MOVIE REVIEW
Katyn (2007)
Koch Lorber Films
The great Polish director Andrzej Wajda has reportedly been waiting his entire life to tell the story of the Soviet massacre of Polish Army officers in the Katyn Forest during WWII. After experiencing “Katyn” – his studious, eloquent rendition of that terrible day and its aftermath – one understands exactly why. The film is not just about the buildup to the mass murder, its obfuscation by those responsible and the outpouring of national grief that followed it.
Continue reading “Polish Master Seeks Truth and Reconciliation” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The International (2009)
Jay Maidment/Columbia Pictures
“The International” aims to be a thriller of the moment, gearing for topical relevance by making its villain a giant, faceless bank striving for world domination. While current events may have validated that notion, it doesn’t make for great suspense fodder despite the best efforts of director Tom Tykwer and screenwriter Eric Warren Singer. Unlike the similarly evil corporations prominently featured in films like “Three Days of the Condor” and “Michael Clayton,” the International Bank of Business and Credit’s corruption comes across in an easily quantifiable form. Its motives lack mystery and its methods prove wholly predictable.
Continue reading “Vicariously Nailing Villainous Bank Execs” »
Magnolia Pictures
James Gray aptly summed up the sideshow atmosphere that’s engulfed “Two Lovers,” his latest film.
Followed into the press roundtable room at Manhattan’s Regency Hotel by Casey Affleck – there filming a documentary about brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix’s sudden inexplicable transition from actor to rapper – the clearly agitated filmmaker turned around and virulently tossed him out.
Continue reading “Where’s Joaldo?” »
MOVIE REVIEW
2009 Oscar-Nominated Shorts
Disney/Pixar
Shorts International continues the annual pre-Oscar tradition by releasing the entire staple of Academy Award nominated shorts in two separate programs, namely live-action and animated. This is a valuable service for two reasons: First, it’s a great way to experience a form of filmmaking typically exclusive to festivals, special screenings and the Internet. Second, it’ll help you get a leg up on your competitors in this year’s Oscar pool. The days of randomly selecting the most awards-worthy sounding title as your pick in both short film categories are now over.
Continue reading “Taking the Short Route to an Oscar Nomination” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Coraline (2009)
LAIKA Entertainment
In “Coraline,” writer-director Henry Selick achieves the impossible. He’s made a PG-rated picture that’s genuinely dark and scary, and he and his team at LAIKA Studios have perfected the art of 3-D animation. Sit through enough middling family-film fare and superfluous extravaganzas put forth in the third dimension, and it becomes hard to be too optimistic about anything that fits into those categories – even a project with the literary pedigree of Neil Gaiman. But Mr. Selick’s film, drenched in an unsettling atmosphere and given the feel of a fairy tale gone perilously wrong greatly expands the potential of both worlds.
Continue reading “As the Other World Turns” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Shadows (2008)
Mitropoulos Films
Critics should generally avoid grandiose pronouncements, particularly this early in the year. But here goes: Milcho Manchevski’s “Shadows” will be the best Macedonian supernatural erotic thriller of 2009. It’s a quality entertainment that stands apart from the recent work of Mr. Manchevski’s countrymen like Ivo Trajkov by being more fully invested in Hollywood genre conventions than anything specific to life in the former Yugoslav republic. In its blending of haunted spirits, naked flesh and operatically shadowed locales it affectionately pays tribute to the work of Roman Polanski and Adrian Lyne.
Continue reading “Life’s But a Walking Shadow” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Two Lovers (2008)
Magnolia Pictures
“Two Lovers” continues James Gray’s love affair with the outer boroughs of New York City. It’s also the first to render that boundless affection with something other than a thriller aesthetic. Here he transforms working class Brighton Beach and the crowded, homely apartment of the Kraditor family into an idealized setting for a poignant, beautifully told romantic chamber piece. Filled with old-world tchotchkes, ancient framed photographs and a tight-knit assortment of other furnishings, the apartment symbolizes the community as a whole and conveys the underpinnings of the love triangle that unfolds.
Continue reading “New York (Love) Stories” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Notorious (2009)
Phil Caruso/Fox Searchlight Pictures
It is fair to question whether the life of Christopher Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls or the Notorious B.I.G., would even be worthy of a motion picture were it not for the East Coast-West Coast blood feud that ended in his death. That’s a blasphemous sentiment to many, and it is certainly not meant to detract from the fact that he achieved success from nowhere or that he was a terrific rapper. It is, rather, an observation inspired by George Tillman Jr.’s intermittently entertaining but thoroughly conventional Biggie biopic, “Notorious.”
Continue reading “B.I.G. in Life, Bigger in Death” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Donkey Punch (2008)
Magnet Releasing
“Donkey Punch” is a nasty little thriller that might have worked had it tempered its propensity for outrageous brutality. Gruesome violence certainly has its places in the movies, but only in a very particular context. Here, the bursts of it come completely out of nowhere, and are rendered in such an over-the-top fashion that one would be forgiven for confusing Olly Blackburn’s suspense tale with Peter Jackson’s “Dead Alive.” It’s an odd, atonal combination that torpedoes the pointless picture.
Continue reading “Packing, Something Besides a Punch” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Ballerina (2006)
First Run Features
“Ballerina” serviceably documents the challenges of life as a member of the ballet company of St. Petersburg’s Mariinski Theatre, perhaps the world’s foremost such institution. Director Bertrand Normand includes a sufficient volume of rehearsal scenes, talking heads testifying to the difficulties of life at the top of the field and clips from performances of many of the greatest works of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev and others. In other words, he does everything he should to fulfill his film’s central mission: giving outsiders a rare glimpse into an exclusive, elite world.
Continue reading “Swimming in Swan Lake” »