FLAHERTY NYCFrom our friends at The Flaherty Seminar. Read on! Monday, October 13, 7:30 pm - Oliver Husain in person The Flaherty NYC series premiere will feature the New York City debut of films by Oliver Husain, a German-Indian artist currently based in Toronto, who uses visual media to explore ideas ... read more Posted on 10/09/08 by: DGSmith Comments (0 ) REVIEW: The Wrestler
2008 NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL GUEST BLOGGER: FILMLINC- Darren Aronofsky, director of the virtuoso Requiem for a Dream (2000) and last behind the camera for The Fountain (2006), is striking at new ground with The Wrestler, a film of surprising compassion about the small-town circuit of professional ... read more Posted on 10/09/08 by: FCFeatures Comments (0 ) Witness for the Prosecution on Reel 13Billy Wilder has his fourth film featured on Reel 13 this year and it is one that I had, surprisingly enough, never seen before. WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, based on a play by Agatha Christie, turned out to be a very effective and tense courtroom drama, proving once again that ... read more Posted on 10/08/08 by: eplromeo8 Comments (0 ) Night and Day (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea): 71
Almost busted out laughing when our hero pointed out the Musée d'Orsay at one point, thereby reminding me of Hou's cosmopolitan visit to France just last year -- and underlining the fact that Hong flew all the way to Paris to make a movie in which ...
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Posted on 10/08/08 by: dangelo
Comments (0 ) Four Nights With Anna (Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland/France): 39
Having already seen this basic lovelorn-stalker scenario realized to devastating effect by both Patrice Leconte (in Monsieur Hire) and Krzysztof Kieslowski (in Decalogue Six, only one of the greatest films ever made), I quickly grew impatient with Skolimowski's lumbering, faintly comic variation, which takes its protagonist's ...
read more
Posted on 10/08/08 by: dangelo
Comments (0 ) The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/France/Italy/Spain): 77
Simply one of the most confounding filmgoing experiences I've ever had, and as usual I'm uncertain how a "normal" viewer -- i.e., someone who hasn't made a point of entering the theater with no advance knowledge of any kind -- would likely respond. (If you want ...
read more
Posted on 10/08/08 by: dangelo
Comments (0 ) Outside the Frame
Week in and week out, as part of our ongoing series of video interviews, I chat up film-world personalities along with my producer and colleague, Cristina Garza. And sometimes, it’s the things people say before the cameras go live, or after they’ve been powered down, that remain with me weeks ... read more Posted on 10/08/08 by: DGSmith Comments (0 ) BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOMEEach September, as the New York Film Festival rolls out two weeks of film for its illustrious guests and patrons, the event stirs up mixed feelings among this city’s hardcore cinephile community. Veteran malcontents like to grouse that there is too much middlebrow programming from the likes of Wes Anderson ... read more Posted on 10/08/08 by: DGSmith Comments (0 ) Kazakh Film: Chouga and Tulpan
Every major film festival presents a gallery of cinema offerings and possible discoveries for those curious enough to seek out unfamiliar work by international narrative-film artists and imagemakers. The New York Film Festival may play it safe by screening films that already have theatrical distribution, like Steven Soderbergh’s twin-halved 262-minute ... read more Posted on 10/08/08 by: DGSmith Comments (0 ) Changeling (Clint Eastwood, USA): 67
As I've argued for over a decade now, Eastwood-as-director, with his so-called "classical" style that really amounts to a sort of measured impatience, is only as good as his material. Here, via former Babylon 5 geek J. Michael Straczynski, he's stumbled onto a true-life tale so ...
read more
Posted on 10/07/08 by: dangelo
Comments (0 ) |
FLAHERTY NYCFrom our friends at The Flaherty Seminar. Read on! Monday, October 13, 7:30 pm - Oliver Husain in person The Flaherty NYC series premiere will feature the New York City debut of films by Oliver Husain, a German-Indian artist currently based in Toronto, who uses visual media to explore ideas ... read more Posted on 10/09/08 by: DGSmith Comments (0 ) REVIEW: The Wrestler
2008 NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL GUEST BLOGGER: FILMLINC- Darren Aronofsky, director of the virtuoso Requiem for a Dream (2000) and last behind the camera for The Fountain (2006), is striking at new ground with The Wrestler, a film of surprising compassion about the small-town circuit of professional ... read more Posted on 10/09/08 by: FCFeatures Comments (0 ) Witness for the Prosecution on Reel 13Billy Wilder has his fourth film featured on Reel 13 this year and it is one that I had, surprisingly enough, never seen before. WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION, based on a play by Agatha Christie, turned out to be a very effective and tense courtroom drama, proving once again that ... read more Posted on 10/08/08 by: eplromeo8 Comments (0 ) Night and Day (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea): 71
Almost busted out laughing when our hero pointed out the Musée d'Orsay at one point, thereby reminding me of Hou's cosmopolitan visit to France just last year -- and underlining the fact that Hong flew all the way to Paris to make a movie in which ...
read more
Posted on 10/08/08 by: dangelo
Comments (0 ) 
Four Nights With Anna (Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland/France): 39
Having already seen this basic lovelorn-stalker scenario realized to devastating effect by both Patrice Leconte (in Monsieur Hire) and Krzysztof Kieslowski (in Decalogue Six, only one of the greatest films ever made), I quickly grew impatient with Skolimowski's lumbering, faintly comic variation, which takes its protagonist's ...
read more
Posted on 10/08/08 by: dangelo
Comments (0 ) 
The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, Argentina/France/Italy/Spain): 77
Simply one of the most confounding filmgoing experiences I've ever had, and as usual I'm uncertain how a "normal" viewer -- i.e., someone who hasn't made a point of entering the theater with no advance knowledge of any kind -- would likely respond. (If you want ...
read more
Posted on 10/08/08 by: dangelo
Comments (0 ) Outside the Frame
Week in and week out, as part of our ongoing series of video interviews, I chat up film-world personalities along with my producer and colleague, Cristina Garza. And sometimes, it’s the things people say before the cameras go live, or after they’ve been powered down, that remain with me weeks ... read more Posted on 10/08/08 by: DGSmith Comments (0 ) BRINGING IT ALL BACK HOMEEach September, as the New York Film Festival rolls out two weeks of film for its illustrious guests and patrons, the event stirs up mixed feelings among this city’s hardcore cinephile community. Veteran malcontents like to grouse that there is too much middlebrow programming from the likes of Wes Anderson ... read more Posted on 10/08/08 by: DGSmith Comments (0 ) Kazakh Film: Chouga and Tulpan
Every major film festival presents a gallery of cinema offerings and possible discoveries for those curious enough to seek out unfamiliar work by international narrative-film artists and imagemakers. The New York Film Festival may play it safe by screening films that already have theatrical distribution, like Steven Soderbergh’s twin-halved 262-minute ... read more Posted on 10/08/08 by: DGSmith Comments (0 ) 
Changeling (Clint Eastwood, USA): 67
As I've argued for over a decade now, Eastwood-as-director, with his so-called "classical" style that really amounts to a sort of measured impatience, is only as good as his material. Here, via former Babylon 5 geek J. Michael Straczynski, he's stumbled onto a true-life tale so ...
read more
Posted on 10/07/08 by: dangelo
Comments (0 ) |
All in a day's work
Review of Meeting the Enemy (2007)
Meeting the Enemy is based on a novel by Leopold Lahola, which is basically a long long long long essay on the search for the principle of humanism. It's about a day in the life of a German soldier who is tasked to shoot his prisoner, only to get into ... read more Posted on 09/22/08 by: dansiella Comments (1 ) I wanna be James Spader's Secretary
Review of Secretary (2002)
Having recently just seen this film I can now say that 'Secretary' has made its way to being one of my favorite romantic comedies - even if I don't like romantic comedies. Secretary stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as former mental patient turned secretary Lee Holloway and James Spader as her demanding ... read more Posted on 09/22/08 by: dansiella Comments (1 ) I dream of the Dreamers
Review of The Dreamers (2003)
Bertolucci's The Dreamers comes off as the ultimate artsy/love/sex/revolution type of movie but truth be told it's so much more than that. Bursting with symbolism and draped with layers and layers of meaning, The Dreamers is about a young American student studying in Paris in the 60's as he strikes ... read more Posted on 09/22/08 by: dansiella Comments (1 ) Cheers to the head!
Review of Brothers of the Head (2006)
Brothers of the Head is the story of conjoined twins Tom and Barry Howe - a freak show turned proto-punk sensation in the 1970's. Brothers of the Head is directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe. "It's extremely Gothic," goes one of the first lines of this mockumentary. Plucked from ... read more Posted on 09/22/08 by: dansiella Comments (1 ) The Brothers Bloom at TIFF
Review of The Brothers Bloom
This is my biggest disappointment of the film festival thus far. Not the worst I've seen, though not far off. Dammit, The Brothers Bloom should have been great. I am a big fan of all the leads (Adrian Brody, Rachel Weisz, and the underused Mark Ruffalo) and this was Rian ... read more Posted on 09/19/08 by: Aaron Comments (0 ) Wendy and Lucy at TIFF 2008
Review of Wendy and Lucy
This is a contemporary American take on the British Kitchen Sink movies of the late fifties and early sixties. And it is terrific. Michelle Williams is Wendy, a young woman traveling to Alaska for work with her dog, Lucy. Wendy and Lucy catches up with the pair during a stop-over ... read more Posted on 09/19/08 by: Aaron Comments (0 ) The Paper Chase on Reel 13Review of The Paper Chase
The programmers at Channel 13 made an interesting choice to kick off their new (and kind of exciting) Reel 13 project in selecting James Bridges’ 1973 paean to law school THE PAPER CHASE. I realize that 2008 marks the 35th anniversary of the film, but if it’s anniversaries they’re interested ... read more Posted on 09/17/08 by: eplromeo8 Comments (0 ) Towelhead (F.K.A. Nothing Is Private)
Review of Towelhead (F.K.A. Nothing Is Private)
It's amazing how hilarious this movie is without stealing from the drama of a young girl who gets molested. The comedic elements are what set this film apart from others stories about a teen coping with identity and abuse. I didn't realize when I saw it that this is from ... read more Posted on 09/12/08 by: Momoji Comments (0 ) A Simple Curve on Reel 13Review of A Simple Curve
As much as I complain about the vast majority of Reel 13 Indies, what I love about it is that once and a while, a film comes along that takes me by surprise and captures my heart and mind, like CRY FUNNY HAPPY or THE RAGE IN PLACID LAKE. A ... read more Posted on 09/11/08 by: eplromeo8 Comments (0 ) ElegyReview of Elegy
A dark drama based on Philip Roth's novel 'The Dying Animal', Elegy follows the life of David Kepesh, an ageing literary professor played by Ben Kingsley. Having abandoned his wife and son twenty years ago, Kepesh lives alone, in a no-strings-attached, sexual relationship with a middle-aged businesswoman, played by Patricia ... read more Posted on 09/10/08 by: Carolann Comments (0 ) |
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