MOVIE REVIEW
Circumstance (2011)
Maryam Keshavarz/Roadside Attractions
“Circumstance” embodies everything that is wrong with American indie flicks that masquerade as foreign films. This phenomenon has persisted for at least two decades — the most notable example being the “Father Knows Best” trilogy by the Taiwan-born, New York University-educated Ang Lee. Indeed, the main offenders responsible for these pseudo-foreign films are generally nonwhite American filmmakers who exploit their ethnic heritages for professional gain. Their modus operandi usually involves transplanting a concept that is widely acceptable in the West to a foreign culture where it’s supposedly taboo. And homosexuality seems to be their favorite theme time and again — it’s the topic of Mr. Lee’s “The Wedding Banquet,” Alice Wu’s “Saving Face” and now Maryam Keshavarz’s “Circumstance.”
Continue reading “Iran Into a Stonewall” »
MOVIE REVIEW
One Day (2011)
Giles Keyte/Focus Features
By the time “One Day,” a decades-spanning nonromance, gets around to making one of its main characters seem like an actual human, the film’s just about over. That’s a fundamental problem for filmmaker Lone Scherfig, who follows up her overrated “An Education,” and screenwriter David Nicholls, adapting his novel.
For the first two-thirds of the picture, protagonists Emma (Anne Hathaway) and Dexter (Jim Sturgess) are ciphers at the whim of a gimmicky narrative, which charts the evolution of their close friendship (and repressed romance) beginning on July 15, 1988 before continuing on the same date each successive year.
Continue reading “School of Continuing Education” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Fright Night (2011)
Disney Enterprises
The “Fright Night” remake is scary both in terms of its terror quotient and its completely soulless assembly-line filmmaking. Screenwriter Marti Noxon, best known for her work on the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” TV series, has done a credible job updating Tom Holland’s original 1985 setup. But her screenplay is devoid of expositions, solely depending on moviegoers to fill in the blanks and connect the dots. Even after spending 106 minutes with the protagonist, Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin), you still don’t know enough to care about him. If anything, Mr. Yelchin’s congenial presence seems contradictory to the insensitivity his role calls for.
Continue reading “The Growl Next Door” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Beautiful Lies (2010)
Trinity Film
"Beautiful Lies" immediately reminds you of half a dozen other better movies: Its original French title, "De vrais mensonges," literally translates to "true lies" in English. The film reunites "Venus Beauty Institute" alumni Audrey Tautou and Nathalie Baye on a salon set. We have the plot twist of "Cyrano de Bergerac" mixed with the setup of "The Hairdresser's Husband." And of course, by naming Ms. Tautou's character Émilie, the specter of Amélie Poulain is firmly present throughout.
Continue reading “A Shell Gamine” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Project Nim (2011)
Susan Kuklin/Roadside Attractions
The fascinatingly bizarre life of a chimpanzee delectably named Nim Chimpsky forms the basis of James Marsh's latest documentary feature, "Project Nim." Punningly named after father of linguistics, Noam Chomsky, Nim was so called as he was to be the subject of a pioneering experiment into ape language capabilities.
Continue reading “Tenet of the Apes” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Bellflower (2011)
Joel Hodge/2011 Sundance Film Festival
“Bellflower” is an infantile hipster fantasy about an aimless pyromaniacal gearhead with an outsized sense of entitlement. Woodrow (Evan Glodell, also the writer-director) and Aiden (Tyler Dawson) devote much of their time testing out flamethrowers and fixing up a dream ride. Recalling the trust-fund-baby art majors you know from college, they are free of practical concerns yet posture with an inauthentic air of world-weariness. In fact, the main characters here all carry out the requisites of a boho existence — such as trading a car for a motorcycle on a whim — when none of them appear to have or need a job.
Continue reading “The Toad Warrior” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Devil's Double (2011)
Sofie Van Mieghem/Lionsgate
"House of Saddam," a 2008 BBC-HBO production, was a brilliantly observed insight into the sordid brutality of Saddam Hussein's reign as leader of the Baath party. One of its greatest successes lay in Philip Arditti's masterful portrayal of Saddam's eldest son, the maniacal Uday Hussein, a man whose lustful, violent nature would put most Roman emperors to shame. Lee Tamahori's "The Devil's Double" delves deeper into the mythos of Uday (Dominic Cooper), utilizing the memoirs of Latif Yahia (also played by Mr. Cooper) — Uday's former classmate who was forced to become his fiday (body double) — as source material; and it certainly makes for fascinating viewing.
Continue reading “Certified Copycat” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
Zade Rosenthal/Universal Studios
The prospect of a mashup between western and sci-fi seems inspired, though not terribly original after “Firefly” and “Serenity.” So it’s somewhat mind-boggling that Hollywood has optioned the 2006 graphic novel “Cowboys & Aliens” solely for its catchy title. Indeed, the adaptation evidently bares no resemblance whatsoever to the source material. The movie leaves you wondering why the filmmakers even bothered to attempt both genres, since director Jon Favreau has exhibited utter disinterest in tropes of the western throughout the early expositions.
Continue reading “The Good, the Bad and the Extraterrestrial” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Point Blank (2010)
Magnolia Pictures
Fred Cavayé’s directorial feature debut “Anything for Her” was so primed for Hollywood that our own Alan Diment presciently predicted a remake starring Russell Crowe. But what was reportedly a slick, nail-biting thriller landed in the hands of Paul Haggis and turned into a dud called “The Next Three Days.” Its dismal performance at the box office likely meant that the American audience would never get to see the original, and that Hollywood wouldn’t jump to remake Mr. Cavayé’s next film, “Point Blank.” On the upside, the new film does have American distribution.
Continue reading “French Twist of Fate” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Poetry (2010)
Kino International
Mija (Yun Jung-hee) lives a quiet life in South Korea. She has a small apartment which she shares with her grandson Wook (David Lee), whose mother works in a different city and is connected to them only by phone. Mija is a carer for Mr. Kang (Kim Hi-ra), an elderly man who has had a stroke and is housebound. For the most part she is cheerful and uncomplaining, although her grandson's manners leave a great deal to be desired. Then three things happen: The first of which is that she decides to take a poetry class.
Mija tells her daughter and Mr. Kang — who seems to be her only friend — that she has always felt like a poet, and has decided it's time to find out whether or not she has anything to say. The teacher of the class is male, but the students are mostly women who drink up his advice. The class is the exception in Mija's world, which seems primarily to consist of men telling her what to do and why she should do it. But Mija has her own ideas, and "Poetry" is about her learning to express them before it’s too late.
Continue reading “De die in carpe diem” »