MOVIE REVIEW
Don’t Worry About Me (2009)
The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival
David Morrissey makes his directorial debut with an adaptation of stage play “The Pool,” effectively a double-hander exploring a developing relationship between Londoner David (James Brough) and Liverpudlian lass Tina (Helen Elizabeth) over the course of a single day in the city.
Venturing north to Liverpool on the pretext of returning a misplaced presentation to his one-night stand, David gets short shrift from his conquest’s boyfriend and ventures off into the night to drown his sorrows. Waking up in the street sans wallet, David attempts to win his fare home at the bookies but instead catches the eye of pretty assistant Tina who gives him a tip on the dogs. Buoyed by his good fortune, they go for coffee, and on a whim David persuades Tina to throw a sickie so they can spend the day together. As Tina gives David a guided tour of her hometown, they tentatively get to know each other, sharing a moment in time away from their real lives.
Continue reading “There Beneath the Blue Suburban Skies” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Amelia (2009)
Ken Woroner/Fox Searchlight Pictures
In the age of convention-defying biopics — films such as “I’m Not There” that reflect the lives of their subjects in content and form — it’s strange to encounter “Amelia.” There could not be a motion picture more diametrically opposed to that aesthetic, more resolutely classical Hollywood in its making. Taking the snapshot approach to a fraction of aviator Amelia Earhart’s (Hilary Swank) life — running through the highlights in rough chronological order — it borrows such old-fashioned conceits as the use of newsreels and headlines to propel things forward and mannered, overly-calculated impressions posing as performances.
Continue reading “Role Model of the Runway” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Ong Bak 2/Ong-Bak: The Beginning (2008)
Magnet Releasing
In “Ong Bak 2,” Thai martial artist Tony Jaa flips above, kicks, punches and places choke holds on his many opponents, all when he’s not leaping across and taming a herd of elephants. Mr. Jaa, the star and co-director (with Panna Rittikrai), sends the camera on frenzied fits of pans, zooms and swoops, with shock cuts taken from all sorts of angles. Frequently, the film stock is sped up or slowed down, while the actors enthusiastically enter the heightened world of extreme battles and betrayals.
Continue reading “The Thai That Spellbinds” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Adrift (2009)
The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival
Vietnamese director Bui Thac Chuyên’s second feature “Adrift” is an introspective and thoughtful study of loneliness, sexual desire and experimentation. Mismatched relationships lie at the heart of the picture, which centers around newlywed Duyen (an understated Do Thi Hai Yen) and her dalliances with her young disinterested husband Hai (Nguyen Duy Khoa), solemn friend Cam (Pham Linh Dan) and mysterious alpha male Tho (a rugged Johnny Nguyen).
Continue reading “Missing in Action on the Side” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Yes Men Fix the World (2009)
Shadow Distribution
In 2003’s “The Yes Men,” Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum set up a Web site mimicking and lampooning the World Trade Organization, an international organization they oppose. Their Web site, though, was mistaken for the real thing, and they were invited to speak at important meetings and functions as representatives for W.T.O. They decided to use the opportunity to hold a mirror up and show the outfit its own greed and hopefully make a difference. Now, with “The Yes Men Fix the World,” a sequel of sorts, they have gotten much better at getting people to think they represent companies that they satirize.
Continue reading “Jokesters Practically Approach Political Agenda” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Fox Searchlight Pictures
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” is identifiably based on a short story by Roald Dahl: the anthropomorphized animals, the analysis of the English class system and the marginalization of one gender of characters are all his trademarks. But what makes this movie special is that it is identifiably also a Wes Anderson film: the father doing his best for his family in his own peculiar fashion, the slightly remote mother more interested in her own goals than her children and the lonely son desperately seeking his parents’ approval.
Continue reading “Fox Can’t Keep Out of Hen House” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Micmacs (2009)
Bruno Calvo/Sony Pictures Classics
Bazil (Dany Boon) had the bad luck as a child to lose his father, a bomb disposal expert, in an accident with a land mine. Thirty years later, he has the bad luck to be shot in the head as a bystander to a drive-by shooting. Bazil eventually exits the hospital with nowhere to go and the bullet still in his brain, too dangerous to remove. On the streets of Paris, he soon encounters a fellow beggar, Slammer (Jean-Pierre Marielle), who takes him back to Micmacs, a shelter made entirely from salvaged goods beneath a Parisian underpass. There — with the cheerful assistance of the other homeless outcasts — he decides to orchestrate his revenge. That’s revenge against the C.E.O. of the manufacturer of the landmine (André Dussollier) that killed his father, and of the C.E.O. of the arms-dealing company (Nicolas Marié) that made the bullet in his head.
Continue reading “The City of Mass Destruction” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Balibo (2009)
Balibo Film Pty. Ltd./Footprint Films
Inspired by journalist Jill Jolliffe’s book “Cover Up,” Robert Connolly’s controversial and highly political thriller “Balibo” attempts to uncover the truth behind the brutal deaths of six journalists in East Timor in 1975. It’s highly charged, emotive and powerful, but it’s also exceptionally brave filmmaking because it dares to challenge the long-held official line of events of not one, but two governments (that of Indonesia and Australia).
Continue reading “Without a Trace in East Timor” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Shirley Adams (2009)
Jennifer Wheatley/
The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival
First-time director and scribe Oliver Hermanus delivers an astounding and intimate portrait of a mother’s struggles to care for her quadriplegic son. In Cape Town slum Mitchell’s Plain, Shirley Adams (a remarkable Denise Newman) cares for her young son Donovan (Keenan Arrison), a tragic victim of a gangland shooting which has left him paralyzed from the neck down. Shirley’s husband has abandoned the pair; and Shirley — forced to give up work to care for Donovan — lives in relative poverty, relying on the good nature of neighbor Kariema (Theresa Sedras) to get by.
Continue reading “Wiping Science Out of Fictional District 9” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Shed Your Tears and Walk Away (2009)
The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival
The picturesque market town of Hebden Bridge is nestled in the beautiful rolling Pennine valleys of West Yorkshire. It’s a bohemian place popular with tourists and alternative types, but filmmaker Jez Lewis finds himself returning with increasing frequency for funerals of suicide victims. Seeking answers for this spate of drink- and drug-related deaths, Mr. Lewis tracks down his old friend Cass, hoping he’ll be able to provide an explanation. But the Cass he finds is suffering from alcoholism and liver damage, and has just been given two years to live unless he can kick his booze habit. What unfolds is a raw and honest insight into what can happen when hope seeps out of a community in a brutal and emotional documentary on grief and desperation.
Continue reading “Town Says No, No, No to Rehab” »