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” »
MOVIE REVIEW
My Big Break (2008)
Bryn Mawr College
A young man moved into a house share in the Los Angeles suburbs in the 1990s and — to demonstrate his filmmaking skills with a camcorder, no script and no money — began documenting his housemates. They were also young men, all jobbing actors newly arrived in Hollywood looking for their big break. Two of them, Brad Rowe and Chad Lindberg, got steady and noticed work in films and television, and the third, Greg Fawcett, had an unshakable belief that his turn was right around the corner. The fourth was Wes Bentley.
Director Tony Zierra then turned this prototype reality-show footage into a film called “Carving Out Our Name,” which was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2001 before being sunk by lawsuits and studio fear, among other things. This movie actually opens with Mr. Zierra smashing up the master reels of that first movie before urinating on them.
Continue reading “Hollywood Screen Kiss-Off” »
MOVIE REVIEW
I Need That Record! (2008)
Brendan Toller/Unsatisfied Films
Independent record stores — as with most independent retailers — are dying out. Small chains simply can’t compete with big-box or Internet retailers on price or the “long tail” — the ability to stock small amounts of the majority of items, which sell only very small numbers. But what they lack in mainstream success, the smaller shops make up for with a synesthetic shopping experience that simply can’t be replicated elsewhere. Some call this heart, others authenticity, still others community spirit.
Director Brendan Toller taps into the longing for this experience in “I Need That Record!” via the owners of Record Express and Trash American Style, two shops near his hometown in Connecticut. Record Express’s closing was the impetus for the film, in which Mr. Toller went on a road trip to other small record stores in Illinois, Ohio and Massachusetts to discuss how the music industry and retail markets have changed, and what small store owners are doing about it.
Continue reading “Die Fidelity” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)
Laura Macgruder/Overture Films
Welsh author and documentarian Jon Ronson’s 2004 book “The Men Who Stare at Goats” examined the U.S. Army’s investigation of the psychological and paranormal and their potential uses in modern warfare. Utilizing this fascinating study of top-secret military research as source material, director Grant Heslov delivers an entertaining picture, albeit one which slightly trivializes the underlying seriousness of its content.
Continue reading “Paranormal Activists” »
MOVIE REVIEW
(Untitled) (2009)
Parker Film Company/Samuel Goldwyn Films
What is art? Can a thumbtack on an otherwise blank wall be a picture? Can someone kicking a bucket filled with chains be music? Most of us with great reason would say no. It takes more inherent talent to make art. Listen to “Trout Mask Replica” by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band — 58th on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums, published in 2003. You may think there’s lots of improvising going on, but these songs were notated and practiced in order to be played the exact same way every time. Crazy, huh? Go to any modern art gallery, and you will more often than not see an entire display of large white canvases with one red dot or some variation thereof. It can’t be art if every single painting looks the same, right? Now, listen to Chuck Berry’s “School Days” and “No Particular Place to Go.” Pretty similar, yes? And have you seen Monet’s haystack series — different times of the day and year, but the same ol’ haystack?
Continue reading “Siblings Rival in Tortured Artistry” »
MOVIE REVIEW
44 Inch Chest (2010)
The Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival
“Sexy Beast” scribes Louis Mellis and David Scinto team up once again with acting talents Ray Winstone and Ian McShane for a well-observed study of the male ego. Those hoping for a sequel of sorts will find themselves in aurally familiar territory, but this is a very different beast and it’s anything but sexy.
Continue reading “Decline Gets Better With Rage” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
Warner Bros. Pictures
Spike Jonze has spent years putting together this ambitious adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s “Where the Wild Things Are,” one of the iconic staples of 20th-century children’s literature. In so doing, he and co-writer Dave Eggers have had to find a way to transform a 337-word story into a full-length feature, padding out the themes of loneliness and mischievousness that characterized Mr. Sendak’s exploration of the child psyche.
Continue reading “Bless the Beasts and Children” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Liam Daniel/Sony Pictures Classics
Any picture associated with directorial visionary Terry Gilliam is always going to rouse the public’s attention, yet the tragic death of Heath Ledger midway through filming has ensured that the name “Doctor Parnassus” has been on everyone’s radar for more than 18 months. Much has been made of Mr. Gilliam’s fervent determination to finish the film and particularly the ingenious casting of Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell to fill Ledger’s void. Mr. Gilliam executes it with gusto, and — as should be expected from such an auteur — transports the audience into a visually fantastical world tinged with a didactic message about the importance and power of the imagination.
Continue reading “Double Dare the Devil” »