIS TRULY HOW IT IS WITH EASTERN EUROPE COUNTRIES? Set in a traditional Kosovar village a year after the war with Serbia, this finely written and directed drama provides a critical look at a patriarchal culture threatened by the knowledge that the enemy violated their women. When a local woman anonymously reveals to an international journalist that she and others were raped, the fallout from this once-repressed secret threatens to tear apart the fabric of village life.The action takes place in a scenic mountain enclave that is trying to rebuild after the war. When the article about the wartime rapes appears, the controlling mayor tells the local men that schoolmarm Lushe must be the source, and advises them to shun both her and her lad. While they are happy to comply because they believe Lushe has brought shame on them and their village, they can’t stop wondering about the identities of the three other raped women mentioned in the article.The choice of Three Windows as a foreign-language Oscar entry signals a coming to terms with something previously considered too shameful to discuss.
- DirectorBaldvin ZophoníassonStarsHera HilmarÞorsteinn BachmannThorvaldur KristjanssonA Reykjavik pre-school teacher struggles to raise her daughter while selling casual sex to help make ends meet.ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL ICELAND BOX OFFICE OF THE YEAR FOLLOWS 3 PROTAGONISTS WHO ARE DESPARATE AND ECONOMICALLY CHALLENGE. REMEMBER THE 2008 DOWNTURN AND ICELAND WAS ESPECIALLY HARD HIT. A VERY THOUGHTFUL AND REVEALING NARRATIVE DONE IN AN EXCELLENT MANNER. Each of the protagonists leads a double life and must make some difficult changes in order to find redemption. Unable to make ends meet as a nursery-school teacher, pretty Eik moonlights as a high-end prostitute. Poet and novelist Mori, a raging alcoholic since a tragic incident 20 years earlier, looks and behaves like a down-and-out street person, although he actually owns a nice home in a desirable district. Meanwhile, Solvi, a former soccer star recruited into the snake pit of international banking, wants the rights to Mori’s property in order to facilitate a major downtown development. Just when viewers might think that they know everything there is to know about the protagonists from their initial appearance, the novelistic script delves deeper, revealing complications and contradictions.
Eik is a single mother struggling to make ends meet by any means possible. Sölvi is a former athlete who's now trying to climb the corporate ladder and deal with a dictatorial boss whose ethics leave more than a little to be desired. Mori is a once-well-respected author who now appears to be a full-time drunk. With confidence and precision, Zophoniasson shuttles between these three characters — who eventually intersect in surprising ways — while using their stories to address pressing contemporary issues.
Sölvi's plotline speaks to the recent financial catastrophe, one caused by a handful of individuals who essentially robbed the country of its collective wealth and suffered few to no repercussions afterward. Eik's, meanwhile, illustrates the hardships foisted upon the losers in that epic swindle. Perhaps most pertinently in an Icelandic context, Mori's tale criticizes the marginalization of artists in contemporary society — which is particularly keenly felt in a country where the creative spirit is so prevalent. - DirectorHans Petter MolandStarsStellan SkarsgårdBruno GanzPål Sverre HagenAfter his son is murdered by drug dealers, a snowplow driver starts seeking revenge.FROM NORWAY COMES AN EXCELLENT FILM NOIR FILM. IT SEEMS THAT SCANDINAVIA NOW OWNS THIS GENRE STARTING WITH THE DRAGON TATOO SERIES. IF YOU LOVE A GOOD HARD BOILED KNOCK-EM SOCK-EM REVENGE THRILLER, THEN YOU WILL LOVE THIS FILM. MILD MANNERED STELLEN SKARSGARD HAS HIS WAY WITH THE BAD GUYS. THIS IS 2ND FILM IN THIS GENRE AND IS MUCH BETTER THAN THE LIAM NEESON SEQUELS.
Introverted and hard-working snow plow driver Nils has just been named Citizen of The Year, when he receives news that his son has died of a heroin overdose. Disbelieving the official report, Nils soon uncovers evidence of the young man's murder - a victim in a turf war between the local crime boss, known as "The Count", and his Serbian rivals. Armed with heavy machinery and a good dose of beginner's luck, Nils embarks upon a quest for revenge that soon escalates into a full-blown underworld gang war, with the body count spiralling ever higher and higher.
After Scandi-noir comes Scandi-blanc, with this snowblinded black comedy about a plough-driver wreaking revenge upon the drug dealers who killed his son. Stellan Skarsgård is Nils Dickman, the stoical Swedish path-clearer who wins a citizen of the year award in Norway (“You’re the most Norwegian person around without actually being Norwegian”) shortly before embarking upon his shambolic killing spree.
With its mournful chiming musical score and recurrent end-of-scene slo-mo trope, this has all the makings of an angsty nihilistic thriller. But as the original Norwegian title Kraftidioten (“the prize idiot”) implies, the tone is altogether more absurdist, offering a morbidly wry twist on the traditional Death Wish riff, firmly anchored by Skarsgård’s deadpan, hangdog expression. As the bodies pile up, so do the nods to the Coens and Tarantino, violent death becoming a laughing matter. Yet while it’s hard not to trace the icy bloodletting and gangster banter back to American cinema, the frostiness of Skarsgård’s performance remains resolutely Scandinavian. - DirectorYann DemangeStarsJack O'ConnellSam ReidSean HarrisIn 1971, a young and disoriented British soldier is accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the deadly streets of Belfast.IF YOU APPRECIATE ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT WAR DRAMAS, THEN THIS BRIT FILM INTRODUCES YOU TO A BUDDING TALENTED FILM MAKER IN THIS HIS DEBUT FEATURE. A young and inexperienced British soldier finds himself abandoned in enemy territory in the strikingly shot, often thrilling, if also rather bleak feature debut of director Yann Demange. The French-born, UK-based director brings a visceral sense of danger to this story set over roughly 24 nail-biting hours in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the titular year of what the British call “the Troubles”. This grittily realistic film rests almost entirely on the square shoulders of impressive, up-and-coming 23-year-old actor Jack O’Connell (also the lead of Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken), whose constant vacillations between bravado, fear and trepidation are as smooth and nuanced as the film’s depiction of the different warring factions, all of which are tainted by rot from within. “Demange displays impressive confidence with this widescreen, in every sense, feature debut… Credit is due for coaxing such subtle performances... There’s also a pinpoint-fine attention to detail here that’s consistently winning, from the slang of the dialogue to the credibility of the hairstyles
- DirectorDominik GrafStarsHannah HerzsprungFlorian StetterHenriette ConfuriusThe 18th century literary genius Friedrich Schiller falls in love with the sisters Charlotte and Caroline von Lengefeld. After a passionate summer together in a menage a trois, jealousy and rivalry endanger their union.IN GENERAL I DO NOT LIKE BIODRAMA PERIOD EPICS, BUT EVERY PART OF THIS FILM WAS SO WELL DONE THAT MANY OF YOU WILL FIND IT VERY ENTERTAINING. FOR MY MONEY, THE MUSIC WAS WORTH THE PRICE OF ADMISSION. PERFS, NARRATIVE, PERIOD RECREATION, AND COSTUMES WERE ALL EXCELLENT. THE VERY LONG 170' LENGTH WENT BY QUICKLY FOR ME. Veteran German director Dominik Graf lets his romantic imagination run wild in this tasteful but erotically charged melodrama about the love life of German sturm-und-drang philosopher and writer Friedrich Schiller, the object of a pact between two pretty sisters who decide to love him equally. Set in the 18th century, this lavishly appointed period drama is delectably old-fashioned and adheres quite closely to the era’s strict moral codes, though there’s a novel's worth of melodramatic twists and turns to keep audiences entertained. As the older, already married sister (and Schiller’s future biographer) Caroline, Hannah Herzsprung is outstanding, and her conflict with Schiller is fascinating, as he can’t quite deal with the fact one of his lovers might have a literary talent to match his own.“Enthralling... Retaining the novelistic narrative density offered by television while taking full advantage of cinema’s larger, more enveloping canvas, Graf has created an unusually intelligent costume drama of bold personalities torn between the stirrings of the heart and the logic of the mind.” Scott Foundas, Variety
- DirectorPantelis VoulgarisStarsPenelope TsilikaSofia KokkaliAneza PapadopoulouAn epic tale of lost love and a beautiful story of the love between sisters, set in the Greek island of Andros at the beginning of the 20th century.THIS 132' GREEK FILM WAS SEEN ONE RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER, AND BOTH WERE ABOUT 2 SISTERS IN LOVE WITH THE SAME MAN. BOTH WERE WELL TOLD ROMANTIC STORIES AND THE CINEMATOGRAPHY AND MUSIC WERE OUTSTANDING. “Little England” refers to the Greek island of Andros, in the Cyclades, where this gripping 1930s and 40s family saga takes place. The island’s nickname comes from its success in the shipping trade. It’s a place of rich history, breathtaking beauty, and superb architecture. The essence of Andros is inextricably connected to maritime life, and to the spirit of the sea.Directed by the veteran Pantelis Voulgaris and adapted from a bestseller by his wife, Ionna Karystiani, the story spans two decades in the lives of the Saltafero sisters, their parents, husbands and children. United and divided by a terrible secret, the two sisters both love the same man. It is a story of passion, family and loss; a tribute to the seafaring men who leave their homes behind, and the strong women who wait for them. “A woman’s picture in the most positive sense, this handsomely mounted and impeccably acted film scooped the top prize at the Shanghai Film Festival, won a boatload of prizes at the Greek Film Awards and was a hit at the local box office.” Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter
- DirectorAhmad AbdallaStarsKal NagaMaged El-KidwaniHouria FarghallyDecor is about "choices" we make in life. Can one major choice haunt us to the extent of wishing to imagine or live our alternate options of such choice? Decor is an incredible journey down that rabbit hole.I HAVE ALWAYS FELT THAT EGYPTIAN CINEMA IS UNDERATED AND MOST CLOSELY RESEMBLES THE BEST IN ITALIAN CINEMA AT ITS VANGUARD. THERE IS PROBABLY A REASON FOR THIS AND I AM COMPLETELY AT A LOSS AS TO WHY. THE BLACK AND WHITE CINEMATOGRAPHY IS PERFECTION AND THE GREATEST EXPERT I KNOW ON THIS SUBJECT IS DAVID KAMINSKY, SO IF SOMEONE SEES HIM, ASK HIM ABOUT THE ITALIAN EGYPTIAN SIMILARITIES. THIS FILM WAS MYSTICAL AND CHALLENGING, BUT THE TECHNICAL QUALITIES TOOK YOUR BREATH AWAY. ALSO THE NARRATIVE FOR ME WAS CONFUSING. WHO IS SHE MARRIED TO???
Ahmad Abdalla (Heliopolis, 2013’s Rags And Tatters) crafts a black-and-white homage to his home cinema in Décor, an engrossing, Egyptian take on the Hollywood “woman’s film” which should cement Abdalla’s reputation at home with its core issues of choice – between the past and the present, career, love, duty and family. Décor is shot in lustrous black and white, however, with more accent on the soft, bleached whites in what is clearly a well-financed, classically-mounted film. With images from old Egyptian films constantly flickering in the background, Décor tells the story of Maha (Horeya Farghaly), an art director who has been hired, with her husband Sherif (Khaled Abol Naga), to work on a commercial B-movie in Cairo. The production in question – “a film nobody cares about,” according to Sherif - is an attempt by a “festival director” to broaden his appeal, and Maha is being forced to compromise her high standards, much to her dismay.
She’s working day and night on constructing the set – an apartment interior – and is frustrated by the film’s leading actress who insists on wearing luridly coloured clothes to portray a dowdy schoolteacher. The director of the film-within-a-film may not care about what he is shooting, but Ahmad Abdalla cares a great deal, and Décor is beautiful to look at. There are many layers to Décor’s plot, and soon Maha is imagining herself into the B-movie’s lead role. But is it imagination or her real life? Her reality shifts and she begins to crumble under the pressure, jolted between her lives as a child-less career woman and wife to the handsome Sherif, and much-loved wife to the portly Mostafa (Maged El Kedwany)and mother of a little girl.