tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151932982024-03-14T03:45:48.632+00:00mainlymoviesa film-etc blogtim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.comBlogger321125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-87593505849284953952013-03-13T11:45:00.000+00:002013-03-13T11:54:37.388+00:00Oscar Rewrites, resurrected<br />
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<b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, 1982</b></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HFkPJMwGs6E/UUBkLbsA9KI/AAAAAAAAClc/E5Fo-34YCbY/s1600/91021a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HFkPJMwGs6E/UUBkLbsA9KI/AAAAAAAAClc/E5Fo-34YCbY/s200/91021a.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><b>They said...</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;">Charles Durning (<i>The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas)</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">*</span>Louis Gossett, Jr (<i>An Officer and a Gentleman)</i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;">John Lithgow (<i>The World According to Garp)</i></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;">James Mason (<i>The Verdict)</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099;">Robert Preston (</span><i style="color: #000099;">Victor/Victoria)</i></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SdVLr8JyCCk/UUBkK_hgx7I/AAAAAAAAClU/El4MbWIAi54/s1600/blade-runner-rutger-hauer-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SdVLr8JyCCk/UUBkK_hgx7I/AAAAAAAAClU/El4MbWIAi54/s200/blade-runner-rutger-hauer-1.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><b>I say...</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;">*Rutger Hauer (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #000099;">Blade Runner)</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #000099;">James Mason (<i>The Verdict</i>)</span><br />
<span style="color: #000099;">Ricardo Montalban (</span><i style="color: #000099;">Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)</i></div>
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<span style="color: #000099;">William Sanderson (</span><i style="color: #000099;">Blade Runner)</i></div>
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<span style="color: #000099;">Paul Winfield (<i>White Dog)</i></span></div>
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With apologies to Mickey Rourke (<i>Diner</i>) and Sean Penn (<i>Fast Times at Ridgemont High</i>), who are thereby deprived of rehearsing for their <i>Wrestler </i>/ <i>Milk</i> showdown...</div>
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tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-15812614382715516272012-08-16T13:08:00.001+01:002012-11-08T11:09:58.730+00:002012, at the halfway mark<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vKKuW_AP5Go/UCzeh-WiZEI/AAAAAAAACko/Y0aT9HWiZ1I/s1600/459513.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vKKuW_AP5Go/UCzeh-WiZEI/AAAAAAAACko/Y0aT9HWiZ1I/s400/459513.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Best Film<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">Beauty</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">Magic Mike<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Nostalgia for the Light</i>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">Tabu<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">War Witch</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Best Director<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Miguel Gomes (<i>Tabu</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Patricio Guzmán (<i>Nostalgia for the Light</i>)
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<span style="font-size: large;">Mia Hansen-L<span style="background-color: white;">ø</span>ve (<i>Goodbye, First Love</i>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Kim Nguyen (<i>War Witch</i>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Steven Soderbergh (<i>Magic Mike</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Best Actor<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Kacey Mottet Klein (<i>Sister</i>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Deon Lotz (<i>Beauty</i>)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Mads Mikkelsen (<i>A Royal Affair</i>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Seth Rogen (<i>Take This Waltz</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Paud Rudd (<i>Wanderlust</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Best Actress<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Marina Foïs (<i>Polisse</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Clotilde Hesme (<i>Angel & Tony</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Nina Hoss (<i>Barbara</i>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Michelle Williams (<i>Take This Waltz</i>)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Deannie Yip (<i>A Simple Life</i>)</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Best Supporting Actor<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Tom Cruise (<i>Rock of Ages</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Paul Giamatti (<i>Cosmopolis</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Matthew McConaughey (<i>Magic Mike</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Dallas Roberts (<i>The Grey</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Joey Starr (<i>Polisse</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Best Supporting Actress<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Brid Brennan (<i>Shadow Dancer</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Alice de Lencquesaing (<i>Polisse</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Karin Lischka (<i>Breathing</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Harriet Walter (<i>The Wedding Video</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Michaela Watkins (<i>Wanderlust</i>)</span><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-82858424250520711472012-01-10T11:09:00.003+00:002012-01-10T11:25:00.402+00:002011's best films not made in 2011<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9hQ0WYt2d_o/TwwZUzbIk6I/AAAAAAAAApc/2pEUY0zxy6U/s1600/k4xTdpybiySXdA43KdskW1Plh3S.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9hQ0WYt2d_o/TwwZUzbIk6I/AAAAAAAAApc/2pEUY0zxy6U/s400/k4xTdpybiySXdA43KdskW1Plh3S.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I inaugurated this feature <a href="http://mainlymovies.blogspot.com/2011/01/2010s-other-best-movies.html">last year</a>, and here it is again, by popular demand: the thirty best films I saw for the first time in rep, or screened myself, over the last twelve months. (Thanks are due again to Masters of Cinema, the BFI, Freeview's more enterprising programmers, the British silent film festival, the Criterion Collection, San Sebastián, and all the friends I saw these with, especially Maxie Szalwinska.)<br />
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<div style="font-family: arial;">1. <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Ballad of Narayama</i> (Shohei Imamura, 1983) <span style="color: #009900;"><b>A+</b></span><br />
2. <i style="font-weight: bold;">Les enfants du paradis</i> (Marcel Carné, 1945) <b style="color: #009900;">A</b> <br />
3. <i style="font-weight: bold;">The Last Laugh</i> (F.W. Murnau, 1924) <b style="color: #009900;">A</b> </div><div style="font-family: arial;">4. <i style="font-weight: bold;">Love Me Tonight</i> (Rouben Mamoulian, 1932) <b style="color: #009900;">A</b></div><div style="font-family: arial;">5. <b style="font-style: italic;">The Wind </b>(Victor Sjöström, 1928) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b></div><div style="font-family: arial;">6. <i style="font-weight: bold;">La peau douce </i>(François Truffaut, 1964) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b><br />
7. <i style="font-weight: bold;">Floating Clouds </i>(Mikio Naruse, 1955) <b style="color: #009900;">A– </b><br />
8. <i style="font-weight: bold;">Pavement Butterfly </i>(Richard Eichberg, 1929) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">9. </span><b><i>Bad Timing</i></b><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">(Nicolas Roeg, 1982)</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><b style="color: #009900;">A–</b><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></div><div><div style="font-family: arial;">10. <b><i>My Neighbour Totoro</i></b> (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b> </div><div style="font-family: arial;">11. <b><i>The Ascent</i></b> (Larisa Shepitko, 1977) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b> </div><div style="font-family: arial;">12. <b><i>Far From the Madding Crowd</i></b> (John Schlesinger, 1967) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b> </div><div style="font-family: arial;">13. <b><i>Je t'aime, je t'aime</i></b> (Alain Resnais, 1968) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b><br />
14. <b><i>Michael</i></b> (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1924) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b><br />
15. <b><i>Cria Cuervos</i></b> (Carlos Saura, 1975) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b><br />
<span style="font-family: arial;">16. </span><b><i>Taipei Story</i></b> (Edward Yang, 1985) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b> </div><div><div style="font-family: arial;">17. <b><i>A Summer's Tale</i></b> (Eric Rohmer, 1996) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b></div><div style="font-family: arial;">18. <b><i>Insignificance</i></b> (Nicolas Roeg, 1985) <b style="color: #009900;">A–</b></div><div style="font-family: arial;">19. <b><i>Profound Desires of the Gods</i></b> (Shohei Imamura, 1968) <b style="color: #009900;">B+</b></div><div style="font-family: arial;">20. <b><i>Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde</i></b> (John S. Robertson, 1920) <b style="color: #009900;">B+</b></div><div style="font-family: arial;">21. <b><i>Peau d'âne</i></b> (Jacques Demy, 1970) <b style="color: #009900;">B+ </b></div><div style="font-family: arial;">22. <i style="font-weight: bold;">Summer Interlude </i>(Ingmar Bergman, 1951) <b style="color: #009900;">B+</b></div><span style="font-family: arial;">23. </span><b style="font-family: arial;"><i>La collectionneuse</i></b><span style="font-family: arial;"> (Eric Rohmer, 1967) </span><b style="color: #009900; font-family: arial;">B+</b><br />
<div style="font-family: arial;"></div><div style="font-family: arial;">24. <b><i>Liebestraum</i></b> (Mike Figgis, 1990) <b style="color: #009900;">B+</b><br />
25. <b><i>Cœur fidèle</i></b> (Jean Epstein, 1923) <b style="color: #009900;">B+</b><br />
26. <b><i>Taxi Zum Klo</i></b> (Frank Ripploh, 1980) <b style="color: #009900;">B+</b></div><div style="font-family: arial;">27. <b><i>Queen Kelly</i></b> (Erich von Stroheim, 1932) <b style="color: #009900;">B+</b><br />
28. <b><i>Deep End</i></b> (Jerzy Skolimowksi, 1970) <b style="color: #009900;">B+</b><br />
29. <b><i>What Have I Done to Deserve This?</i></b> (Pedro Almodóvar, 1984) <b style="color: #009900;">B+</b><br />
30. <b><i>The Pawnbroker</i></b> (Sidney Lumet, 1965) <b style="color: #009900;">B+</b></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"></div><div style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><br />
</div></div></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-52446398981139304342011-12-26T23:37:00.001+00:002012-01-10T10:06:11.326+00:002011: My Top Ten<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://hopeliesat24framespersecond.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/margaret2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://hopeliesat24framespersecond.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/margaret2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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1. <i>Margaret</i><br />
2. <i>Weekend</i><br />
3. <i>The Tree of Life</i><br />
4. <i>A Separation</i><br />
5. <i>Bombay Beach</i><br />
6. <i>Tomboy</i><br />
7. <i>Tuesday, After Christmas</i><br />
8. <i>Snowtown</i><br />
9. <i>Senna</i><br />
10. <i>Love Like Poison</i>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-72258399713423209942011-10-10T18:16:00.019+01:002011-10-18T12:18:51.642+01:00LFF: updated guidance<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0ityxGUWdac/TnHZQL0cJkI/AAAAAAAAAoc/KYQNfA9McJk/s1600/sleeping_sickness500-thumb-500xauto-29185.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="154" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0ityxGUWdac/TnHZQL0cJkI/AAAAAAAAAoc/KYQNfA9McJk/s320/sleeping_sickness500-thumb-500xauto-29185.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">SLEEPING SICKNESS</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
Current tally: <b>40</b><br />
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<b>360 </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>D</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Hammerhead thesis — sex compromises! — woven into by-the-numbers anomie quilt. Whole cast might as well be in bad wig and raincoat</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<b>50/50</b> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Overproud of its cancercom "bravery", esp when all diagnosis/treatment played for schtick. Central pairing does tickle and touch</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<b>LAS ACACIAS </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Simple and strong, in rich tradition of Argentinian road movies. A lovely debut</span><br />
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<b>ALPS </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Might have been hallucinating, but nervy and suggestive in all the ways I'd hoped. Can't wait for a second go-round</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<b>AMERICANO </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Suffers TTAC (total third act collapse) after decent first hour. Plenty good to look at, and I've never liked Hayek more</span><br />
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<b>THE ARTIST </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Pure pleasure, luminously charming, and melancholy about its ever-shifting medium. Not wild about the music</span><br />
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<b>THE AWAKENING </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C–</b></span>)<b> </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Love old-school spookery but this snoozes on job. Stiffer than it is elegant, succumbing to coy hysteria and batty reveals</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Hard to fail with footage this great, and fail they don't. A sequential scrapbook: more fury than filth</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<b>CARNAGE </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Brittle and dwindling, a crabbiness convention hitting oddly flat highs. Play already a relic, like out-of-print art catalogue</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<b>A CAT IN PARIS </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Perfectly diverting, even if undercooked design and ho-hum story elements cap your enthusiasm</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><i> </i></span><br />
<b>CORIOLANUS </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B–</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">A jaggedly functional read on the play; contemporising hits and misses, but Redgrave is <i>awesome</i></span><br />
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<b>CORPO CELESTE </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Faith at a low ebb, a priest who's given up, and a young girl choosing her own rites of passage. Hums with unruly life</span><br />
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<b>DARK HORSE </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>D+</b></span></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Listless schlubcom, unredeemed by half-ironic empathy, and this from someone who usually has time for Solondz</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>DARWIN </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Not quite BOMBAY BEACH, but dustily eccentric community doc with the flavour of mad home brew. Pop 35 Nevada shantytowns FTW</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>THE DEEP BLUE SEA</b> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Velvety, classical staging, terrific Weisz performance, a slight air of Davies falling back on old devices</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD</b> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B–</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Marston's story of Albanian blood-feud feels a little dutiful and box-ticking, but it's certainly not bad</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>THE FUTURE</b> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Hemlock for many, and often exasperating, but some ideas do stick</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>HERE </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C–</b></span>)<b> </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Cartography-as-metaphor comes off as studenty as it sounds; experimental inserts feel, well, inserted. And loooong</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>THE HOUSE </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Composed with skill, but ruthlessly on-the-nose in its symbols and conflicts</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>HUT IN THE WOODS </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B–</b></span>)<b> </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Didn't need such a dungeon-dim look, but brave & quite affecting, like Andrew Kötting with a gentler hair shirt</span><b> </b><br />
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<b>LAST WINTER </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B–</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Shivery lensing plunges you into the Hardy-esque setting, but protag and his plight remain frustratingly opaque</span><b> </b><br />
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<b>LIKE CRAZY </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Tender, plausible, but no lift-off: it's too hung up on the glum practicalities of across-the-pond dating. Jones good</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Sculpted in shards, unnerving in both timeframes. A brittle thing, but woozily accomplished. Olsen rivets</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>NATURAL SELECTION </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Matt O'Leary scores, but Rachael Harris' biological stepmom is a tiresome main character. All a bit rotely Sundancey</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>NOBODY ELSE BUT YOU (POUPOUPIDOU) </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Shaggy-dog neige noir needs brighter lead 'tec, more pulse, point. Quizzical tone gets tiresome</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>OSLO, AUGUST 31st </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Day-out-of-rehab thinkfest earns despair with clear eyes; it's about craving oblivion when all the wrong people care</span><br />
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</b><br />
<b>PARIAH </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Overcomes hurdles of cliché with vigour and fresh feeling. Nicely tentative, and doesn't grope too hard for gift-wrapped closure</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<b>SARAH PALIN: YOU BETCHA! </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Too little too late, failing to marshal obstacles to access into any kind of revealing narrative</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<b>SHAME </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Questionable material, especially at the climax, but bracing, bruising stuff in every area of style and performance</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>SHE MONKEYS</b> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B–</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Familiar but supple debut about girl-on-girl teen desire, with side order of equestrian acrobatics</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>SHOCK HEAD SOUL </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>C+</b></span>)<b> </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Egghead psychiatry curio will win fans, but leaves us little the wiser about fin-de-siècle madness. Preferred BODYSONG</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>SLEEPING SICKNESS</b> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>A–</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">My pick of the Berlinale: a spellbinding Conradian drama about going native in Cameroon</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>SNOWTOWN </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>A–</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Not for gran, unless she's Rose West. Sordidly devastating, and puts the "bleak" in "oblique", while digging its way into you</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>THE SUN-BEATEN PATH </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>D+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Cookies for anyone who keeps their eyelids open through the whole of this "New Tibetan" road-trip non-event</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>TALES OF THE NIGHT</b> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B–</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">A portmanteau grab bag with lovely sections for Ocelot fans, though it's middling for him</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>VOLCANO</b> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Icelandic retirement drama, keenly shot, judged and acted, with vivid relationships</span><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<b>WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>A–</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Coolly shattering, a jigsaw of grief and self-recrimination, with peak Tilda</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<b>WEEKEND</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"> </span>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>A</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Modestly breathtaking, gorgeously real. Pillow talk so searching and intimate it left me floating on a cloud</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<b>WITHOUT </b>(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B+</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">A sideswipe building from nowhere; ploughs into alarming, depressive territory after lullingly affectless start</span><br />
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<b>WUTHERING HEIGHTS</b> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #009900; font-family: Arial,Tahoma,Helvetica,FreeSans,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px;"><b>B–</b></span>) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: rgba(0, 132, 180, 0.098); color: #444444; font-family: Arial,'Helvetica Neue',sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px;">Wholly admirable formally, even if it's intractable and laboured in the retelling</span><br />
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</div>[Walkouts: TARGET, SLEEPLESS NIGHTS STORIES, THE SOMNAMBULISTS]tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-50020133472350116802011-09-17T12:15:00.003+01:002011-11-30T10:08:42.778+00:002011, thus farNick Davis has <a href="http://blog.nicksflickpicks.com/2011/09/fifties-for-2011-best-supporting.html">beaten me to the punch</a>, but before all the touted movies from the autumn come out, I thought I'd also list my favourites of the year so far. There are quirks on these lists: to make them more interesting, I'm intentionally excluding films that haven't received their UK release yet. So, though I'm already on record as having flipped for Vanessa Redgrave in <i>Coriolanus</i>, for instance, she'll have to wait until the year-end honours to get listed; ditto such other potential contenders as <i>We Need to Talk About Kevin</i>, <i>The Deep Blue Sea</i>, <i>Wuthering Heights</i>, <i>Melancholia </i>and <i>Tyrannosaur </i>(though I have seen all of those). The one exception I'm making is for Radu Muntean's <i>Tuesday, After Christmas</i>, on the basis that it doesn't, to my knowledge, even have a UK distributor, let alone a release date. And therefore needs all the help it can get. (Before you ask, I really do like Oldman in <i>Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy</i>, but he came in sixth.)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d2CgCftwlAk/TnR-HCAQAJI/AAAAAAAAAow/p4O012tPuw0/s1600/senna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d2CgCftwlAk/TnR-HCAQAJI/AAAAAAAAAow/p4O012tPuw0/s320/senna.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: blue;">BEST FILM</span></b><br />
<br />
<i>The Tree of Life</i><br />
<i>A Separation</i><br />
<i>Love Like Poison</i><br />
<i>Senna</i><br />
<i>Tuesday, After Christmas</i><br />
<i>Tomboy</i><br />
<i>Arrietty</i><br />
<i>Kill List</i><br />
<i>Ballast</i><br />
<i>Elite Squad: The Enemy Within</i><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fDtfY8kg-II/TnR939fgtSI/AAAAAAAAAoo/ZHpYSbz28mQ/s1600/peyman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fDtfY8kg-II/TnR939fgtSI/AAAAAAAAAoo/ZHpYSbz28mQ/s200/peyman.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b>BEST ACTOR</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Romain Duris (<i>The Big Picture</i>)</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Tom Fisher (<i>Treacle, Jr</i>)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Brendan Gleeson (<i>The Guard</i>)</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Peyman Mooadi (<i>A Separation</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Adam Scott (<i>Passenger Side</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AcdxVgk9-iw/TnR90wAVrXI/AAAAAAAAAok/2PXcB3OPGR4/s1600/clara.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AcdxVgk9-iw/TnR90wAVrXI/AAAAAAAAAok/2PXcB3OPGR4/s200/clara.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b>BEST ACTRESS</b></span></div><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Clara Augarde (<i>Love Like Poison</i>)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Zoé Héran (<i>Tomboy</i>)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Liana Liberato (<i>Trust</i>)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Mia Wasikowska (<i>Jane Eyre</i>)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Kristen Wiig (<i>Bridesmaids</i>)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vOlSqeO2jnI/TnR-KV_7LPI/AAAAAAAAAo0/yDPIguSNgLI/s1600/jack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="123" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vOlSqeO2jnI/TnR-KV_7LPI/AAAAAAAAAo0/yDPIguSNgLI/s200/jack.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR</b></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Tom Hardy (<i>Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy</i>)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Chris O’Dowd (<i>Bridesmaids</i>)</div><div>Jack O’Connell (<i>Weekender</i>)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Christopher Plummer (<i>Beginners</i>)<br />
Hugo Weaving (<i>Oranges and Sunshine</i>)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jzoMFU6nbIA/TnR986R633I/AAAAAAAAAos/UMdMnTuBr4k/s1600/sarina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jzoMFU6nbIA/TnR986R633I/AAAAAAAAAos/UMdMnTuBr4k/s200/sarina.jpg" width="200" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS</b></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">Valeria De Franciscis Bendoni (<i>The Salt of Life</i>)</div></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Sarina Farhadi (<i>A Separation</i>)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Mary Page Keller (<i>Beginners</i>)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing">Mirela Opri<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">ş</span></span>or (<i>Tuesday, After Christmas</i>)</div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span">Maria Popista</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">ş</span><span class="Apple-style-span">u (<i>Tuesday, After Christmas</i>)</span></div><div class="MsoNoSpacing"><br />
</div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-44215968109444700872011-07-09T11:08:00.001+01:002011-07-09T11:16:04.328+01:00Providence (1977)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-inQgSvMUc48/ThgnIipRXNI/AAAAAAAAAm4/KaBYR0g2hUg/s1600/sir_john_gielgud_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-inQgSvMUc48/ThgnIipRXNI/AAAAAAAAAm4/KaBYR0g2hUg/s320/sir_john_gielgud_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Alain Resnais’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Providence</b> begins with an eerie up-the-garden-path approach, a bit <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rebecca</i>, a bit <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Citizen Kane</i>, into the eponymous mansion of a dying, depleted novelist (John Gielgud) in the act of redrafting various lives – his own, partly, but mainly those of his near, dear, and not so dear. We don’t behold Gielgud’s face for a good ten minutes, but see an arthritic hand tip something off a side table, and spend most of our later scenes with him writhing in bed, whether he’s administering suppositories, complaining of the shooting pain up his arse, or chuckling to himself about the small victories he’s managed to hold on to, amid the many resentments and outbursts of vitriol which otherwise sour his memories.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">“Sour” is certainly a keyword for the concocted situations this unforgiving patriarch authors from his deathbed, in which he features omnipresently as puppetmaster, rewriter, and manipulator of who’s on screen, but not at all, until the very end, as a living participant. It’s clear, in fact, that he considers himself in all practical senses dead already: when the family doctor intrudes on camera and manages to hog a close-up or two, Gielgud’s Clive (who provides an acrid voiceover for most of his own imaginings) wants him yanked off screen, but next casually wonders if the cadaver this minor character is in the act of examining might even be his own.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For the ensuing 90 minutes or so, until a structurally crucial coda breaks the spell, we are almost entirely in Gielgud’s devious hands, and his performance, both vocally and during our intermittent bedside visits, is deeply comfortable with the English idioms of literary conceit, waspish character assassination and grandiloquent gamesmanship, sufficiently so that we never doubt him as the plausible author of what we’re given to see. The question that does remain is whether what we’re seeing was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">worth</i> authoring, and indeed worth watching. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Providence</i> gives such a disproportionate amount of its screen time over to the curdled theatrics of an old man getting his own back on his fractious kin, by fictionalising and intentionally misrepresenting all of their implied relationships, that it risks sabotaging the most basic audience connections to who these people are, and why we should give a damn. In particular, Clive’s feelings about his son, a successful lawyer who spends the first major scene viciously haranguing an accused soldier for the illegality of a mercy killing, are so inexhaustibly contemptuous that Dirk Bogarde has no choice in how to play the part: spitefully and archly, up to the hilt, in what has to be a sustained act of virtual self-parody. It’s the only possible approach to the character, and you can hardly fault him, like almost every scene which Gielgud allows him to preside over, for being perfectly unbearable. The accused soldier, Woodford (David Warner), becomes a puzzling hanger-on in a grey turtleneck pullover for most of the movie, until we twig that he’s a version of Bogarde’s half-brother in disguise, whom Gielgud entangles in semi-romantic trysts with his other son’s American wife (Ellen Burstyn) just for the hell of it; and the fifth major character is a mistress-figure called Helen (Elaine Stritch), recruited into proceedings out of the blue because of her close resemblance to Gielgud’s suicidal wife Molly, whom Stritch also plays, at one point switching roles without warning in the space of a scene.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The enigmas about life, death and art one would hope this meta-fiction might spawn and illuminate, far from proliferating as richly as they do in something like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Synecdoche, New York</i>, remain curiously stifled here if they’re given any real birth at all. Really, the movie, which is to say the construct Gielgud intends as a memoir but which we’re experiencing as a movie, is hammering away at one tone – venomous camp – and giving its characters almost interchangeable aperçus to deliver, which vary from the distantly witty to the merely brittle and pompous. It becomes hard to separate the conceit of the Gielgud character in doling these out from the conceit of the script, by playwright David Mercer, in letting him dole out quite so many, and in general getting so carried away with the Nabokovian possibilities of handing over responsibility for authorship to a “literary genius” so full of unquenchable contempt and schadenfreude. If the whole edifice comes across as smug, Mercer can blame it on Clive, but enduring it is such a chore that we may not feel inclined to let either of them off the hook. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Nabokov, and Kaufman, manage to stretch and massage their narrative gambits, to offset the dangers of self-satisfaction by making them pliable, allowing other viewpoints to intrude, or letting their similarly hermetic visions balloon to the point where they burst and backfire on their own authors. Mercer just plonks us in the same toxic biosphere for seven-eighths of a movie, not bothering with air conditioning, and it’s a real disappointment that Resnais lets him get away with it so easily, abetting the general sense of imprisonment with greenish-hued hothouse lighting, ostentatiously “artificial” outdoor sets, and oppressive interior décor with paintings by HR Giger and others adorning the walls above white curving marble steps that compositionally trap the eye. Drawling and drinking endless glasses of chilled white wine, the enclosed quartet of characters lounge on beds, sometimes gesturing towards taking their clothes off, but thinking better of it: “I don’t smell sex,” comments Bogarde on finding Burstyn and Warner together. “Has there been any?” Once or twice, Mercer’s imagination rises to the occasion of its own self-congratulatory, sinister weirdness – sorry, Clive’s – as when Warner admits to being particularly troubled at having an erection, proffering the simple explanation: “It’s not mine”. Gielgud is determined to foist Freudian relations between Bogarde’s Claud and his own mother, more or less, and to cuckold him using his bastard brother, and to make all this lot regularly swap identities to fire off fresh volleys of accusatory bile at each other, so why not have them share sexual organs as well?</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The film’s intermittent cleverness, and the kind of deftness you’d expect from Resnais with its interior rhythms, erasures and transitions, makes it possible to justify almost everything it’s doing with this or that crafty strategy, but it offers few workable solutions for the actors, other than Gielgud, to navigate through it with anything like nuance. Thrusting his role into one hissy key, Bogarde, if anything, has the best of it; Warner can’t help making his mostly-inconsequential wannabe-astronaut Woodford into someone we simply want booted out, and Burstyn, whose doleful daughter-in-law is admittedly and accurately described as “opaque”, seems particularly lost, wanting to oscillate between bitter self-absorption and a faraway pathos, but hitting her lines as if she can’t quite decide. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T9p8jPXcDJY/ThgnMbPLaTI/AAAAAAAAAm8/NBsAfcHpB88/s1600/Providence_le_de%25CC%2581jeuner_d_anniversaire_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T9p8jPXcDJY/ThgnMbPLaTI/AAAAAAAAAm8/NBsAfcHpB88/s320/Providence_le_de%25CC%2581jeuner_d_anniversaire_1.jpg" width="320" /></a>Only in the final scenes, which switch into an altogether softer and more lyrical mode as the whole clan, minus Stritch, gather for an al fresco birthday lunch in Clive's honour, is some balance and integrity restored: we feel we’ve stepped outside Gielgud’s scribbled revenge fantasies and entered a closer approximation to the reality of these relationships, or else a more gently-delineated alternative vision of how he’d like them to be. Burstyn and Warner don't particularly register in these scenes, but Gielgud suddenly has three other players to respond to, and Bogarde is an instant revelation, an entirely different, sadder and more anxiously loving figure who nonetheless feels himself a disappointment to his father and wishes it were otherwise. Watching him downplay this final section, pretty masterfully even by his standards, is not only a relief after the preceding assault, in which he’s often felt like a supercilious MC who hates his job, but provides an entirely new-found way into the movie, from the deferred perspective of a son grievously misunderstood by his father and given no credit for wishing they were closer. Whether Resnais and Mercer have a clue what they’re doing in making us wait so long for this metamorphosis, and whether it truly rescues the remainder of the film or makes it feel like even more of an exasperating waste, will be questions each viewer answers for themselves. All I can say is that having found long chunks of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Providence </i>basically purgatory, I came out with at least half a sense, salvaged at the last minute, both maddening and tantalising, that it was purgatory on purpose. <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: green;">C</span><o:p></o:p></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-65943124460352161262011-01-10T10:18:00.004+00:002012-01-10T10:37:22.102+00:002010's other best movies<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSrY1_G3y9I/AAAAAAAAAlw/bHZM6xyicq4/s1600/Sansho_the_Bailiff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSrY1_G3y9I/AAAAAAAAAlw/bHZM6xyicq4/s400/Sansho_the_Bailiff.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I'm shamelessly stealing this idea from <a href="http://blog.nicksflickpicks.com/2011/01/thanks-for-memories-2010.html">Nick Davis</a> (and bulking my list out to thirty titles). These are the best films I saw for the first time in repertory, on DVD, Blu-ray or TV last year. Whatever the merits of 2010's new vintage, I'm not sure I've ever seen as many masterpieces in a single year before, for which huge thanks are due to the British Film Institute, Eureka's Master of Cinema series, the programmers at Berlin, and whoever schedules the stuff on Freeview. The top ten movies here will be jostling to get into my forthcoming revised Top 100, as and when I dare confront that.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">1. <i><b>Sanshō the Bailiff</b></i> (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1954) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A+</span></span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: lime;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><i>2. <b>The Fall of the House of Usher</b></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">(Jean Epstein, 1928) </span>A+</span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">3. <i><b>The Bill Douglas Trilogy</b></i> (Bill Douglas, 1972, 1973, 1978) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">4. <i><b>The Burmese Harp</b></i> (Kon Ichikawa, 1956) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">5. <i><b>Cleo from 5 to 7</b></i> (Agnès Varda, 1962) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">6. <i><b>The Last Command</b></i> (Josef von Sternberg, 1928) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">7. <i><b>Pandora's Box</b></i> (G.W. Pabst, 1929) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">8. <i><b>A Tree Grows in Brooklyn</b></i> (Elia Kazan, 1945) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">9. <i><b>The Private Life of Henry VIII</b></i> (Alexander Korda, 1933) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">10. <i><b>A Day in the Life: Four Portraits of Post-War Britain</b></i> (John Krish, 1953-1964) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">11. <i><b>La Notte</b></i> (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1961) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">12. <i><b>Ugetsu monogatari</b></i> (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">13. <i><b>Wild River</b></i> (Elia Kazan, 1960) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">14. <i><b>A Brighter Summer Day</b></i> (Edward Yang, 1991) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">15. <i><b>The Misfits</b></i> (John Huston, 1961) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">16.<b> <i>The Bridge on the River Kwai</i></b> (David Lean, 1957) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">17. <i><b>The Lodger</b></i> (Alfred Hitchcock, 1927) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">18. <i><b>The Docks of New York</b></i> (Josef von Sternberg, 1928) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">19. <i><b>The Band Wagon</b></i> (Vincente Minnelli, 1953) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">20. <i><b>The Cabinet of Dr Caligari</b></i> (Robert Wiene, 1920) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">21. <i><b>The Devil and Daniel Webster</b></i> (William Dieterle, 1941) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">22. <i><b>Sons and Lovers</b></i> (Jack Cardiff, 1960) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">A–</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">23. <i><b>Red Dust</b></i> (Victor Fleming, 1932) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">B+</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">24. <i><b>Dillinger</b></i> (Max Nosseck, 1945) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">B+</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">25. <i><b>From Here to Eternity</b></i> (Fred Zinnemann, 1953) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">B+</span></div><div>26. <i><b>Battleground</b></i> (William Wellmann, 1949) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">B+</span></div><div>27. <i><b>Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?</b></i> (Frank Tashlin, 1957) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">B+</span></div><div>28. <i><b>Ivan the Terrible, Part I</b></i> (Sergei Eisenstein, 1944) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">B+</span></div><div>29. <i><b>On the Town</b></i> (Stanley Donen, 1949) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">B+</span></div><div>30. <i><b>Forbidden</b></i> (Frank Capra, 1932) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">B+</span></div><div><br />
</div></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-5163444210885463252011-01-04T01:53:00.011+00:002011-02-03T10:05:26.107+00:002010: list time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJeIjvheOI/AAAAAAAAAkg/MEJ65jiyN5M/s1600/dogtooth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJeIjvheOI/AAAAAAAAAkg/MEJ65jiyN5M/s400/dogtooth.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
I still haven't come to terms with how good this was, overall, as a movie year. A few things seem clear: it was a stellar 12 months for animation, with two wildly different specialised releases inside my final ten, two mainstream ones (<i>Toy Story 3</i> and the delightful <i>How to Train Your Dragon</i>) hovering just below, and one belatedly released claymation gem (<i>Mary & Max</i>) justifying everyone's enthusiasm too. It was a pretty weak year for documentaries, with due apologies to Frederick Wiseman's luminous <i>La Danse </i>and a pair of exciting, slippery indie wind-ups in <i>Catfish </i>and <i>Exit Through the Gift Shop. </i>And it really wasn't much of a year for things big and loud from Hollywood, was it? There was a serious lack of basic <i>fun</i> in that department, whatever we extracted from the overambitious <i>Inception</i>; I remember an early summer of <i>Titans</i>, <i>2012</i>s and <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>s that seemed to go on forever, and the par for even Apatowian comedy and, heaven help us, Katherine Heigl vehicles dipped alarmingly. I still think Tony Scott's <i>Unstoppable </i>might be the most proficient straight action ride I saw this year, but there weren't enough <i>Unstoppable</i>s. There weren't even enough <i>Salt</i>s.<br />
<br />
Anyway, my gratitude for such succulent pickings in the Euro and Asian art-house zones will be pretty clear from the below ten, and it's worth mentioning how many solid-to-good British debuts (<i>Down Terrace</i>, <i>Monsters</i>, <i>Shed Your Tears and Walk Away</i>) buttressed the Leigh and Mullan entries, even speaking as someone much less enamoured of Clio Barnard's <i>The Arbor</i> than most. Having already voted under stricter criteria for the London Critics' Circle Awards and Evening Standard Film Awards, I've cut loose a little here, including several yet-to-be-released movies I saw at festivals, so it's not exactly a level-playing-field list for either UK or US readers, but having put <i>White Material </i>at #4 on <a href="http://mainlymovies.blogspot.com/2009/12/2009-some-unadorned-lists.html">my 2009 run-down</a>, this seemed like the most sensible way to go.<br />
<br />
PS. I am <i>bound </i>to have forgotten things/people, particularly on the runners-up lists for acting, so will continue to tweak after posting and put any additions in bold.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJru_v7irI/AAAAAAAAAlk/FpLDzqIfUBc/s1600/poetry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJru_v7irI/AAAAAAAAAlk/FpLDzqIfUBc/s200/poetry.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>FILMS OF THE YEAR</b><br />
<br />
1. <i>Dogtooth</i><br />
2. <i>I Am Love</i><br />
3. <i>Poetry</i><br />
4. <i>Raging Sun, Raging Sky</i><br />
5. <i>The Illusionist</i><br />
6. <i>The Fighter</i><br />
7. <i>The Headless Woman</i><br />
8. <i>How I Ended This Summer</i><br />
9. <i>City of Life and Death</i><br />
10. <i>A Town Called Panic</i><br />
<br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up:</b> <i>Another Year</i>, <i>Au Revoir Taipei</i>, <i>Neds, La danse, Carlos, Toy Story 3, Father of My Children, Mary & Max, How to Train Your Dragon, The Maid, Winter's Bone, Beeswax, </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The Social Network, </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Whip It, Fish Story, The Temptation of St Tony</i></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJ3BhZe_MI/AAAAAAAAAls/8XfMeXj0tHo/s1600/rabioso+sol+rabioso+cielo+02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJ3BhZe_MI/AAAAAAAAAls/8XfMeXj0tHo/s200/rabioso+sol+rabioso+cielo+02.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>BEST DIRECTOR</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Lee Chang-dong (<i>Poetry)</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Julián Hernández</span> (<i>Raging Sun, Raging Sky</i>)<br />
Yorgos Lanthimos (<i>Dogtooth</i>)<br />
Lucrecia Martel (<i>The Headless Woman</i>)<br />
David O. Russell (<i>The Fighter</i>)<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up: </b>Luca Guadagnino (<i>I Am Love</i>), Jessica Hausner (<i>Lourdes</i>), Lu Chuan (<i>City of Life and Death</i>), Sylvain Chomet (<i>The Illusionist</i>), Peter Mullan (<i>Neds</i>), Frederick Wiseman (<i>La danse</i>), Mike Leigh (<i>Another Year</i>), Arvin Chen (<i>Au Revoir Taipei</i>), Sergei Loznitsa (<i>My Joy</i>)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />
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</i></span><br />
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<div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJeYw_S8rI/AAAAAAAAAkk/O418sL1_bDk/s1600/le-pere-de-mes-enfants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJeYw_S8rI/AAAAAAAAAkk/O418sL1_bDk/s200/le-pere-de-mes-enfants.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>BEST ACTOR</b><br />
<br />
Jesse Eisenberg (<i>The Social Network</i>)<br />
Ryan Gosling (<i>Blue Valentine</i>)<br />
Louis-do de Lencquesaing (<i>Father of My Children</i>)<br />
Edgar Ramirez (<i>Carlos</i>)<br />
Andy Serkis (<i>Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll</i>)<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up:</b> Ben Mendelsohn (<i>Animal Kingdom</i>), </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Robert Hill (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Down Terrace</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Dragos Bucur (<i>Police, Adjective</i>), </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Mark Ruffalo (<i>The Kids Are All Right</i>), Eugene Byrne (<i>The Be All And End All</i>), Riz Ahmed (<i>Four Lions</i>), Jim Broadbent (<i>Another Year</i>), Colin Firth (<i>The King's Speech</i>), James Franco (<i>127 Hours</i>), Jay Baruchel (<i>She's Out of My League</i>), Mathieu Amalric (<i>On Tour</i>), Eric Elmosnino (<i>Gainsbourg</i>), Grigoriy Dobrygin (<i>How I Ended This Summer</i>)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJesjzj3KI/AAAAAAAAAko/KDl__8IgD_4/s1600/leaving-partir-0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJesjzj3KI/AAAAAAAAAko/KDl__8IgD_4/s200/leaving-partir-0.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>BEST ACTRESS</b><br />
<br />
Juliette Binoche (<i>Certified Copy</i>)<br />
Yoon Jung-hee (<i>Poetry</i>)<br />
Catalina Saavedra (<i>The Maid</i>)<br />
Kristin Scott Thomas (<i>Partir</i>)<br />
Tilda Swinton (<i>I Am Love</i>)<br />
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</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Extra-close runner-up, but I just couldn't do it to Tilda...</b> Emma Stone (<i>Easy A</i>)</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up:</b> Ruth Sheen (<i>Another Year</i>), Annette Bening (<i>The Kids Are All Right</i>), Julianne Moore (<i>The Kids Are All Right</i>), Sally Hawkins (<i>Made in Dagenham</i>), Greta Gerwig (<i>Greenberg</i>), Jennifer Lawrence (<i>Winter's Bone</i>), Anne Dorval (<i>I Killed My Mother</i>), Nicole Kidman (<i>Rabbit Hole</i>), Kristen Stewart (<i>The Runaways</i>), Kim Hye-ja (<i>Mother</i>), Hilary Swank (<i>Conviction</i>), Michelle Williams (<i>Blue Valentine</i>/<i>Mammoth</i>), Brenda Blethyn (<i>London River</i>), Tilly Hatcher (<i>Beeswax</i>), Maggie Hatcher (<i>Beeswax</i>), Sylvie Testud (<i>Lourdes</i>)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJf3er-4oI/AAAAAAAAAks/WQ3UbGtFT_M/s1600/christian-bale-the-fighter-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJf3er-4oI/AAAAAAAAAks/WQ3UbGtFT_M/s200/christian-bale-the-fighter-01.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR</b><br />
<br />
Christian Bale (<i>The Fighter</i>)<br />
Jemaine Clement (<i>Gentlemen Broncos</i>)<br />
Sergei Puskepalis (<i>How I Ended This Summer</i>)<br />
Steven Robertson (<i>Neds</i>)<br />
Peter Wight (<i>Another Year</i>)<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up:</b> Miles Teller (<i>Rabbit Hole</i>), Jackie Chan (<i>The Karate Kid</i>), Lawrence Ko (<i>Au Revoir Taipei</i>), Rhys Ifans (<i>Greenberg</i>), John Hawkes (<i>Winter's Bone</i>), Michael Shannon (<i>The Runaways</i>), Colin Farrell (<i>The Way Back</i>), Dan Byrd (<i>Easy A</i>), Eddie Marsan (<i>Heartless</i>), Yvan Attal (<i>Partir</i>), Andrew Garfield (<i>The Social Network</i>), Geoffrey Rush (<i>The King's Speech</i>), Mickey O'Keefe (<i>The Fighter</i>), Cillian Murphy (<i>Inception</i>), Kieran Culkin (<i>Scott Pilgrim vs the World</i>), Armie Hammer (<i>The Social Network</i>), Sam Rockwell (<i>Conviction</i>), Pete Postlethwaite (<i>The Town</i>), Jeremy Renner (<i>The Town</i>), Tom Noonan (<i>The House of the Devil</i>), Dakin Matthews (<i>True Grit</i>), David Thewlis (<i>London Boulevard</i>), Daryl Sabara (<i>World's Greatest Dad</i>)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
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<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJgYmwAzeI/AAAAAAAAAkw/ktpCCOOFtuo/s1600/julianna-margulies-as-joyce-rizzo-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJgYmwAzeI/AAAAAAAAAkw/ktpCCOOFtuo/s200/julianna-margulies-as-joyce-rizzo-8.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS</b><br />
<br />
Dale Dickey (<i>Winter's Bone</i>)<br />
Monica Dolan (<i>The Arbor</i>)<br />
Julianna Margulies (<i>City Island</i>)<br />
Anita Reeves (<i>The Maid</i>)<br />
Dianne Wiest (<i>Rabbit Hole)</i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<i></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up:</b> Mia Wasikowska (<i>The Kids Are All Right</i>), Imelda Staunton (<i>Another Year</i>), </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Lydia Leonard (<i>Archipelago</i>),</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Jacki Weaver (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Animal Kingdom</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Amy Adams (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The Fighter</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Juliette Lewis (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Conviction</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Karina Fernandez (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Another Year</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Greta Gerwig (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The House of the Devil</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Charlotte Rampling (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Life During Wartime</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Kate Fahy (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Archipelago</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Claudia Celed<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">ó</span>n (<i>The Maid</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Mila Kunis (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Black Swan</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Melissa Leo (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The Fighter</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Kimberley Elise (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>For Colored Girls</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Anika N</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">oni Rose (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>For Colored Girls</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">, mainly the monologue), Emily Watson (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Cemetery Junction</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Rosamund Pike (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Made in Dagenham</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Rebecca Hall (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Please Give</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Amanda Peet (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Please Give</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">), Cher (<i>Burlesque</i>), </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Elina Löwensohn (<i>Lourdes</i>)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJt1WWfQLI/AAAAAAAAAlo/1ne3M-zoIDQ/s1600/ColdWeather.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJt1WWfQLI/AAAAAAAAAlo/1ne3M-zoIDQ/s200/ColdWeather.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY</b><br />
<br />
Andrew Bujalski (<i>Beeswax</i>)<br />
Mia Hansen-L<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-size: 15px; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">ø</span></span>ve (<i>Father of My Children</i>)<br />
Aaron Katz (<i>Cold Weather</i>)<br />
Efthimos Filippou/Yorgos Lanthimos (<i>Dogtooth</i>)<br />
Corneliu Porumboiu (<i>Police, Adjective</i>)<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up:</b> Adam Elliot (<i>Mary & Max</i>), Jessica Hausner (<i>Lourdes</i>),</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Götz Spielman (<i>Revanche</i>), Derek Cianfrance/Joey Curtis/Cami Delavigne (<i>Blue Valentine</i>), Alexei Popogrebsky (<i>How I Ended This Summer</i>), Sergei Loznitsa (<i>My Joy</i>), David Mich</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">ôd (</span><i>Animal Kingdom), </i>Luca Guadagnino etc (<i>I Am Love</i>)</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJhpffPL-I/AAAAAAAAAk4/Go6ma5hM2zo/s1600/2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="107" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJhpffPL-I/AAAAAAAAAk4/Go6ma5hM2zo/s200/2.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY</b><br />
<br />
Shauna Cross (<i>Whip It</i>)<br />
Sylvain Chomet/Jacques Tati (<i>The Illusionist</i>)<br />
Tamio Hayashi (<i>Fish Story</i>)<br />
Aaron Sorkin (<i>The Social Network</i>)<br />
William Davies/Dean DeBlois/Chris Sanders<br />
(<i>How to Train Your Dragon</i>)<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runner-up:</b> Floria Sigismondi (<i>The Runaways</i>)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJo_bFBU9I/AAAAAAAAAlU/YED_mThizcE/s1600/house-of-the-devil-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJo_bFBU9I/AAAAAAAAAlU/YED_mThizcE/s200/house-of-the-devil-2.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>BEST ORIGINAL SCORE </b>(click titles for excerpt)<br />
<br />
Jeff Grace (<i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqqA-887JZ8">The House of the Devil</a></i>)<br />
Dickon Hinchliffe (<i><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/light_in_the_attic/samples/4323/09_Hardscrabble_Elegy_sample.mp3?AWSAccessKeyId=1SFJMJEJW28052436C02&Expires=1294120629&Signature=D3gQUzzPI2MKcBYUPtfCw6VhE3o%3D">Winter's Bone</a></i>)<br />
Daft Punk (<i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tzer8ZCW-Ys&feature=related">TRON: Legacy</a></i>)<br />
Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFyds_YXwII&feature=related"><i>The Social Network</i></a>)<br />
Simon Whitfield (<i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDZr2zeQIOU&playnext=1&list=PLAE7EDEA8B91FB9A2&index=20">Skeletons</a></i>)<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up:</b> Michael Brook (<i>The Fighter</i>), Alexandre Desplat (<i>The Ghost —</i> and <i>only The Ghost</i>), Hans Zimmer (<i>Inception</i>), Jon Hopkins (<i>Monsters</i>)</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJneSmWoBI/AAAAAAAAAlE/XrYIuCTAQ0M/s1600/0312-Green-Zone-movie_full_600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJneSmWoBI/AAAAAAAAAlE/XrYIuCTAQ0M/s200/0312-Green-Zone-movie_full_600.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>BEST EDITING</b><br />
<br />
Kirk Baxter/Angus Wall (<i>The Social Network</i>)<br />
Ivan Lebedev (<i>How I Ended This Summer</i>)<br />
Christopher Rouse (<i>Green Zone</i>)<br />
Moon Sae-kyoung (<i>Mother</i>)<br />
Dylan Tichenor (<i>The Town</i>/<i>Whip It</i>)<br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up:</b> Teng Yun (<i>City of Life and Death</i>), Jonathan Amos/Paul Machliss (<i>Scott Pilgrim vs the World</i>), Ti West (<i>The House of the Devil</i>), Walter Fasano (<i>I Am Love</i>)</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJn-BCkrJI/AAAAAAAAAlI/nM3snuLOLsM/s1600/how-to-train-your-dragon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJn-BCkrJI/AAAAAAAAAlI/nM3snuLOLsM/s200/how-to-train-your-dragon.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>BEST SOUND</b><br />
<br />
<i>How to Train Your Dragon</i><br />
<i>Salt</i><br />
<i>Unstoppable</i><br />
<i>Valhalla Rising</i><br />
<i>Winter's Bone</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up: </b><i>The Social Network</i>, <i>Inception</i>, <i>The Temptation of St Tony</i></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJoNrAneAI/AAAAAAAAAlM/vSdlZb_QiwU/s1600/uncle_boonmee2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJoNrAneAI/AAAAAAAAAlM/vSdlZb_QiwU/s200/uncle_boonmee2.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY</b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Thimios Bakatakis (<i>Dogtooth</i>)</div><div class="MsoNormal">Philipp Blaubach (<i>The Disappearance of Alice Creed</i>)</div>Martin Gschlacht (<i>Lourdes/Revanche</i>)<br />
Oleg Mutu (<i>My Joy</i>)<br />
Y. Mingmongkor/S. Mukdeeprom<br />
(<i>Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives</i>)<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up:</b> Pawel Edelman (<i>The Ghost</i>), Bárbara Álvarez (<i>The Headless Woman</i>), Barry Ackroyd (<i>Green Zone</i>), Harris Savides (<i>Greenberg</i>), Kim Hyun-seok (<i>Poetry</i>), Andrew Reed (<i>Cold Weather</i>), Michael Fimognari (<i>Au Revoir Taipei</i>), Matthew Libatique (<i>Black Swan</i>), Yorick Le Saux (<i>I Am Love</i>), Alejandro Cantú (<i>Raging Sun, Raging Sky</i>), </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Benoît Debie (<i>Enter the Void</i>), Matt Gray (<i>Heartless</i>)</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJou7HfNyI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/Mfkso7qXQxA/s1600/photo_03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
</a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJou7HfNyI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/Mfkso7qXQxA/s1600/photo_03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJou7HfNyI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/Mfkso7qXQxA/s200/photo_03.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
<b></b><br />
<div style="display: inline !important;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>BEST COSTUME DESIGN</b></span></b></div><br />
<br />
<br />
Antonella Cannarozzi (<i>I Am Love</i>)<br />
Robin Fitzgerald (<i>The House of the Devil</i>)<br />
Beatrix Aruna Pasztor (<i>The Brothers Bloom</i>)<br />
Catherine Marie Thomas (<i>Whip It</i>)<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Amy Westcott (<i>Black Swan</i>)</div><div><br />
<br />
</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up:</b> Jeffrey Kurland (<i>Inception</i>), Carol Beadle (<i>The Runaways</i>), Mark Bridges (<i>The Fighter</i>), Ruth E. Carter (<i>Black Dynamite</i>)</span></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
<br />
</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJpZvrubbI/AAAAAAAAAlY/bMpghk7lq30/s1600/IMG_7038.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJpZvrubbI/AAAAAAAAAlY/bMpghk7lq30/s200/IMG_7038.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN/ART DIRECTION</b></div><div><br />
</div><div>Donald Graham Burt (<i>The Social Network</i>)</div><div>Adam Elliot (<i>Mary & Max</i>)</div><div>Bjarne Hansen (<i>The Illusionist</i>)</div><div>Stavros Hrysogiannis (<i>Dogtooth</i>)</div><div>Hao Yi (<i>City of Life and Death</i>)</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>runners-up:</b> Francesca Balestra Di Mottola (<i>I Am Love</i>), Bob Pauley (<i>Toy Story 3</i>), Ryu Seong-hie (<i>Mother</i>)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br />
</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJqedNuhwI/AAAAAAAAAlc/opD7xSyqXJc/s1600/Armie+Hammer+The+Social+Network.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJqedNuhwI/AAAAAAAAAlc/opD7xSyqXJc/s200/Armie+Hammer+The+Social+Network.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><b>BEST VISUAL EFFECTS</b></div><div><br />
</div><div><i>Monsters </i>(for resourcefulness, not perfection)</div><div><i>Scott Pilgrim vs. the World</i><br />
<i>The Social Network </i>(for the Winklevi, not the digital breath)</div><div><i>Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives</i></div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
</div><div><br />
<br />
</div><div><b><br />
</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJq3B2-d9I/AAAAAAAAAlg/c_j6zZf6SpM/s1600/whip-it-grrl-power.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TSJq3B2-d9I/AAAAAAAAAlg/c_j6zZf6SpM/s320/whip-it-grrl-power.gif" width="320" /></a></div><b>BEST ENSEMBLE</b></div><div><i></i><br />
<i><i><br />
</i></i><br />
<i>Another Year</i></div><div><i>The Fighter</i></div><div><i>Neds</i></div><div><i>Whip It</i></div><div><i>On Tour</i></div><div><i><br />
</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
<i><br />
</i><br />
Whew!<br />
<i><br />
</i></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-28985284782878108742010-09-27T19:31:00.000+01:002010-09-27T19:31:28.950+01:00San Sebastián: ROUND-UP<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TKDiZZJJpaI/AAAAAAAAAkY/Sui8DZ-aPiM/s1600/img_7109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TKDiZZJJpaI/AAAAAAAAAkY/Sui8DZ-aPiM/s320/img_7109.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Linkitude <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/8028207/San-Sebastian-Film-Festival.html">here</a>.tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-64255674779737300442010-09-25T16:02:00.007+01:002010-10-05T14:55:39.570+01:00San Sebastián: NEDS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TJ3XpNgSU8I/AAAAAAAAAkU/ss3a988HIkM/s1600/19254471.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TJ3XpNgSU8I/AAAAAAAAAkU/ss3a988HIkM/s320/19254471.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">[No major plot spoilers, as long as you know it's about non-educated delinquents. Which is the title acronym.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">]</span><br />
<br />
Watching Peter Mullan's <b>Neds </b>at a Spanish-subtitled screening in San Sebastián's Teatro Principal was an experience both electrifying and frustrating in ways an immediate tweet-response and grade can't really take into account, so I'm glad I've had the benefit of a few days and an <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/trim_obey/status/25337503213">unexpectedly epic homebound journey</a> to ponder it further, particularly since it's now been awarded the Best Film and Best Actor awards. I remain thoroughly on the film's side, some clearly wobbly sequences notwithstanding, but an especially tricky problem was posed by the sound: this soft Southerner struggles to comprehend thick Scottish accents at the best of times, but every single English-speaking viewer I bumped into afterwards had the same complaint about huge quantities of mumbled Glaswegian slang falling by the wayside. (Trust me, the leeway Mullan gives his locally-sourced actors in this makes <i>Trainspotting</i> sound like <i>An Ideal Husband</i>.) There were insults and laugh-lines only the local viewers found hilarious, thanks to the benefit of being able to read the Spanish — if it weren't for the embarrassment, I'd have turned to my neighbours and asked "What was that uproarious thing he just said?" more times than I was able to count. Though the Principal's acoustics may have been partly to blame, my strong hunch is that Mullan will be asked to subtitle the movie for English (and surely American) audiences too; I think it's customary to find this silly or appalling, but in this case I actively look forward to catching it a second time and being able to relish all the rude catcalls and bits of bullying invective I missed, on top of the many excellent scenes that rang out loud and clear.<br />
<br />
That initial tweet reaction ("messy but inspired") is still roughly where I'm at, but inspiration and mess tend to go hand in hand here: the film has superb, sustained passages which jostle right up against chunks of stuff that plain don't work. Everyone will draw their own conclusions about the following: the whole last act, dramatically choppy and schizoid in ways that bothered me less than the too-organised flaggy allegory of Shane Meadows's <i>This is England</i>, to which it's <a href="http://www.empireonline.com/empireblogs/under-the-radar/post/p934">already</a> being compared; the ostentatiously metaphorical final sequence, which I'm still mulling over; slightly earlier and even bolder, a druggy, go-for-broke encounter with a kick-ass manifestation of Christ; and Mullan's own supporting performance as the main character's permanently wasted, abusive father, a fierce and gurning turn which is right on the edge of being simply too much.<br />
<br />
Then again, Mullan's best work as a director is almost always dancing on this very precipice. For every viewer who mentally checked out of <i>The Magdalene Sisters</i> when Eileen Walsh started shouting "You are naart a man of Gaard!", I know someone else who thinks it's the film's bravest and most brilliant coup. What's particularly outstanding here is the school stuff, and there's a (very) good hour of this. The journey of John McGill from milksop swot to vicious sociopath, charted through jagged phases that I believed far more palpably than the textbook conversion of Shaun in the Meadows film, is quietly tragic and unobtrusively affecting: we watch his intelligence curdle, this bright, diligent mind reorient itself to discover a kind of animal cunning. <i>Neds</i> never feels like lecturing sociology, serving up the mitigating circumstances to explain why John falls in with the ASBO crowd. It's significant that he hardly spends any time with his older brother Benny (Joe Szula), a notorious wrong 'un, because Mullan consistently keeps them at arm's length, more interested in the disparities between these siblings, in age, interests and scholarly drive, than the temperamental common ground forced on them by domestic circumstances. "Problems at home" may not have been so specifically dramatised since <i>Nil By Mouth</i>, albeit in a glancing, intentionally banal way here. The repeated shots of Mullan hollering at his wife from the base of the stairs have a harsh, lurid, debatably overacted menace, but he's even scarier as this faceless, disarticulated presence moving through rooms, violently opening drawers, a dark midriff passing silently behind the dinner table. It's entirely apropos that we want to spend as little time in this fearful household as humanly possible.<br />
<br />
At school, Mullan resists any tempting <i>Magdalene</i> urge to ham up an ensnaring sense of institutional oppression. It's a place of apathy, mockery, and just muddling along, which is nonetheless desperately likely to fail all its students (and indeed staff) in offhand yet brutally life-altering ways. John, played as an uncertain youngster by Gregg Forest, fights his bookish little corner to begin with, but Mullan only needs a judicious moment for a forward jump and older actor (Connor McCarron, the gong-winner) to suggest what has changed, a certain light that's gone out, a hardening against the idea of being exceptional in the herd. Among the various teachers, played with chippy charm by <i>Crying with Laughter</i>'s Stephen McCole, whose wrong side you would not want to see, ineffectual palliness by David McKay in a terrific one-scene cameo, and Gary Lewis, whose introduction, offering John a piggy-back through the school's main entrance, is a bizarre and unsettlingly deadpan tour de force, the most significant is Mr Bonetti (Steven Robertson), who welcomes John into Latin lessons and has wily methods of encouragement which carry frequent risks of backfiring. Robertson's scenes are almost unfailingly the film's best, I think, not only because his performance, as the most guardedly optimistic character, has places to go the other supporting turns lack, but because Mullan builds him into the pivotal moment when John conclusively turns his back on academic ambition, throwing this kindly, exasperated mentor to the wolves when he calculates what classroom cred he can gain from an act of insolent insurrection. McCarron is at his strongest here too, stepping up to a level of performative cockiness pitched carefully to John's peers — he manages to combine wicked assurance with shrugging indifference, and win the fight hands down.<br />
<br />
The patchier second half never reaches these formidable peaks, though two scenes on a bus come close. John steals money from a driver at knife-point, a charged, indelible, oddly intimate encounter that lasts mere seconds, and later taunts his posh ex-friend Julian (Martin Bell) from the seat behind, cruelly flicking the ear of a black companion he's never met, and whose only moment in the film this is. Anyone who has ever sat through an uncomfortable or hostile experience on British public transport will feel the excruciating power and precision of that flick, more for the point it's proving than the token pain caused: it made me wince more than any of the all-out scenes of <i>Clockwork Orange</i>-esque gang beatings, the scrabblings with knives in school bathrooms, or the clonking of a character on the head with a loose gravestone, acute though Mullan's staging control often is in these outbursts. I don't want to dwell here on what's simply disorganised towards the end of <i>Neds</i>, which seems strangely unclear whether it's disappearing inside John's swirling head or backing away into abstract metaphor, because the limitations of the movie are easily the least interesting thing about it. What Mullan grasps here he grasps with clenched fists, and shakes often enough to sock his points home: that adolescent unhappiness and intellectual promise can be about the worst possible bedfellows, and the deadliest thugs, in another, more privileged life, might have been shoo-ins to Oxbridge. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;"><b>B+</b></span>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-11441032656388515632010-09-18T14:30:00.002+01:002010-09-18T14:39:31.282+01:00San Sebastián: I SAW THE DEVIL<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TJS5lfVeDjI/AAAAAAAAAkM/IqL3eP_pJ1k/s1600/i-saw-the-devil_8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TJS5lfVeDjI/AAAAAAAAAkM/IqL3eP_pJ1k/s320/i-saw-the-devil_8.jpg" /></a></div>I'll admit up front that I really don't get on too well with Kim Ji-woon among Korea's genre virtuosos, basically because I keep waiting for his films to develop beyond snazzy, self-adoring showreels with an ever-dwindling sense of actually going anywhere. <i>A Tale of Two Sisters</i> was entirely promising and allowable in this regard, without quite, for me, being the full banquet many enjoyed; <i>A Bittersweet Life </i>left me as thoroughly cold as gratuitously bloody existential macho cool always seems wont, if not actively designed, to do; and <i>The Good, the Bad, the Weird</i> wore out its crazy, caffeinated welcome long before the 130-minute running time crawled to a cherished end. Even longer and flinging out a frankly batshit pick'n'mix of customised serial-killer revenge games, <b><i>I Saw the Devil </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">is operatically grisly if nothing else: the first victim, betrothed to Lee Byung-hun's sharp-suited secret agent, is jumped in her broken-down car, begs for her life and explains she's pregnant before getting casually hacked up by Choi Min-sik's favourite cleaver, leaving only a severed ear (!) and a head in a box (!) to hint at her vapidly film-referential fate. There's plenty more squirmy stuff with Achilles tendons being slowly sliced, guillotines roaring in the OTT sound mix (OTT are Kim's favourite letters, except maybe CRAZY!), and a whole bevy more victims being leeringly and kind of annoyingly jeopardised by the illogical deferrals of Lee's payback scheme. Still sporting the most devastating male cheekbones in cinema, he can't for one second plausibly drive the character to let Choi off the hook as often as he does: Kim wants that Nietzsche quote about monsters becoming monsters to justify the absurd contortions of his prolong-the-pain plot, but it doesn't at all. You get the moment-by-moment set piece flair you're probably expecting, and Choi's louche villainy, schticky though it is by now: he's just the latest sick fiend with style, one of many psycho loners Kim is caught between reviling and blatantly idolising. But how often can a camera adopt the sex killer's aroused point of view, panning right up into a schoolgirl's trembling knickers, before you start to feel a dodgy complicity about this whole fandango? </span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #009900; font-family: 'lucida grande'; font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px;">D</span>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-78597374921952006582010-09-16T12:08:00.000+01:002010-09-16T12:08:35.837+01:00Thoughts on this redesign?Bearing in mind that I'm utterly hopeless at html. Opted for blogger upgrade mainly so that I can embed my twitter feed, which the old version wouldn't let me do. Wish I could make the sidebar background different from the main one for posts, but that doesn't seem possible on this template... unless some genius out there can advise me otherwise? Extra cookies to whoever identifies the header picture.tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-57217689129708901062010-09-01T00:30:00.018+01:002010-09-19T10:46:59.093+01:00Les maudits (1947)<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TH2RMQ_lMhI/AAAAAAAAAjI/UIEUskAAxg0/s1600/Les_Maudits_1947_01.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5511721158877458962" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TH2RMQ_lMhI/AAAAAAAAAjI/UIEUskAAxg0/s400/Les_Maudits_1947_01.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 332px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 432px;" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 26px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">(screened on nitrate print at the bfi Southbank, 31/8)</span></span><br />
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René Clément made his name with the cinematographer Henri Alekan, who would go on to carve out an arguably greater reputation for Cocteau’s <i>La belle et la bête</i> and <i>Wings of Desire</i>, with an Oscar nomination for <i>Roman Holiday</i> along the way. I haven’t seen their acclaimed 1945 documentary <i>La bataille du rail</i>, about Resistance saboteurs, but a stark faux-doc style is the hallmark of this surprisingly obscure subsequent feature, a commercial flop at the time which has amassed the paltry sum of 44 votes on IMDb to date. No measure of a movie, I know, but it surely deserves better than that on face value alone, as a grimly involved and engrossing tale of maritime intrigue in the closing days of the war. The action is largely confined to an escaping U-boat, which pulls away from Oslo to seek harbour in one of those South American Nazi sanctuaries where Josef Mengele pitched up. (At least, that's the plan.) It’s almost Hitchcock’s <i>Lifeboat</i> in negative — this vessel's full of Nazis and collaborators of various nationalities (the title means “The Damned”, making it the third film of that name I've seen this year) whose safety or certainty of escape is obscurely compromised by the arrival on board of French doctor Guilbert (Henri Vidal), who knows more German than anyone quite realises. He’s beckoned in to attend to the injured, near-comatose wife of an Italian industrialist, played by Florence Marly in a performance with more than a touch of <i>Foreign Affair</i> Dietrich: her blatant cavorting with Kurt Kronefeld’s SS general suggests a long-hatched escape plan which makes for awkward moments aplenty, given that everyone, to include her outraged husband (Fosco Giachetti), is bunked in such heaving and smeggy proximity.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Alekan’s skill is not, alas, at full maturity in every frame of this often crudely lit, excessively shadowy production, but there’s an excellent, viscerally wobbly, </span></span><i style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Paths</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-</span></span><i style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">of</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-</span></span><i style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Glory</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">-trench-cam reverse tracking shot as Guilbert is lured down the full length of the sub to attend to Marly's flaky diva, little realising that the boat will pull away before he has the chance to disembark; he's thereby held captive for his continued medical expertise before the assembled fugitives grasp that his presence is potentially treacherous, if not disastrous. The other visual highlight is an on-shore episode involving negotiations with a turncoat agent (Marcel Dalio, top-billed for a virtual cameo) who plans to sell them all downriver now that Hitler’s death in the bunker has hit the airwaves: a wily young German adjutant (Michel Auclair) tries to strike a deal to make his getaway, hiding in a warehouse full of coffee-bean sacks which Alekan treats to a welcome touch of overhead expressionism. Otherwise, functional claustrophobia is the order of the day, with as many talking heads crammed into the average frame as possible, while morale frays and the less fervent buddies of the Führer start panicking about when to desert this figuratively sinking ship, and how.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It must be said that Clément’s on-again, off-again approach to the point of view he’s giving Guilbert, who gets voiceover through some parts, and is first shown committing his whole testimony to a journal, but is nowhere to be seen through key sequences like the Dalio stuff, makes the dramatic basis of the movie a lot more rickety than it might have been: popular though Vidal would become in the 1950s, he’s a colourless lead here, and the character gets lost in his endless skulking in and out of hatches below deck. The real star — the film’s Col Hans Landa, if we must — is Jo Dest, whose Gestapo officer Forster is handily outranked by the decorated SS general he essentially strips to mince. Elderly and obviously homosexual — Kronefeld at first places him only after a glance at Auclair’s pretty-boy sidekick — he’s all the more snakelike for what a deferential role he appears to be playing: Dest makes of him a deadly veteran functionary, who can insinuate his way to the top of command and talk the crew into firing up torpedoes. The framing business with Vidal scribbling ardently by candlelight and the final, declamatory coining of the title are thudding and lame, but no more so than you might get from a jobbing-it Orson Welles, say, taking a crack at a promising Graham Greene script everyone else had passed on. It's some way better than its overrated Losey and Visconti namesakes, and certainly never as squiffy as Welles’s more-or-less contemporary </span></span><i style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Stranger </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(1946), but if we needed further proof that Clément is merely roughing out a commercial style here, the altogether smoother, more clement (I went there!), yet somehow headier voyage of </span></span><i style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Plein soleil</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (1960) is right there to provide it. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;">B–</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #009900;"></span></span></b></span></i></span></b></span></i></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-63917772837758858282010-08-20T08:08:00.003+01:002010-08-20T08:13:55.017+01:00By popular demand...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TG4qeVy9QeI/AAAAAAAAAjA/f8BvH6F_bT4/s1600/piranha-3d.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 433px; height: 576px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TG4qeVy9QeI/AAAAAAAAAjA/f8BvH6F_bT4/s400/piranha-3d.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5507386095056011746" /></a><div>(This already short review was trimmed to fit the page. The original cut, for what it's worth...)</div><div><br /></div><div><p class="MsoNormal">Piranha 3D (18 cert, 88 min) <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 21px; ">★</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 21px; ">★</span></p> <span style="font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">The suspense is as skimpy as the swimwear in this shameless 3D remake of Joe Dante’s 1978 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Jaws</i> spoof, directed by French gore specialist Alexandre Aja. The presence of Kelly Brook, who acquits herself fine, typifies an excessively guilty bit of Friday-night trash — it wants to have its breasts and eat them. It’s spring break at a lake in Arizona, and a minor quake unleashes prehistoric gnashers on an unsuspecting parade of partying hotties, under the concerned eye of Elisabeth Shue’s sassy sheriff. Richard Dreyfuss and Christopher Lloyd have fun cameos, but Aja’s lazy direction and reliance on tawdry digital body trauma makes the movie more of a gloating endurance test than an actual good time: it’s quite leering enough before Eli Roth turns up. </span></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-21590370061271849242010-08-08T08:56:00.010+01:002010-08-08T13:49:30.227+01:00Robey's Oscar Rewrites: (4)<span class="Apple-style-span">(Going by IMDb year, as usual.)</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span">BEST ACTOR, 1987</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TF5mGcrOMWI/AAAAAAAAAiw/Nc2GMEmNymc/s1600/Michael-Douglas-File-5476447.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 137px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TF5mGcrOMWI/AAAAAAAAAiw/Nc2GMEmNymc/s200/Michael-Douglas-File-5476447.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5502948055656051042" /></a><b>They said...</b><br /><br /><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /></span></div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"></span><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br />*Michael Douglas, <i>Wall Street</i><br />William Hurt, <i>Broadcast News</i><br />Marcello Mastroianni, <i>Dark Eyes</i></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Jack Nicholson, <i>Ironweed</i><br /></span></i>Robin Williams, <i>Good Morning, Vietnam</i></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><b><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TF5mGo-_ikI/AAAAAAAAAi4/7TpW7h7zj2M/s1600/draft_lens2027876module90733881photo_1268973167richard-e-grant-withnail..jpeg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 137px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TF5mGo-_ikI/AAAAAAAAAi4/7TpW7h7zj2M/s200/draft_lens2027876module90733881photo_1268973167richard-e-grant-withnail..jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5502948058960202306" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; "><b>I say...</b></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Timothy Dalton, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The Living Daylights</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />Richard E. Grant, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Withnail and I</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br />Joe Mantegna, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">House of Games</span></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Donal McCann, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The Dead<br /></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Terry O'Quinn, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">The Stepfather</span></i><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Honourable mentions:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">John Candy (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Planes, Trains and Automobiles</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">), William Hurt (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Broadcast News</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">), Peter Weller (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Robocop</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">), Christian Bale (<i>Empire of the Sun</i>), Gary Oldman (<i>Prick Up Your Ears</i>), Dennis Quaid (<i>The Big Easy</i>).</span></div></b></div><b></b></span></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-74979838112707902062010-08-08T08:41:00.001+01:002010-08-08T08:45:19.378+01:00When I went up...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TF5gCpoTZMI/AAAAAAAAAio/np3FHGqj7zw/s1600/BT_tower_in_central_london.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TF5gCpoTZMI/AAAAAAAAAio/np3FHGqj7zw/s400/BT_tower_in_central_london.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5502941393344226498" /></a>..<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/authorinterviews/7916553/Interview-with-Tom-McCarthy.html">this</a>.tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-23254197241664627632010-06-19T12:43:00.019+01:002010-06-19T14:32:11.781+01:00Robey's Oscar Rewrites: (3)<span class="Apple-style-span"><br />With apologies for the lengthy break in service.<br /><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span">BEST ACTRESS, 1994</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span">They said...</span></b><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TBy4alxtPPI/AAAAAAAAAiY/WkjMumd3qxU/s200/bluesky.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 288px; height: 200px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484461213187128562" /><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /></span></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;"><br /><br />Jodie Foster, <i>Nell</i><br />*Jessica Lange, <i>Blue Sky</i><br />Miranda Richardson, <i>Tom & Viv</i><br />Winona Ryder, <i>Little Women</i><br />Susan Sarandon, <i>The Client</i></span><br /><br />(Not quite as useless a line-up as people often claim, though it could have been so much stronger if it weren't for eligibility snafus and general myopia...)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span">I say...</span></b><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/TBy4a4hVDKI/AAAAAAAAAig/lSetadukbsE/s200/Weaver_Maiden.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 192px; height: 288px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484461218218708130" /><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /><br /><br /></span><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">Toni Collette, <i>Muriel's Wedding</i><br />Linda Fiorentino, <i>The Last Seduction</i><br />Juliette Lewis, <i>Natural Born Killers</i><br />Julianne Moore, <i>Vanya on 42nd Street</i><br />Sigourney Weaver, <i>Death and the Maiden</i><br /><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><b>Sharing the sixth spot:</b></div><div><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000099;">Melanie Lynskey, <i>Heavenly Creatures</i><br />Kate Winslet, <i>Heavenly Creatures</i></span><br /></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Honourable mentions:</b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></div><div><b></b><span class="Apple-style-span">Irène Jacob (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span">Three Colours Red</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span">), </span><span class="Apple-style-span">Isabelle Adjani (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span">La Reine Margot</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span">), Lauren Velez (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span">I Like It Like That</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span">), Alberta Watson (</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span">Spanking the Monkey</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span">). Who says this was a bad year for actressing? Not me!</span></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-17998903639824597752010-05-09T19:41:00.007+01:002010-05-09T19:56:26.999+01:00This week's reviews<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S-cDCftdT5I/AAAAAAAAAhw/nc1aUYMxR60/s1600/Jennifer%2BLopez%2BFilming%2BBackup%2BPlan%2BNew%2BYork%2BorfoS7EmMbtl.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S-cDCftdT5I/AAAAAAAAAhw/nc1aUYMxR60/s400/Jennifer%2BLopez%2BFilming%2BBackup%2BPlan%2BNew%2BYork%2BorfoS7EmMbtl.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469343613871542162" /></a><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Back-Up Plan (12A cert, 104 min) ★</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A Nightmare on Elm St (18 cert, 95 min) ★</span></span></div><div><span><span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"></span></span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Here’s the way Hollywood careers work. Jennifer Lopez needs a comeback. She’s looking terrific – no problems there. She’s 41, just past what studios normally consider the romcom best-before date, but Sandra Bullock has earned an extension on that, so why can’t she? After all, she’s put Ben Affleck and </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Gigli</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> behind her – so very 2003. Still, we don’t want to risk a failure that conspicuous, anything risky like a thriller, or anything with an actual plot. Something safe, then. Old tricks.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">New spin? A baby, perhaps. She’s had one? Passé. She wants one. How about artificial insemination, so she’s pregnant before even meeting the man of her dreams? A premise! It’s new-ish, without being off-puttingly new. It’ll fit into an acceptable zone of mind-numbing, women’s-weekly-editorial, pseudo-zeitgeisty tedium. It’ll do.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Thus </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The Back-Up Plan</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> was surely conceived, and it absolutely puts your back up. J.Lo’s new-found beau (Alex O’Loughlin) runs a goat farm and peddles cheese at a market stall. Of course he does. I won’t knock his shirtless tractor driving, but he exudes all the charisma of a boiled slug. Before their first dinner date, we get the inevitable comedy with home pregnancy tests. Her dog swallows one, then throws it up. During the date, he (that’s the beau, not the dog) lays on candlelit pizza for two in one of Manhattan’s obliging walled gardens, leans over for a kiss, and knocks over what must be the world’s only flammable bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape. A disaster, all round.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">There’s further scintillating dialogue to come (“I’m your cheese muse”) and a grotesque parody of a single mothers’ support group, culminating in an entirely undelightful sequence with another mum’s polluted birthing pool, into which J.Lo obviously trips. The tick-tock of the biological clock might be a real enough subject, but actual parturition is the grossest thing this movie can imagine, except when Lopez herself gets round to it. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">There was always a high likelihood the remake of </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">A Nightmare on Elm Street</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> wouldn’t work out. Freddy Krueger’s dream-murder tactics stop being scary the second they’re too familiar, and Samuel Bayer’s film is nothing if not that, rehashing plenty of sequences from Wes Craven’s 1984 original: Freddy’s finger-blades emerge from bathwater, his upper body bulges in the wallpaper above someone’s bed, and he slaughters the same sleep-deprived teens in pretty much the same order. Would novelty have cost them anything?</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Jackie Earle Haley, inheriting the role, isn’t to blame, but he’s more stymied by the burn-victim cosmetics than Robert Englund was, and his half-baked performance feels mangled in the edit – it’s not imposing enough. This version is ghoulishly overt about Freddy being a lynched paedophile; where the murkiness of his back-story made him almost a fairytale figure in Craven’s script, here everything has to be depressingly literalised.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">I’m not claiming Craven’s film was exactly a tour de force in the acting department, but at least Freddy’s victims had a modicum of personality, so that we cared on some level whether they lived or died. Bayer’s movie, which is garishly incompetent in basic areas like sound synching, assumes bad CGI is enough in itself to suggest slippage between nightmares and reality. There’s maybe some sense of how agonising it might be to stay awake for days on end, but the movie is so sluggish and feebly imagined you could soundly snooze through it and not miss a thing. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Furry Vengeance (PG cert, 91 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">★</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Brendan Fraser, whose labours in the arena of family entertainment get more and more masochistic, stars as a land developer thrust into a turf war with imperilled forest critters. The whole movie feels extrapolated from the five-second clip of a scheming chipmunk on YouTube, bulked out with many, many shots of Fraser being thwacked with some generic foley crunch noise and falling backwards with his feet in the air. A diabolical raccoon masterminds the attack of the allegedly cute fauna, but they’re off-puttingly creepy and computer-generated, and ever-trashier director Roger Kumble (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Cruel Intentions</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">) severely overestimates both the comedy and eco-preaching value of being repeatedly skunk-sprayed. In fairness, there might be some silly fun for the kids here, and Ken Jeong has snappy timing in the role of Fraser’s Blackberry-pecking boss, whose lip-service to green principles never lasts more than a microsecond. But it’s needlessly lame and cardboard stuff. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D+</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Sus (15 cert, 91 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">★</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">A cannily-timed release for Barrie Keeffe’s absorbing three-hander, set on election night 1979, and set almost wholly in a police interrogation room where a black Brit called Delroy (underrated Clint Dyer) is hauled up on suspicion of killing his wife. Dyer’s transition from cocky boredom to tear-streaked fury is powerfully handled, and Ralph Brown brings a credible menace to his covertly bigoted cop. Though it’s hard to see what Rafe Spall’s dawdling, lightweight deputy brings to the party, Keeffe’s play packs a solidly indignant punch on screen. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">A Room and a Half (12A cert, 130 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">★</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Flights of melancholic reverie and animated fancy pervade this imagined life of the exiled Russian poet Joseph Brodsky – at times self-conscious in its sepia-tinted nostalgia, at others glowing and magical. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Psych:9 (15 cert, 97 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">★</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Hysteria and hysterectomies in a deserted hospital. You mainly fear for the mental health of the screenwriter. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">F</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">One Night in Turin (15 cert, 97 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">★</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Naggingly unnecessary doc about the Italia 90 World Cup. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">ENDS</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNoSpacing"><o:p> </o:p></p></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-64130187558608918282010-04-26T08:23:00.007+01:002010-05-09T19:49:20.252+01:00Last week's reviews and capsules<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S9VGkjMYykI/AAAAAAAAAho/jasfuepjXbo/s1600/00022268.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 227px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S9VGkjMYykI/AAAAAAAAAho/jasfuepjXbo/s400/00022268.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464351316620397122" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The Joneses (15 cert, 98 min) ★★★</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Centurion (15 cert, 97 min) ★★</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Agora (12A cert, 126 min) ★★</span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Any film which casts Demi Moore as capitalism incarnate, which </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The Joneses</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> does, gets points for figuring out at least one way to use her. Uneasy though we may feel playing spot the surgery, it almost fits her role as a one-woman advertising campaign: she hardly needs act to make it the best thing she’s done since </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Disclosure</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> (1994).</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The film starts out pert and amusing, like a dark sitcom. Moore and the nimble David Duchovny are all health and wealth as they move into an upscale neighbourhood with their two teenage kids (Amber Heard and Ben Hollingsworth, both much too old for these roles, but no matter). </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">It’s quickly clear none of the Joneses are actually related. They’re paid agents in a stealth marketing scheme, their mission to turn heads, show off clothes, cars, gadgets to the admiring golf and pedicure set. Duchovny’s Steve is the rookie in the operation – he needs to boost his sales. Moore’s Kate, who won’t even let him sleep in the same bed, might reconsider if those numbers go up.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Writer-director Derrick Borte’s conceit is a fun one to be in on, but basically too synthetic to have the satirical bite it wants – it’s more a playful fantasy of consumerist whim than an edgy exposé. You know where it has to go – down some Damascene route of realising this whole scam, and consumption in general, is bad for the soul. It’s just a matter of time before everyone starts slapping their wrists, if not slitting them, but the spree is entertaining while it lasts. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C+</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">There’s much grunting in </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Centurion</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">, slicing of major arteries and clambering around on mossy Scottish hillsides. There’s also the kind of dialogue you only wish members of Rome’s ill-fated Ninth Legion had plausibly uttered. “This is Hadrian’s big f***ing plan? A </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">wall</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">?”. Quick memos scribbled on stone would have Latin teachers shaking their heads in horror. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">More to the point, the whole thing’s a crudely reductive excuse to pit Romans against Picts and go splatter-mad, without building much in the way of suspense or anything in the way of character. A faintly disappointing Michael Fassbender and fellow survivors of the decimated Ninth team up to rescue their general (Dominic West, on good burly form), but it all goes horribly wrong, and they find themselves preyed upon by woad-smeared savages. Etain (Olga Kurylenko), who is meant to be the scariest huntress in all Caledonia, is more scowly irritant than fearsome villainness. It’s not a disaster, but it’s cheesy and generic stuff from Neil Marshall – too much guilt and not enough pleasure. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">You can’t fault </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Agora</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">, a saga of ancient Alexandria, astronomy and religious strife, for gumption or ambition – just plain common sense. It’s of some egghead interest, but who on earth paid for it? Rachel Weisz, fetching in Egyptian shawls, stars as the philosopher Hypatia, who appears to have cracked gravity but not yet how the planets and sun interrelate. The director, Alejandro Amenábar, has a crashing great beef with Christian fundamentalism and the threat to scientific learning – everyone grabs what scrolls they can before the library’s ransacked. Meanwhile, the ridiculously handsome Max Minghella moons around as a lovestruck slave, vying with snooty-pants student Oscar Isaac for Hypatia’s affections. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Some clunky captions lurch us forward an hour in, and it’s still not clear what Amenábar thinks he’s doing – there are a few piercing images amid a lot of patience-taxing marketplace dust-ups, and some of the worst barnets in Christendom. Visibly recut, the movie has too little time to do itself intelligent justice – I wish it had been a miniseries. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">La danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (PG cert, 159 min) ★★★★★</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">A long but enrapturing documentary from the great Frederick Wiseman, this majestic film follows seven ballets from rehearsal through to performance, but there’s as much focus on sequins as pliés, catering as choreography. All is captured in this director’s famously quiet and unobtrusive style, achieving a measured tempo and feel for the subject which will beguile dance fans young and old. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">A</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Extract (15 cert, 92 min) ★★</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Mike (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Beavis & Butthead</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">) Judge struggles to make the grade with this ambling, half-hearted comedy about small business. Jason Bateman’s nicely beleaguered charm gets it off the ground, but Judge wastes the gifted Kristen Wiig as his bored wife, and Mila Kunis’s conniving con girl never earns her screen time. Fairly amiable, but that’s it. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">It’s a Wonderful Afterlife (12A cert, 100 min) ★</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Gurinder Chadha serves up a trainwreck romcom about unwed Roopi (Goldy Notay, deserving better) whose mum goes to murderous lengths to find her a suitor.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The paste-grey apparitions of dead parents seem to be gunning for Ealing-esque dark laughs that never materialise, and a demented riff on the climax of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Carrie</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> hardly scoops us out of the doldrums. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">F</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Cherrybomb (15 cert, 86 min) ★★</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Rupert Grint doesn’t disgrace himself as a horny Irish teen – colour me surprised – and his co-stars are wayward but promising. So it’s a pity this reasonably polished slice of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Skins</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">-style youthsploitation makes such a deeply fake and undangerous lurch into pills-and-vandalism melodrama. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The Calling (15 cert, 105 min) ★</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Rum as a barrel of Sailor Jerry’s, Jan Dunn’s comedy-drama about Benedictine nuns in Ramsgate has Brenda Blethyn trying her best, Susannah York making half-deranged Sapphic overtures, and Rita Tushingham digging up mutant carrots. It ought to be set in Barking. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D</span></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></span></b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate;"><b><br /></b></span></span></p>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-26312528524203001192010-04-18T10:38:00.007+01:002010-04-26T08:46:07.124+01:00This week's capsules, uncut<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S8rUZjAhjAI/AAAAAAAAAhg/aztm7HCxReQ/s1600/dear-john-photo-2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S8rUZjAhjAI/AAAAAAAAAhg/aztm7HCxReQ/s400/dear-john-photo-2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461411033499405314" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:18px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Dear John (12A cert, 102 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Existing in a world where sunsets go on for charmed weeks at a time, farewells are uniformly moist, and bouts of terminal cancer are more dramatically convenient than they are sad, </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Dear John</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, it hardly needs saying, is the latest epistolary romance from the pen of Nicholas Sparks (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Notebook</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Message in a Bottle</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">). All that’s missing from that title is the word “oh”. Channing Tatum stars as a soldier on leave, comporting himself in typical Tatum-ic fashion as if it were a physical burden to be swimming in so much testosterone. He meets Amanda Seyfried on a beach, and impresses her with his ability to create fire. “Very primal.” He’s also good at carpentry. She, an idealist, plans to open an equestrian summer camp for autistic kids. 9/11 intervenes, and he’s called to Afghanistan. Anguish looms, but all Lasse Hallström’s gauzy montages are powerless to coax a believable adult relationship out of this pair, so it’s hard to worry. Instead, they do that thing where you close one eye and cover the moon with your thumb, acting as if it were a thrilling discovery for our race. Are they six? <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D</span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Repo Men (18 cert, 111 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Nothing to do with Alex Cox’s 1984 cult comedy </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Repo Man</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> – more’s the pity – this ghoulish and wildly illogical sci-fi thriller is all about a mega-corporatised dystopian near-future in which artificial organs are mortgaged out to the needy. Fail to make the repayments, and Jude Law and Forest Whitaker will come round to collect with a scalpel. The slicing and dicing is unsparingly full-on to the point where hardened critics were hiding behind their hands, and the ending is a daylight steal from Terry Gilliam’s </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Brazil</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. But it’s the gruellingly slow pace which really does this in. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">City of Life and Death (15 cert, 135 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Very possibly the war film of the year, Lu Chuan’s excellent picture about the Rape of Nanking has a lacerating widescreen immediacy, but also a true artist’s gravity and tact. It’s meticulously assembled and quite devastating, with a particularly impressive first hour. Surveying the mass slaughter of Chinese POWs in silvery monochrome, the director gives these horrors the ghostly, ineradicable weight of historical fact, and achieves humane switches of perspective on both sides which put </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Saving Private Ryan</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> to shame. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B+</span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Boogie Woogie (15 cert, 90 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We learn that the London art world is dog-eat-dog – don’t stop the presses – in a tonal catastrophe which keeps kissing the air and calling it satire. Danny Huston’s Jay Jopling impression consists mainly of affected guffaws every few seconds, and Gillian Anderson has never been anywhere near this lousy. Think </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Pret-à-Porter</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, brace yourself, then make it even worse. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande', serif;color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate;"><b>F</b></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Market (15 cert, 94 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The always-interesting Brit experimenter Ben Hopkins (</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">) began work on this Turkish co-production after </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">37 Uses for a Dead Sheep</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">, his doc on a migrating tribe called the Pamir Kirghiz. His dolorous parable about a black-market trader (Tayanç Ayaydin) is an astute take on capitalism and its binds, though it might have worked better as a pithy short. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Crying with Laughter (18 cert, 103 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A smashing turn from Stephen McCole as a troubled stand-up comedian elevates Justin Molonikov’s dark Scottish thriller – but the plot takes a wrong turn at the halfway point and never quite recovers. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Heavy (18 cert, 94 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Watching reluctant hit man Gary Stretch try, for no very obvious reason, to drown a cat affords the biggest laugh in this massively stupid London gangster movie, otherwise only recommended to those who urgently need to see Lee from Blue’s fingers being chiselled off. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D</span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The Manchurian Candidate (1962) (15 cert, 121 min) </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">★ </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">John Frankenheimer’s original, delirious, brilliantly acerbic Cold War thriller. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 153, 0); font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">A</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></span></span></p></span>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-40124907680869377872010-04-03T18:08:00.005+01:002010-04-14T14:15:36.370+01:00Viewing log: 2/4/10<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S7d4Vdjo90I/AAAAAAAAAhQ/F5U74XyIDUo/s1600/0609samson_new.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S7d4Vdjo90I/AAAAAAAAAhQ/F5U74XyIDUo/s400/0609samson_new.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455961783689344834" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">New Releases</span></b><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800320/">Clash of the Titans</a> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D+</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">A batty shambles, and ugly to boot, but you could snigger throughout at the costumes alone</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1386926/">Double Take</a> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">An intellectual game, addictive to play, but let's not pretend its kooky thesis really adds up</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0892769/">How to Train Your Dragon</a> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B+</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Everything I said <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/7544283/How-to-Train-Your-Dragon-review.html">here</a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1250777/">Kick-Ass</a> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Disguises a cynical core under cute flash and cartoon brutality -- and disguises it badly</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1403981/">Remember Me</a> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Pretty effortful, full of glum stick-people, and the Big Twist stinks up the joint</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340123/">Samson and Delilah</a> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#009900;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Faintly disappointing in its overdone "lyricism", but plainly heartfelt and certainly touching</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S7d4lhBxA_I/AAAAAAAAAhY/1OWpzgllRN4/s1600/passe1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 238px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S7d4lhBxA_I/AAAAAAAAAhY/1OWpzgllRN4/s400/passe1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455962059498914802" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Other Adventures</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079701/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Passe ton bac d'abord</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">(1979) </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B+</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Great faces, great specificity, and terrifically supple in the ways it circles and observes</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1490602/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Children of God</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">(LLGFF) </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D+</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'lucida grande'; ">Dramatises both Bahamian homophobia and gay self-doubt with sledgehammer crudity</span></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-73778209467043075572010-03-30T17:53:00.010+01:002010-04-04T09:34:36.683+01:00Viewing log: 26/3/10<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S7I0WZPPDiI/AAAAAAAAAhI/27u_E7snNl4/s1600/Sylvie_Testud_Lourdes---13.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 228px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S7I0WZPPDiI/AAAAAAAAAhI/27u_E7snNl4/s400/Sylvie_Testud_Lourdes---13.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454479658035645986" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">New Releases</span></b><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0878804/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The Blind Side</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">We've seen worse, let's face it, but it's hard not to feel unduly hugged and patronised</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1297923/">In the Land of the Free</a> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">I question the manipulative score and odd omissions; still, potent and commendable</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1022606/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Lion's Den</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B+</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Trapero's direction is characteristically great on detail, texture and rock-solid humanism</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1405809/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Lourdes </span></a></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Often dazzling, and great around the edges; does seem evasive about its own point at times</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446750/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Nightwatching </span></a></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Exposition Hell: one-time alchemist Greenaway transmutes lead into more lead</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1003034/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Perrier's Bounty</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D+</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">An inspiration vacuum, with little going for it except the reliable Gleeson</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0768239/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Storm </span></a></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Impressive leads in a welcome feminist take on reconciliation politics, but thrill it does not</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">(still haven't seen: </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">No One Knows About Persian Cats, Shank, Nanny McPhee</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">)</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S7IzM724tAI/AAAAAAAAAhA/OiNMlHAJz5I/s1600/una-scena-del-film-raging-sun-raging-sky-103868.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 276px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S7IzM724tAI/AAAAAAAAAhA/OiNMlHAJz5I/s400/una-scena-del-film-raging-sun-raging-sky-103868.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454478396018439170" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Other Epic Adventures</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800308/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Appaloosa</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Bumbles along, shackled to a terminally musty conception of male camaraderie</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">on flight to...</span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">...34th Hong Kong Film Festival and Filmart</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1447800/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Crossing Hennessy</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D+</span></span></span></b></span></i></div></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Helped with my city geography, but not with my ongoing bafflement at opening-night selections</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#009900;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1457599/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Bloody Shake</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">zzz </span></span></span></b></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">(jetlag)</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1241330/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Road Train</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D </span></span></span></b></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">(</span><a href="http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1530367744/nm2366079"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">but!</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">) </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Nothing makes any real sense, but it just about kept me awake</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1602500/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Fire of Conscience</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B+ </span></span></span></b></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">(</span><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/7512644/Fire-of-Conscience-at-the-Hong-Kong-Film-Festival-review.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">review</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">)</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">on flight back...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1329454/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Vengeance</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Same old sentimental score-settling; the line between this and <i>Taken</i> is thinner than To's fans admit</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><b><br /></b></span></span></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">and on the same day(!)...</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">...24th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1424797/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">I Killed My Mother</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B+</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">I expected precocious and up itself, which it is - but too damn confident not to impress</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1169834/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Mississippi Damned</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Admirably tough, forceful and well-acted, until the pile-up of misery just gets too much</span></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></i></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023891/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Christopher Strong</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">(1933) </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Flippant fun when it's being flippant fun, though it's technically dodgy and hard to take seriously</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">(36 hours' sleep)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1149604/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Raging Sun, Raging Sky</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B+</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Gay love explicated through a dreamscape of danger and myth; a gorgeous homo-odyssey</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><br /></i></span></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-40108755325686279132010-03-30T17:39:00.008+01:002010-04-04T09:28:54.596+01:00Viewing log: 19/3/10<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S7Iq-oCWNEI/AAAAAAAAAg4/NNM83kxQDTk/s1600/house-of-the-devil-2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 271px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S7Iq-oCWNEI/AAAAAAAAAg4/NNM83kxQDTk/s400/house-of-the-devil-2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5454469354086609986" /></a><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">New Releases (youch, what a week this was)</span></b><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1038919/">The Bounty Hunter</a></i> </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">C</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Should have loathed this, but Aniston lifts surprising swathes of it to near-watchability</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1324053/">Happy Ever Afters</a> </i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">D</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Two depressing weddings for the price of one, and they've really skimped on the photography</span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172994/">The House of the Devil</a> </i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">B+</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The <i>Far From Heaven </i>of retro slasher homages: precise and shivery, even if it's all build-up</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1045772/">I Love You Phillip Morris</a> </i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">C+</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Never establishes a workable tone, but it's surprisingly full-on with the guy on guy stuff</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0976238/">Old Dogs</a> </i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">F</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">I could emit distressed animal noises but don't know how to spell them</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1050002/">My Last Five Girlfriends</a> </i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">C</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Not unpromising, but it juggles too many conceits and drops them one by one</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1297298/">Salvage</a> </i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">W/O</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Couldn't discern any degree of formal flair, just lots of syrupy orange blood</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1022885/">The Scouting Book for Boys</a> </i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">C</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Starts well, looks great, but too much is hard to buy, and the acting wobbles</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1391122/">Sons of Cuba</a> </i></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Initially like every other kiddie-contest documentary, then gains muscle as it proceeds</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';color:#009900;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><b>Other Adventures</b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099528/">The Exorcist III</a>* </i>(1990) </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">B</span></span></span></b></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The shape's a bit random, but I love its thoughtfulness; moving and eerie by turns</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029811/">Young and Innocent</a> </i>(1937) </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">B</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Middling Hitch for the period, dawdling a bit towards its one great set piece</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15193298.post-60160149036137338032010-03-11T13:12:00.008+00:002010-04-04T09:29:19.604+01:00Viewing log: 12/3/10<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S5juksG0IEI/AAAAAAAAAgw/W3ow_bdE7xY/s1600-h/Green-Zone-Photo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 181px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ScX3v-08ZUU/S5juksG0IEI/AAAAAAAAAgw/W3ow_bdE7xY/s400/Green-Zone-Photo.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447366063387058242" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">New Releases</span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132620/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></b></span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Disappointingly stodgy at best, and leaves a rather acrid taste in the mouth</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947810/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Green Zone</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C+</span></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Obviously compromised, pulled off watchably within its limits: still, a shame</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1028532/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Hachi: A Dog's Tale</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">C</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">–</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></span></i></span></i></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">What's with Gere and the Japanese remakes? Sits, lies down, begs for your love</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172063/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">The Kreutzer Sonata</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"><b>B</b></span></span></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">An astute incision into pathological jealousy, matchmaking Rose's passions</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1130884/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Shutter Island</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">D+</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></i></span></i></span></i></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Clanks its way through an ill-conceived plot with futile look-at-me craft</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Other Adventures</span></b></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><br /></span></b></div><div><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1181791/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Black Death</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: normal; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#009900;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">B</span></span></span></b></span></i></span></span></b></span></i></span></i></span></i></span></i></div></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';">Almost <i>too </i>grim, but I'm all for serious British horror and admire its integrity</span></div>tim rhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893294970751318226noreply@blogger.com0