From Patrick Bateman to Tyler Durden, Men’s Rights Activists, incels, and other misogynistic men have a tendency to idolize fictional characters that are meant to be cautionary tales. David Fincher — who brought Durden to the big screen with Fight Club — is as baffled by it as you and me.
Starring Edward Norton as the disaffected Narrator and Brad Pitt as Durden, Fight Club — Fincher’s 1999 adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel of the same name — tackled the same middle class ennui as Office Space, but took its characters’ frustrations to much more violent ends. Steve Rose of The Guardian asked Fincher about the film’s negative impact in a new interview, but Fincher was quick to avoid taking any personal responsibility for the rise of incel culture.
“I’m not responsible for how people interpret things,” Fincher said. “Language evolves. Symbols evolve.” Pressed on the number of male supremacists...
Starring Edward Norton as the disaffected Narrator and Brad Pitt as Durden, Fight Club — Fincher’s 1999 adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s 1996 novel of the same name — tackled the same middle class ennui as Office Space, but took its characters’ frustrations to much more violent ends. Steve Rose of The Guardian asked Fincher about the film’s negative impact in a new interview, but Fincher was quick to avoid taking any personal responsibility for the rise of incel culture.
“I’m not responsible for how people interpret things,” Fincher said. “Language evolves. Symbols evolve.” Pressed on the number of male supremacists...
- 10/31/2023
- by Carys Anderson
- Consequence - Film News
In August 2011, The Guardian ran a two-page spread that wound up christening a brand-new cinematic movement. Written by Steve Rose, “Attenberg, Dogtooth, and the Weird Wave of Greek Cinema” began with two questions: “Are the brilliantly strange films of Yorgos Lanthimos and Athina Rachel Tsangari a product of Greece’s economic turmoil? And will they continue to make films in the troubled country?” Greece, as it turned out, continued to be troubled, the Greeks continued to make films, and the Greek Weird Wave somehow stuck as a catch-all term to denote what Rose then hyperbolically called “the world’s most messed-up cinema.” But the several films that earned the label since have only questioned its meaning and applicability. Messed-up and inexplicably strange the descendants of Attenberg and Dogtooth no doubt remain, but the many different shades of weird they brim can hardly be accounted for by an increasingly empty buzzword.
- 4/29/2023
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Early as it may be to provide a cogent assessment of the 70th Berlinale, the first edition under the new leadership of executive director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian, fresh finds and new ideas seemed to herald much-welcomed changes to the festival's curatorial vision. Sure, the official competition—historically a mix bag often stashed with one too many crowd-pleasers under former Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick—may not have featured “many more truly great and prize-worthy contributions” than in the past, as noted by Andreas Kilb at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. But in his thorough analysis of Chatrian’s first mandate, over at IndieWire Eric Kohn contends that the fest’s official lineup has always had to wrestle with a difficult calendar slot:Hamstrung by its placement after Sundance and before Cannes, [Berlin] must compete with both the most prominent festival in the U.S. and the most revered one in the world.
- 3/9/2020
- MUBI
So many people were wondering just how badly the live-action Aladdin movie was going to do that they were set in semi-cringe mode from the moment that it was announced that Will Smith was going to be playing the role of the genie. Looking at the reviews now however and what Steve Rose from The Guardian has to say it’s easy to agree with the idea that the idea of making a live-action version isn’t the worst idea in the world, especially since it’s more of the same with a judicious upgrade. In other words the movie is something that’s
Reviews for the Live Action “Aladdin” Remake Aren’t Bad at All...
Reviews for the Live Action “Aladdin” Remake Aren’t Bad at All...
- 5/28/2019
- by Tom
- TVovermind.com
Disney’s live-action Aladdin remake finally opens Friday after months of anticipation — and critics for the most part are satisfied.
Reviews for the remake of the 1992 animated classic dropped on Wednesday, with the consensus being that Aladdin is worth your money.
Steve Rose of The Guardian calls the adaption “lively, colorful and genuinely funny” in his rave review.
“It still holds up as a tale whose central couple’s deceptions and entrapments and self-discoveries have a pleasing symmetry to them, and whose ‘it’s what’s inside that counts’ morals are in the right place,” he writes.
Indiewire‘s Kate Erbland...
Reviews for the remake of the 1992 animated classic dropped on Wednesday, with the consensus being that Aladdin is worth your money.
Steve Rose of The Guardian calls the adaption “lively, colorful and genuinely funny” in his rave review.
“It still holds up as a tale whose central couple’s deceptions and entrapments and self-discoveries have a pleasing symmetry to them, and whose ‘it’s what’s inside that counts’ morals are in the right place,” he writes.
Indiewire‘s Kate Erbland...
- 5/22/2019
- by People Staff
- PEOPLE.com
It was panned by the critics but the Freddie Mercury biopic has proven a hit with cinemagoers. Did critics get it wrong?
• The Favourite, Black Panther, Roma and more: read the rest of our best picture Oscar hustings
It took me a while to get round to watching Bohemian Rhapsody. After all, I’d read the reviews. Our own Steve Rose said that the story “skirts dangerously close to Spinal Tap territory” – only without the laughs. Ao Scott in the New York Times wrote that “the film seems engineered to be as unmemorable as possible, with the exception of the prosthetic teeth worn by Rami Malek.” And there was the film’s moralising stance on Freddie Mercury’s sexuality. As Alexis Petridis put it: “It seems to view the fact that he was gay as little short of a tragedy.”
Then the film was unleashed on an unsuspecting public – and became a smash hit.
• The Favourite, Black Panther, Roma and more: read the rest of our best picture Oscar hustings
It took me a while to get round to watching Bohemian Rhapsody. After all, I’d read the reviews. Our own Steve Rose said that the story “skirts dangerously close to Spinal Tap territory” – only without the laughs. Ao Scott in the New York Times wrote that “the film seems engineered to be as unmemorable as possible, with the exception of the prosthetic teeth worn by Rami Malek.” And there was the film’s moralising stance on Freddie Mercury’s sexuality. As Alexis Petridis put it: “It seems to view the fact that he was gay as little short of a tragedy.”
Then the film was unleashed on an unsuspecting public – and became a smash hit.
- 2/21/2019
- by Alex Needham
- The Guardian - Film News
It turns out if anybody can find them somebody to love in the biographical musical film “Bohemian Rhapsody,” it’s star Rami Malek and his portrayal of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. Across the board, critics have praised Malek’s performance as one of the year’s best, while panning some of the film’s otherwise lackluster qualities, like its sanitization of Mercury’s sexuality and failure to live up to iconic band’s electrifying essence. Reviewers also noted the film’s behind-the-scenes tumult, with Malek replacing Sacha Baron Cohen, and Dexter Fletcher taking over as director. Bryan Singer, who was fired midway into the shoot after leaving the production without authorization, still retains the directing credit.
Read what critics have to say below:
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman:
“So with a performance as commanding as Rami Malek’s at its center, why isn’t ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ a better movie? Despite its electrifying subject,...
Read what critics have to say below:
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman:
“So with a performance as commanding as Rami Malek’s at its center, why isn’t ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ a better movie? Despite its electrifying subject,...
- 10/24/2018
- by Rachel Yang
- Variety Film + TV
Fresh from an Oscar nomination for Phantom Thread and with Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here in cinemas, the film composer and Radiohead guitarist discusses his two-pronged career
Jonny Greenwood’s place in the music firmament is well established after three decades as lead guitarist of Radiohead. But he has built a parallel career composing film scores that threatens to eclipse his day job. His recent soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, his fourth collaboration with the film-maker, earned him an Oscar nomination this year, and he provides a another distinctive and eclectic score for Lynne Ramsay’s latest, You Were Never Really Here. Taking time off from his dual career, Greenwood answers readers’ questions about cinema, music, guitars and fighting. Steve Rose
Jessie Jones: Working for film obviously uses a different skill set, even ethos, when producing music as there’s always an image that you’re accompanying.
Jonny Greenwood’s place in the music firmament is well established after three decades as lead guitarist of Radiohead. But he has built a parallel career composing film scores that threatens to eclipse his day job. His recent soundtrack for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, his fourth collaboration with the film-maker, earned him an Oscar nomination this year, and he provides a another distinctive and eclectic score for Lynne Ramsay’s latest, You Were Never Really Here. Taking time off from his dual career, Greenwood answers readers’ questions about cinema, music, guitars and fighting. Steve Rose
Jessie Jones: Working for film obviously uses a different skill set, even ethos, when producing music as there’s always an image that you’re accompanying.
- 3/14/2018
- by Guardian film
- The Guardian - Film News
Ahead of the 2018 Academy Awards, Steve Rose makes a rousing case for the thrilling political drama in which Gary Oldman gives us the full Churchill
In this movie year of seismic change, it is admittedly highly unlikely that the Academy will hand best picture to a film that begins in a roomful of posh, old white guys, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a case to be made for Darkest Hour. And were that case not made (summons inner Churchill, orchestral music swells on the soundtrack), and made with steadfastness and resolve, then this inspirational motion picture would suffer a fate not unlike that of our desperate fighting forces stranded at Dunkirk had Operation Dynamo not been undertaken. And where would we be then? (Shouts of “Hear, hear old chap!”, much waving of bills of parliament in the hands of besuited politicians, string section reaches crescendo).
Darkest Hour...
In this movie year of seismic change, it is admittedly highly unlikely that the Academy will hand best picture to a film that begins in a roomful of posh, old white guys, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a case to be made for Darkest Hour. And were that case not made (summons inner Churchill, orchestral music swells on the soundtrack), and made with steadfastness and resolve, then this inspirational motion picture would suffer a fate not unlike that of our desperate fighting forces stranded at Dunkirk had Operation Dynamo not been undertaken. And where would we be then? (Shouts of “Hear, hear old chap!”, much waving of bills of parliament in the hands of besuited politicians, string section reaches crescendo).
Darkest Hour...
- 2/21/2018
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
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Idris Elba and Luther's impressive cast continue to be its trump card, proving that the series 4 resurrection was well worth it...
This review contains spoilers.
Eighteen months have passed since the BBC aired the last episode of Luther.
That finale was a thrill ride that seemed to tie up many of the series' loose ends and gave a fittingly bittersweet ending for Idris Elba's mercurial detective. There have been rumours of a movie but the series looked done and dusted for a long time. Yet here we are, Christmas 2015, and it's back.
The episode opens with scenes reminiscent of the third season. The premise is simple enough — a woman waits for her husband to come to their new home from work and she hears noises and creaks around the house. The influences from horror cinema are as evident here as they have been in previous series.
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Idris Elba and Luther's impressive cast continue to be its trump card, proving that the series 4 resurrection was well worth it...
This review contains spoilers.
Eighteen months have passed since the BBC aired the last episode of Luther.
That finale was a thrill ride that seemed to tie up many of the series' loose ends and gave a fittingly bittersweet ending for Idris Elba's mercurial detective. There have been rumours of a movie but the series looked done and dusted for a long time. Yet here we are, Christmas 2015, and it's back.
The episode opens with scenes reminiscent of the third season. The premise is simple enough — a woman waits for her husband to come to their new home from work and she hears noises and creaks around the house. The influences from horror cinema are as evident here as they have been in previous series.
- 12/16/2015
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Future Film Festival | Glasgow Film Festival | Deep Desires & Broken Dreams | Edinburgh Mountain Film Festival
Future Film Festival, London
This three-day festival is aimed at nurturing young film-makers, and there's plenty for them to be inspired by. The first day focuses on documentary as a tool for radical politics and social change (as in The Act Of Killing or Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer), and the second, on fiction, brings rebellious teen flick We Are The Freaks. The third day is on animation, with screenings, workshops (on how to make a short doc on your mobile)and professional advice, including wise words from Gravity's visual effects ace, Neil Corbould.
BFI, SE1, Fri to 23 Feb
Glasgow Film Festival
Where to start with this many-tentacled sprawl of a festival? How about Scarlett Johansson cruising Glasgow in a Transit van trying to pick up men? That's on offer in Jonathan Glazer's dark sci-fi Under The Skin,...
Future Film Festival, London
This three-day festival is aimed at nurturing young film-makers, and there's plenty for them to be inspired by. The first day focuses on documentary as a tool for radical politics and social change (as in The Act Of Killing or Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer), and the second, on fiction, brings rebellious teen flick We Are The Freaks. The third day is on animation, with screenings, workshops (on how to make a short doc on your mobile)and professional advice, including wise words from Gravity's visual effects ace, Neil Corbould.
BFI, SE1, Fri to 23 Feb
Glasgow Film Festival
Where to start with this many-tentacled sprawl of a festival? How about Scarlett Johansson cruising Glasgow in a Transit van trying to pick up men? That's on offer in Jonathan Glazer's dark sci-fi Under The Skin,...
- 2/15/2014
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The Wolf Of Wall Street | Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus | Devil's Due | Tim's Vermeer | Oh Boy | The Night Of The Hunter
The Wolf Of Wall Street (18)
(Martin Scorsese, 2013, Us) Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, John Bernthal, Matthew McConaughey. 180 mins
Perhaps Scorsese has more of a right than anyone to make a banking epic in the mould of a crime epic – and sure enough, this is Gordon Gekko, GoodFellas-style: a sprawling, seriocomic, voiceover-tracked rise-and-fall with a morally dubious hero. Excess is the name of the game here, to the point there's actually an excess of excess; endless choreographed tableaux of cash, drugs, cars, naked women, shouting men and celebrity cameos. These regular shots of energy keep the story buzzing, even as they bloat the running time, but Scorsese is aiming for greatness here, and there's no reining him in.
Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus (18)
(Sebastián Silva, 2013, Chi) Michael Cera,...
The Wolf Of Wall Street (18)
(Martin Scorsese, 2013, Us) Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, John Bernthal, Matthew McConaughey. 180 mins
Perhaps Scorsese has more of a right than anyone to make a banking epic in the mould of a crime epic – and sure enough, this is Gordon Gekko, GoodFellas-style: a sprawling, seriocomic, voiceover-tracked rise-and-fall with a morally dubious hero. Excess is the name of the game here, to the point there's actually an excess of excess; endless choreographed tableaux of cash, drugs, cars, naked women, shouting men and celebrity cameos. These regular shots of energy keep the story buzzing, even as they bloat the running time, but Scorsese is aiming for greatness here, and there's no reining him in.
Crystal Fairy & The Magical Cactus (18)
(Sebastián Silva, 2013, Chi) Michael Cera,...
- 1/18/2014
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Filth | Sunshine On Leith | The Perverts Guide To Ideology | For Those In Peril | How I Live Now | The Crash Reel | Thanks For Sharing | Camp 14 | The To Do List | Emperor
Filth (18)
(Jon S Baird, 2013, UK) James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, Eddie Marsan, Imogen Poots. 97 mins
Drugs, sleaze, sex, Scots, Irvine Welsh – is it 1996 again? This is just as energetic as Trainspotting, but less hip and more theatrically grim, wallowing in the debauchery and mania of a copper bent way out of shape. The only subtlety to be found is on the face of McAvoy, whose committed performance holds it all together.
Sunshine On Leith (PG)
(Dexter Fletcher, 2013, UK) George MacKay, Kevin Guthrie. 100 mins
It worked for Abba, so why not the Proclaimers? Basing an Edinburgh love story around their music turns out to be a fine idea.
The Pervert's Guide To Ideology (15)
(Sophie Fiennes, 2013, UK) 133 mins
Slavoj Žižek gives an absorbing, annotated...
Filth (18)
(Jon S Baird, 2013, UK) James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, Eddie Marsan, Imogen Poots. 97 mins
Drugs, sleaze, sex, Scots, Irvine Welsh – is it 1996 again? This is just as energetic as Trainspotting, but less hip and more theatrically grim, wallowing in the debauchery and mania of a copper bent way out of shape. The only subtlety to be found is on the face of McAvoy, whose committed performance holds it all together.
Sunshine On Leith (PG)
(Dexter Fletcher, 2013, UK) George MacKay, Kevin Guthrie. 100 mins
It worked for Abba, so why not the Proclaimers? Basing an Edinburgh love story around their music turns out to be a fine idea.
The Pervert's Guide To Ideology (15)
(Sophie Fiennes, 2013, UK) 133 mins
Slavoj Žižek gives an absorbing, annotated...
- 10/5/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Sixties screen siren Claudia Cardinale talks to Steve Rose about entrancing Fellini, spurning Brando – and why appearing in 135 films still isn't enough
There's nothing Claudia Cardinale hates more than staying still, but for the past two months she's had to do exactly that. She broke her foot on holiday in Tunisia and has since been holed up in her Paris flat. "It was stupid," she says, in her distinctive Mediterranean rasp. "I was playing volleyball. There was water on the edge of swimming pool, and I slipped. I like to be active, so when I have to sit for two months without going out, it's terrible. I had many places to go and I had to refuse: Venice, Kiev, Osaka. Now it's Ok. Yesterday I went out for the first time, but the weather is ugly."
Cardinale is a survivor from the era when movie giants walked the earth – most of them alongside her.
There's nothing Claudia Cardinale hates more than staying still, but for the past two months she's had to do exactly that. She broke her foot on holiday in Tunisia and has since been holed up in her Paris flat. "It was stupid," she says, in her distinctive Mediterranean rasp. "I was playing volleyball. There was water on the edge of swimming pool, and I slipped. I like to be active, so when I have to sit for two months without going out, it's terrible. I had many places to go and I had to refuse: Venice, Kiev, Osaka. Now it's Ok. Yesterday I went out for the first time, but the weather is ugly."
Cardinale is a survivor from the era when movie giants walked the earth – most of them alongside her.
- 9/11/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The World's End | Breathe In | Wadjda | The Frozen Ground | Easy Money | Eden | Suspension Of Disbelief | Roman Holiday | D-Day
The World's End (15)
(Edgar Wright, 2013 UK) Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike. 109 mins
Wright brings another Hollywood scenario down to earth by virtue of an utterly British setting, and the clash is still hilarious. Especially for the 1990s generation, since this sees Pegg and co attempting to relive their youth with an indie-dance-backed pub crawl down memory lane. Has their hometown changed because of high-street homogenisation, robotic infiltration, or the effects of 12 pints? All three, it turns out.
Breathe In (15)
(Drake Doremus, 2013, Us) Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Amy Ryan. 97 mins
As he did with Like Crazy, Doremus tells an age-old story with uncanny intimacy and powerful acting, particularly from Jones. Playing an exchange student in New England, she's drawn to Pearce's musician dad, with inevitable consequences.
The World's End (15)
(Edgar Wright, 2013 UK) Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike. 109 mins
Wright brings another Hollywood scenario down to earth by virtue of an utterly British setting, and the clash is still hilarious. Especially for the 1990s generation, since this sees Pegg and co attempting to relive their youth with an indie-dance-backed pub crawl down memory lane. Has their hometown changed because of high-street homogenisation, robotic infiltration, or the effects of 12 pints? All three, it turns out.
Breathe In (15)
(Drake Doremus, 2013, Us) Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Amy Ryan. 97 mins
As he did with Like Crazy, Doremus tells an age-old story with uncanny intimacy and powerful acting, particularly from Jones. Playing an exchange student in New England, she's drawn to Pearce's musician dad, with inevitable consequences.
- 7/20/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Behind The Candelabra | The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone | After Earth | The Iceman | Thérèse Desqueyroux | Come As You Are | The Last Exorcism: Part II | 009 Re: Cyborg | Aguirre, Wrath Of God
Behind The Candelabra (15)
(Steven Soderbergh, 2013, Us) Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Rob Lowe, Dan Aykroyd. 118 mins
The fact that Hollywood wasn't interested in backing a story involving celebrity, dictator-style kitsch, cosmetic surgery, rhinestones, signet rings and poodles (oh, and gay people) proves once again that nobody there knows anything. Douglas is terrific as the flamboyant but needy Liberace, and this true-life relationship drama is both hilarious and empathetic, harking back to a pre-Aids era of innocence and excess. Rob Lowe's hair provides excellent support.
The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone (15)
(Shane Meadows, 2013, UK) 96 mins
If the Roses were the greatest band in the world to you, then this is probably the greatest doc in the world. Meadows,...
Behind The Candelabra (15)
(Steven Soderbergh, 2013, Us) Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Rob Lowe, Dan Aykroyd. 118 mins
The fact that Hollywood wasn't interested in backing a story involving celebrity, dictator-style kitsch, cosmetic surgery, rhinestones, signet rings and poodles (oh, and gay people) proves once again that nobody there knows anything. Douglas is terrific as the flamboyant but needy Liberace, and this true-life relationship drama is both hilarious and empathetic, harking back to a pre-Aids era of innocence and excess. Rob Lowe's hair provides excellent support.
The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone (15)
(Shane Meadows, 2013, UK) 96 mins
If the Roses were the greatest band in the world to you, then this is probably the greatest doc in the world. Meadows,...
- 6/8/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Les Misérables | Gangster Squad | American Mary | What Richard Did | Midnight Son | Jiro Dreams Of Sushi | The Lookout | May I Kill U? | Underground
Les Misérables (12A)
(Tom Hooper, 2012, UK) Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne. 158 mins
The King's Speech director plus the globally adored musical: it's a match made in commercial heaven, a third-hand version of a 19th-century French saga, and the most epic celebrity karaoke session ever filmed. The fact that it's entirely sung, "live" on set, supposedly communicates more "emotion", but this is already oversaturated with so much melodramatic incident, the effect is numbing.
Gangster Squad (15)
(Ruben Fleischer, 2013, Us) Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin. 113 mins
Brolin's under-the-radar police squad guns for Penn's La mobsters in this exuberantly violent, but disappointingly straightforward 1940s thriller, derived more from modern videogames than vintage film noirs. Action definitely speaks louder than words here.
American Mary (18)
(Jen & Sylvia Soska,...
Les Misérables (12A)
(Tom Hooper, 2012, UK) Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne. 158 mins
The King's Speech director plus the globally adored musical: it's a match made in commercial heaven, a third-hand version of a 19th-century French saga, and the most epic celebrity karaoke session ever filmed. The fact that it's entirely sung, "live" on set, supposedly communicates more "emotion", but this is already oversaturated with so much melodramatic incident, the effect is numbing.
Gangster Squad (15)
(Ruben Fleischer, 2013, Us) Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin. 113 mins
Brolin's under-the-radar police squad guns for Penn's La mobsters in this exuberantly violent, but disappointingly straightforward 1940s thriller, derived more from modern videogames than vintage film noirs. Action definitely speaks louder than words here.
American Mary (18)
(Jen & Sylvia Soska,...
- 1/12/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Die Hard | The Nutcracker | Ghosts Of Christmas Special Past | Madcap Christmas | The Snowman/Peter & The Wolf | The Wizard Of Oz | Guilty Pleasures Christmas Cinema Party | Enchanted Pictures | Experience Cinema
Christmas tradition now dictates that every cinema in the land must screen It's A Wonderful Life, every year, forever after. Sure it's a great movie but, just as Jimmy Stewart is invited to imagine the world without him, perhaps we can imagine festive moviegoing without Frank Capra's well-worn perennial? Here's a glimpse of that alternative reality.
In cinemas across the UK, familiar staples of Christmas programming are sprinkled around the schedules, with old chestnuts (such as White Christmas and Miracle On 34th Street) and newer classics (Gremlins and The Muppet Christmas Carol). But it's Bruce Willis's incidentally Christmassy Die Hard that's emerging as the new seasonal favourite. London's Prince Charles (WC2) goes the extra distance with a back-to-back Die Hard trilogy tomorrow,...
Christmas tradition now dictates that every cinema in the land must screen It's A Wonderful Life, every year, forever after. Sure it's a great movie but, just as Jimmy Stewart is invited to imagine the world without him, perhaps we can imagine festive moviegoing without Frank Capra's well-worn perennial? Here's a glimpse of that alternative reality.
In cinemas across the UK, familiar staples of Christmas programming are sprinkled around the schedules, with old chestnuts (such as White Christmas and Miracle On 34th Street) and newer classics (Gremlins and The Muppet Christmas Carol). But it's Bruce Willis's incidentally Christmassy Die Hard that's emerging as the new seasonal favourite. London's Prince Charles (WC2) goes the extra distance with a back-to-back Die Hard trilogy tomorrow,...
- 12/15/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Anime, London
While hand-drawn, two-dimensional animation is now seen as slightly archaic in the west, it's still the foundation of Japanese animation, where it looks anything but – usually because it's used to render fantastic and futuristic tales that make ours look timid. Added to which, they're invariably gorgeous to look at. There are strange lands, mystical creatures and flamboyantly long titles to explore in this biennial weekend round-up, such as Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below by Makoto Shinkai, or the latest spin-off from the hugely successful series, Full Metal Alchemist 2: Sacred Star Of Milos (followed by a Q&A with the director). A Letter To Momo captures the spirit of classic Studio Ghibli productions such as My Friend Totoro, while Ghibli's own From Up On Poppy Hill is a fantasy-free coming-of-age story set in 1964 Yokohama, and Oblivion Island shows what they can do with computer animation.
While hand-drawn, two-dimensional animation is now seen as slightly archaic in the west, it's still the foundation of Japanese animation, where it looks anything but – usually because it's used to render fantastic and futuristic tales that make ours look timid. Added to which, they're invariably gorgeous to look at. There are strange lands, mystical creatures and flamboyantly long titles to explore in this biennial weekend round-up, such as Children Who Chase Lost Voices From Deep Below by Makoto Shinkai, or the latest spin-off from the hugely successful series, Full Metal Alchemist 2: Sacred Star Of Milos (followed by a Q&A with the director). A Letter To Momo captures the spirit of classic Studio Ghibli productions such as My Friend Totoro, while Ghibli's own From Up On Poppy Hill is a fantasy-free coming-of-age story set in 1964 Yokohama, and Oblivion Island shows what they can do with computer animation.
- 6/1/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
From Fred and Ginger to Jennifer and Ashton, romantic comedies used to be one of the safest bets in Hollywood. But it seems that rom is just not into com any more
Is it the end for the romcom? You can imagine the celebrity mag headlines: "Romcom's relationship on the rocks?" "Com: I'm just not that into Rom" "Rom: Com doesn't make me laugh any more."
After all, who says romance and comedy go together like a horse and carriage? It seems to be a chiselled Hollywood commandment that the two shall be forever conjoined in cinematic matrimony, but perhaps it's time they went their separate ways. Sure, they got off to a great start: in those early years it was all fun and games and sparkling repartee, but recently they haven't quite looked the happy couple; the spark just hasn't been there.
They've been stuck in the same repetitive formula: boy meets girl,...
Is it the end for the romcom? You can imagine the celebrity mag headlines: "Romcom's relationship on the rocks?" "Com: I'm just not that into Rom" "Rom: Com doesn't make me laugh any more."
After all, who says romance and comedy go together like a horse and carriage? It seems to be a chiselled Hollywood commandment that the two shall be forever conjoined in cinematic matrimony, but perhaps it's time they went their separate ways. Sure, they got off to a great start: in those early years it was all fun and games and sparkling repartee, but recently they haven't quite looked the happy couple; the spark just hasn't been there.
They've been stuck in the same repetitive formula: boy meets girl,...
- 2/11/2012
- by Steve Rose, Richard Vine
- The Guardian - Film News
We reveal the 10 debut films jostling for the big prize, ranging from a thriller about aliens in London to a documentary about Danish soldiers in Afghanistan
On Friday, we announced the shortlist for the Guardian first album award; today it's the turn of the first film. Previous winners have included The Arbor, Unrelated and Sleep Furiously; this year, after exhaustive polling of the Guardian's film writing team, the 10 debut films jostling for the big one take in everything from an alien-attack thriller set in London to a Danish Afghan-war documentary. We will lock the judges – who include Guardian film team Peter Bradshaw, Xan Brooks and Catherine Shoard – in a room next week, and hammer out a result. The winner will receive a handsome piece of glass and plastic purchased, as Michael Hann revealed on Friday, from the trophy shop round the corner. Nevertheless, bragging rights will be awesome.
So here's...
On Friday, we announced the shortlist for the Guardian first album award; today it's the turn of the first film. Previous winners have included The Arbor, Unrelated and Sleep Furiously; this year, after exhaustive polling of the Guardian's film writing team, the 10 debut films jostling for the big one take in everything from an alien-attack thriller set in London to a Danish Afghan-war documentary. We will lock the judges – who include Guardian film team Peter Bradshaw, Xan Brooks and Catherine Shoard – in a room next week, and hammer out a result. The winner will receive a handsome piece of glass and plastic purchased, as Michael Hann revealed on Friday, from the trophy shop round the corner. Nevertheless, bragging rights will be awesome.
So here's...
- 1/10/2012
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
London Short Film Festival
The new year's festival season starts here, and so does the revolution. Short film is often regarded as a stepping stone to features, and there's plenty of that potential here, even a few big names (Michael Fassbender in Goldfish). But it's also a potentially radical art form in itself, and an admirably inclusive one. So here you'll find documentaries selected by Occupy London; showcases of queer cinema; black and Asian stories; feminist porn; found film; experimental shorts; special guests; parties; a film from Jake and Dinos Chapman (The Organ Grinder's Monkey, with Rhys Ifans); and a music doc with a live improvised score on homemade instruments. Something for everyone, then. There's even an evening of films about sad, lonely men (including Mark Gatiss, Matthew Holness and Roger Allam).
Various venues, to 15 Jan
Frozen Landscapes, Glasgow
What does a sunny place like Glasgow know about cold climates,...
The new year's festival season starts here, and so does the revolution. Short film is often regarded as a stepping stone to features, and there's plenty of that potential here, even a few big names (Michael Fassbender in Goldfish). But it's also a potentially radical art form in itself, and an admirably inclusive one. So here you'll find documentaries selected by Occupy London; showcases of queer cinema; black and Asian stories; feminist porn; found film; experimental shorts; special guests; parties; a film from Jake and Dinos Chapman (The Organ Grinder's Monkey, with Rhys Ifans); and a music doc with a live improvised score on homemade instruments. Something for everyone, then. There's even an evening of films about sad, lonely men (including Mark Gatiss, Matthew Holness and Roger Allam).
Various venues, to 15 Jan
Frozen Landscapes, Glasgow
What does a sunny place like Glasgow know about cold climates,...
- 1/7/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
As sure as bells are jingled and dongs dinged merrily at this time of year, such Christmas perennials as It's A Wonderful Life and Meet Me In St Louis are being dusted off at a cinema near you, but there's also a new genre of modern Christmas classics emerging. Like Die Hard, for example, which benefits from its judicious mix of wisecracking action, festive irony and Bruce Willis with more hair. It's on around the country, but Newcastle's Press Play festival has a special screening tonight at NewBridge Studios, with additional Swat teams, fancy dress (ie white vests) and an 80s disco. Other cult-friendly non-chestnuts doing the rounds this year include anti-Santa horror Rare Exports, The Muppet Christmas Carol and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D.
For something more upmarket, Picturehouse cinemas are screening the Bolshoi Ballet's version of The Nutcracker live tomorrow evening. Or there's London's Berkeley hotel's rooftop Winter Wonderland,...
For something more upmarket, Picturehouse cinemas are screening the Bolshoi Ballet's version of The Nutcracker live tomorrow evening. Or there's London's Berkeley hotel's rooftop Winter Wonderland,...
- 12/17/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Take Shelter (15)
(Jeff Nichols, 2011, Us) Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Tova Stewart. 121 mins.
After a year-long disaster-movie onslaught, apocalypse fatigue could well be setting in, but this one's worth the extra effort – particularly since it's less about the end of the world than the threat of it. That plays large in the mind of Shannon's modern-day Midwestern Noah, who sets about building his underground ark. His wife worries more about his mental health, and their day-to-day problems. Brilliantly constructed and performed, it's a domestic saga infused with haunting, unnamed dread.
50/50 (15)
(Jonathan Levine, 2011, Us) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick. 100 mins.
The Knocked Up of cancer movies? Not quite, but this is funnier and more frank than most terminal illness movies. Gordon-Levitt is a potential victim, to whom Rogen offers blokey support.
The Deep Blue Sea (12A)
(Terence Davies, 2011, UK) Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston. 98 mins.
Davies again recreates postwar Britain, this...
(Jeff Nichols, 2011, Us) Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Tova Stewart. 121 mins.
After a year-long disaster-movie onslaught, apocalypse fatigue could well be setting in, but this one's worth the extra effort – particularly since it's less about the end of the world than the threat of it. That plays large in the mind of Shannon's modern-day Midwestern Noah, who sets about building his underground ark. His wife worries more about his mental health, and their day-to-day problems. Brilliantly constructed and performed, it's a domestic saga infused with haunting, unnamed dread.
50/50 (15)
(Jonathan Levine, 2011, Us) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick. 100 mins.
The Knocked Up of cancer movies? Not quite, but this is funnier and more frank than most terminal illness movies. Gordon-Levitt is a potential victim, to whom Rogen offers blokey support.
The Deep Blue Sea (12A)
(Terence Davies, 2011, UK) Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston. 98 mins.
Davies again recreates postwar Britain, this...
- 11/26/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Magic Trip (15)
(Alison Ellwood, Alex Gibney, 2011, Us) 107 mins
Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters' LSD-fuelled 1964 road trip is one of those seminal cultural moments you can't believe really happened, at least not like it did in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. But here it is, chaotically shot and narrated by the culprits themselves and painstakingly reassembled. That makes for a certain lack of perspective, and watching others having a great time isn't necessarily the same as having one, but the contrast between these turned-on teens and square 60s America is often hilarious.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (12A)
(Bill Condon, 2011, Us) Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner. 117 mins
At last, some consummation! Bella and Edward's wedding comes a few movies too late for neutral observers, but the supernatural saga is in no danger of coming to an abrupt end, thanks to the franchise's determination to vampirically milk fans dry.
(Alison Ellwood, Alex Gibney, 2011, Us) 107 mins
Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters' LSD-fuelled 1964 road trip is one of those seminal cultural moments you can't believe really happened, at least not like it did in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. But here it is, chaotically shot and narrated by the culprits themselves and painstakingly reassembled. That makes for a certain lack of perspective, and watching others having a great time isn't necessarily the same as having one, but the contrast between these turned-on teens and square 60s America is often hilarious.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (12A)
(Bill Condon, 2011, Us) Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner. 117 mins
At last, some consummation! Bella and Edward's wedding comes a few movies too late for neutral observers, but the supernatural saga is in no danger of coming to an abrupt end, thanks to the franchise's determination to vampirically milk fans dry.
- 11/19/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
This week we're reminding you of your invitation to join us at 7pm tonight when Peter Bradshaw (and a reader) will be liveblogging Three Colours Red on the site. And did anyone mention a drinking game … ?
The big story
And so we face the final frontier. Last night Andrew Pulver chuckled his way through Three Colours White. On Tuesday, Xan Brooks juggled pizza and existentialism during Three Colours Blue.
Tonight, Peter Bradshaw is in the hotseat, squished up alongside competition winner Joe Websper and Catherine Shoard, who'll be wrangling comments and overseeing the incredibly classy Three Colours Red drinking game (see below).
The third in the trilogy, Three Colours Red is also the most acclaimed. It's about a student (Irene Jacob) who befriends a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who is spying on his neighbours.
The big story
And so we face the final frontier. Last night Andrew Pulver chuckled his way through Three Colours White. On Tuesday, Xan Brooks juggled pizza and existentialism during Three Colours Blue.
Tonight, Peter Bradshaw is in the hotseat, squished up alongside competition winner Joe Websper and Catherine Shoard, who'll be wrangling comments and overseeing the incredibly classy Three Colours Red drinking game (see below).
The third in the trilogy, Three Colours Red is also the most acclaimed. It's about a student (Irene Jacob) who befriends a retired judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who is spying on his neighbours.
- 11/17/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
Weekend (18)
(Andrew Haigh, 2011, UK) Tom Cullen, Chris New. 97 mins
You could easily label this a gay Before Sunrise or suchlike, with its 48-hour, boy-meets-boy premise, but it deserves to be judged on its own merits. There's a beautiful naturalism to the way these two Londoners progress from random one-night stand to something deeper, through sex, drugs and revealing conversation. Despite the narrow focus, it speaks volumes about love, art and gay identity.
Tower Heist (12A)
(Brett Ratner, 2011, Us) Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Alan Alda. 104 mins
With Murphy's coaching, an all-star cast storms the high-rise fortress of Ponzi tyrant Alda in what could have been a great comedy for our times, but ends up just a mildly enjoyable one.
In Time (12A)
(Andrew Niccol, 2011, Us) Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy. 109 mins
Stylish, if logic-stretching, adventure set in a future where time is money and nobody looks older than 25.
The Future (12A)
(Miranda July,...
(Andrew Haigh, 2011, UK) Tom Cullen, Chris New. 97 mins
You could easily label this a gay Before Sunrise or suchlike, with its 48-hour, boy-meets-boy premise, but it deserves to be judged on its own merits. There's a beautiful naturalism to the way these two Londoners progress from random one-night stand to something deeper, through sex, drugs and revealing conversation. Despite the narrow focus, it speaks volumes about love, art and gay identity.
Tower Heist (12A)
(Brett Ratner, 2011, Us) Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Alan Alda. 104 mins
With Murphy's coaching, an all-star cast storms the high-rise fortress of Ponzi tyrant Alda in what could have been a great comedy for our times, but ends up just a mildly enjoyable one.
In Time (12A)
(Andrew Niccol, 2011, Us) Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Cillian Murphy. 109 mins
Stylish, if logic-stretching, adventure set in a future where time is money and nobody looks older than 25.
The Future (12A)
(Miranda July,...
- 11/5/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
That was the week in which Sam Mendes confirmed the title, cast and thrust of Bond 23: Skyfall, and Roger Moore cocked an eyebrow at Quantum of Solace. Plus other, non-007, news
The big story
Every Bond begins with a kill. He walks in silhouette, turns and shoots us. The camera wobbles, fills with red and down we go. 007's first kill happens before anything else: before he's survived the Lake Como car chase, or flown a home-made plane through a hanger, or bungee-jumped from the Contra dam. Before the credits roll and the naked ladies start wrapping their legs around giant handguns.
Violence is as integral to the Bond franchise as product placement. Imagine the uproar then, when it was suggested that the appointment of Sam Mendes as the director of Bond 23 might do away with fist-fights and gunplay altogether. Mendes was a class act, out for Oscars.
The big story
Every Bond begins with a kill. He walks in silhouette, turns and shoots us. The camera wobbles, fills with red and down we go. 007's first kill happens before anything else: before he's survived the Lake Como car chase, or flown a home-made plane through a hanger, or bungee-jumped from the Contra dam. Before the credits roll and the naked ladies start wrapping their legs around giant handguns.
Violence is as integral to the Bond franchise as product placement. Imagine the uproar then, when it was suggested that the appointment of Sam Mendes as the director of Bond 23 might do away with fist-fights and gunplay altogether. Mendes was a class act, out for Oscars.
- 11/3/2011
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
Contagion (12A)
(Steven Soderbergh, 2011, Us) Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jennifer Ehle. 106 mins
Much as he did with Traffic, Soderbergh connects the dots of a global issue and makes it look like something authoritative and contemporary rather than a celebrity disaster movie. Here it's a viral pandemic, briskly tracked in forensic detail and techno-backed montages. The response from health authorities and the panicked populace is all too credible, though once the dots are connected, we're too freaked out to remember why we were supposed to be watching.
We Need To Talk About Kevin (15)
(Lynne Ramsay, 2011, UK/Us) Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller. 112 mins
Swinton's fine performance and Ramsay's visual intelligence add up to a devastating portrait of motherhood. After a high-school shooting, a mother's existence becomes a living hell.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (12A)
(Göran Olsson, 2011, Swe) 96 mins
A trove of rediscovered news footage, along with modern-day commentary and soundtrack,...
(Steven Soderbergh, 2011, Us) Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jennifer Ehle. 106 mins
Much as he did with Traffic, Soderbergh connects the dots of a global issue and makes it look like something authoritative and contemporary rather than a celebrity disaster movie. Here it's a viral pandemic, briskly tracked in forensic detail and techno-backed montages. The response from health authorities and the panicked populace is all too credible, though once the dots are connected, we're too freaked out to remember why we were supposed to be watching.
We Need To Talk About Kevin (15)
(Lynne Ramsay, 2011, UK/Us) Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller. 112 mins
Swinton's fine performance and Ramsay's visual intelligence add up to a devastating portrait of motherhood. After a high-school shooting, a mother's existence becomes a living hell.
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (12A)
(Göran Olsson, 2011, Swe) 96 mins
A trove of rediscovered news footage, along with modern-day commentary and soundtrack,...
- 10/21/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Sleeping Beauty (18)
(Julia Leigh, 2011, Aus) Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Ewen Leslie, Peter Carroll. 101 mins
The outer limits of the service industry are explored in this strange anti-fairytale, as a student submits her unconscious body to the desires of sagging, wealthy old men. There's no prospect of a prince coming in any sense. Bravely elusive and surreally detached in the manner of Kubrick or Buñuel, it's occasionally spellbinding.
Real Steel (12A)
(Shawn Levy, 2011, Us) Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo. 128 mins
Can Jackman train a robot to fight while reconnecting with his estranged son and his old flame? Or will this family-friendly amalgam of Rocky and Transformers subvert the formula of every fight movie ever?
The Three Musketeers (12A)
(Paul Ws Anderson, 2011, Ger/Fra/UK/Us) Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfadyen, Milla Jovovich. 110 mins
The Resident Evil director delivers action spectacle by any means necessary. Forget 17th-century history; bring on the aerial warships!
(Julia Leigh, 2011, Aus) Emily Browning, Rachael Blake, Ewen Leslie, Peter Carroll. 101 mins
The outer limits of the service industry are explored in this strange anti-fairytale, as a student submits her unconscious body to the desires of sagging, wealthy old men. There's no prospect of a prince coming in any sense. Bravely elusive and surreally detached in the manner of Kubrick or Buñuel, it's occasionally spellbinding.
Real Steel (12A)
(Shawn Levy, 2011, Us) Hugh Jackman, Evangeline Lilly, Dakota Goyo. 128 mins
Can Jackman train a robot to fight while reconnecting with his estranged son and his old flame? Or will this family-friendly amalgam of Rocky and Transformers subvert the formula of every fight movie ever?
The Three Musketeers (12A)
(Paul Ws Anderson, 2011, Ger/Fra/UK/Us) Logan Lerman, Matthew Macfadyen, Milla Jovovich. 110 mins
The Resident Evil director delivers action spectacle by any means necessary. Forget 17th-century history; bring on the aerial warships!
- 10/14/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Tyrannosaur (18)
(Paddy Considine, 2010, UK) Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan. 92 mins
Bad things happen to damaged people (and dogs) in this sparse kitchen-sink drama – almost too many bad things for one film to take, between Mullan's volatile drinker, Colman's abused wife and their vicious social circles. There's a redeeming spiritual dimension to the misery, thank God, and as you'd expect of an actor-turned-director, Considine gets incredible performances from his leads.
Midnight In Paris (12A)
(Woody Allen, 2011, Us) Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates. 94 mins
Not finding modern-day Paris to his romantic liking, Allen sends Wilson's tourist back to the fantasy 1920s version, and recruits familiar faces to play familiar cultural legends: (Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, etc). It's so unapologetically wistful, he gets away with it. The French will love it.
Johnny English Reborn (PG)
(Oliver Parker, 2011, Us/Fra/UK) Rowan Atkinson, Rosamund Pike, Gillian Anderson. 101 mins
As formulaic as the...
(Paddy Considine, 2010, UK) Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan. 92 mins
Bad things happen to damaged people (and dogs) in this sparse kitchen-sink drama – almost too many bad things for one film to take, between Mullan's volatile drinker, Colman's abused wife and their vicious social circles. There's a redeeming spiritual dimension to the misery, thank God, and as you'd expect of an actor-turned-director, Considine gets incredible performances from his leads.
Midnight In Paris (12A)
(Woody Allen, 2011, Us) Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates. 94 mins
Not finding modern-day Paris to his romantic liking, Allen sends Wilson's tourist back to the fantasy 1920s version, and recruits familiar faces to play familiar cultural legends: (Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, etc). It's so unapologetically wistful, he gets away with it. The French will love it.
Johnny English Reborn (PG)
(Oliver Parker, 2011, Us/Fra/UK) Rowan Atkinson, Rosamund Pike, Gillian Anderson. 101 mins
As formulaic as the...
- 10/7/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Captain America: The First Avenger (12)
(Joe Johnston, 2011, Us) Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving, Sebastian Stan. 124 mins
Unsurprisingly, this is the most patriotic of the summer's superhero movies, but there are few surprises all round. The story is largely what you'd imagine from the trailer: wimpy 1940s do-gooder undergoes a fast-track Charles Atlas course, then socks it to the evil über-Nazis. It's like Inglourious Basterds meets Indiana Jones, although the wholesome tone and white-bread heroism diminish the effects-driven spectacle, and the real second world war is reduced to mere set dressing.
Our Day Will Come (18)
(Romain Gavras, 2010, Fra) Vincent Cassel, Olivier Barthelemy, Justine Lerooy. 83 mins
Edgy provocateur alert! Expanding on the redhead persecution theme he developed in his Mia video, Gavras's debut follows ginger alienation to its conclusion, as Cassel and Barthelemy head out on the highway to oblivion, without a map or a ferry timetable.
Arrietty (U)
(Hiromasa Yonebayashi,...
(Joe Johnston, 2011, Us) Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hayley Atwell, Hugo Weaving, Sebastian Stan. 124 mins
Unsurprisingly, this is the most patriotic of the summer's superhero movies, but there are few surprises all round. The story is largely what you'd imagine from the trailer: wimpy 1940s do-gooder undergoes a fast-track Charles Atlas course, then socks it to the evil über-Nazis. It's like Inglourious Basterds meets Indiana Jones, although the wholesome tone and white-bread heroism diminish the effects-driven spectacle, and the real second world war is reduced to mere set dressing.
Our Day Will Come (18)
(Romain Gavras, 2010, Fra) Vincent Cassel, Olivier Barthelemy, Justine Lerooy. 83 mins
Edgy provocateur alert! Expanding on the redhead persecution theme he developed in his Mia video, Gavras's debut follows ginger alienation to its conclusion, as Cassel and Barthelemy head out on the highway to oblivion, without a map or a ferry timetable.
Arrietty (U)
(Hiromasa Yonebayashi,...
- 7/29/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Mike Mills & Ewan McGregor, London
Hipster polymath Mills looks set on a new, mature direction with his latest movie, Beginners – the story of a thirtysomething Californian (McGregor) coming to terms with the fact that his father (Christopher Plummer) came out as gay a few years before his death. It sounds far-fetched, but it's based on Mills's own experience – exactly how much the director and his alter ego McGregor will doubtless explain at this preview and Q&A. There are plenty of other stories they could tell, but this singular, thoughtful film should raise enough questions all on its own – for one thing, how did they get McGregor's dog to act so darned cute?
Curzon Soho, W1, Mon
Silent Cinema @ The Deptford Project, London
All you really need to make a pop-up cinema is a projector, a screen and a movie people want to watch, but this hip yet wholesome event goes several steps further.
Hipster polymath Mills looks set on a new, mature direction with his latest movie, Beginners – the story of a thirtysomething Californian (McGregor) coming to terms with the fact that his father (Christopher Plummer) came out as gay a few years before his death. It sounds far-fetched, but it's based on Mills's own experience – exactly how much the director and his alter ego McGregor will doubtless explain at this preview and Q&A. There are plenty of other stories they could tell, but this singular, thoughtful film should raise enough questions all on its own – for one thing, how did they get McGregor's dog to act so darned cute?
Curzon Soho, W1, Mon
Silent Cinema @ The Deptford Project, London
All you really need to make a pop-up cinema is a projector, a screen and a movie people want to watch, but this hip yet wholesome event goes several steps further.
- 7/8/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
"Cars 2, directed (like several great Pixar films of the last two decades) by John Lasseter, finds itself in the unlucky position of the not-so-bright kid in a brilliant family," finds Slate's Dana Stevens. "No matter if his performance in school is comfortably average; he'll always be seen as a disappointment compared to his stellar siblings. There's nothing really objectionable about Cars 2, although parents of young children should be warned that a few evil vehicles meet violently inauspicious ends. It's sweet-spirited, visually delightful (if aurally cacophonous), and it will make for a pleasant enough family afternoon at the movies. But we've come to expect so much more than mere pleasantness from Pixar that Cars 2 feels almost like a betrayal."
Nick Schager for the Voice: "Pixar's Cars franchise takes a sharp turn from Nascar mayhem and rural red-state-targeted 50s nostalgia to 007 espionage with this upgraded sequel, though in its...
Nick Schager for the Voice: "Pixar's Cars franchise takes a sharp turn from Nascar mayhem and rural red-state-targeted 50s nostalgia to 007 espionage with this upgraded sequel, though in its...
- 6/25/2011
- MUBI
"What makes Johann run — and rob?" asks Melissa Anderson in the Voice. "Benjamin Heisenberg's second feature is as taut, lean, and fleet as its title character, played by Andreas Lust and based on the real-life Johann Kastenberger, who was both Austria's most-wanted bank robber of the 1980s and a champion marathoner. Writing the script with Martin Prinz, who adapted his own 2005 novel about the notorious criminal, Heisenberg forgoes backstory and psychological explanation, structuring his film as a series of adrenaline spikes."
"Lust's character in The Robber is familiar from European crime movies," suggests Noel Murray at the Av Club. "He's the stoic loner who doesn't say much, lest he inadvertently reveal some kind of motivation. When he robs banks, he wears a thin mask that doesn't look all that different from his face, and when he goes on a date with his caseworker, Franziska Weisz, he's more amused by...
"Lust's character in The Robber is familiar from European crime movies," suggests Noel Murray at the Av Club. "He's the stoic loner who doesn't say much, lest he inadvertently reveal some kind of motivation. When he robs banks, he wears a thin mask that doesn't look all that different from his face, and when he goes on a date with his caseworker, Franziska Weisz, he's more amused by...
- 5/8/2011
- MUBI
Cave Of Forgotten Dreams (U)
(Werner Herzog, 2010, Can/Us/Fra/Ger/UK) 90 mins
Herzog's perceptive, musically accented voiceovers have become a trademark of his documentaries, but he's practically humbled into silence here by the world's oldest art gallery – or was it a cinema? Recently discovered, and unlikely to be seen by any of us for real, these 35,000-year-old cave paintings are a sight to behold, and Herzog wisely lets them speak for themselves, in fully justified 3D. We are given some insight into the history and the difficulties of filming, plus a few vintage Herzog musings (radioactive albino crocodiles!), but primarily, this puts us in the position of our supposedly primitive ancestors, gazing in awe at things we barely comprehend.
The Eagle (12A)
(Kevin Macdonald, 2011, Us/UK) Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland. 114 mins
A Roman soldier and his British slave band together in a boys' adventure mixing Gladiator-like action and sober historical bromance.
(Werner Herzog, 2010, Can/Us/Fra/Ger/UK) 90 mins
Herzog's perceptive, musically accented voiceovers have become a trademark of his documentaries, but he's practically humbled into silence here by the world's oldest art gallery – or was it a cinema? Recently discovered, and unlikely to be seen by any of us for real, these 35,000-year-old cave paintings are a sight to behold, and Herzog wisely lets them speak for themselves, in fully justified 3D. We are given some insight into the history and the difficulties of filming, plus a few vintage Herzog musings (radioactive albino crocodiles!), but primarily, this puts us in the position of our supposedly primitive ancestors, gazing in awe at things we barely comprehend.
The Eagle (12A)
(Kevin Macdonald, 2011, Us/UK) Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell, Donald Sutherland. 114 mins
A Roman soldier and his British slave band together in a boys' adventure mixing Gladiator-like action and sober historical bromance.
- 3/26/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
His last film was Oscar nominated – but his latest, Miral, has been panned. So what went wrong? Director Julian Schnabel talks to Steve Rose
I was hoping I could get through my interview with Julian Schnabel without him asking what I thought of his movie. Schnabel's film-making career has been on a steady upward trajectory since he made Basquiat in 1996, and his last feature, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, received near-universal acclaim, including a best director Oscar nomination. Not bad for a painter who treats film-making as a mere sideline.
His latest film, Miral, chronicles the lives of several generations of Palestinian women, in particular an orphan who is drawn towards violent activism as she comes of age during the first intifada in the late 1980s. Played by Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto, Miral is based on writer Rula Jebreal; the movie is adapted from her book of the same name.
I was hoping I could get through my interview with Julian Schnabel without him asking what I thought of his movie. Schnabel's film-making career has been on a steady upward trajectory since he made Basquiat in 1996, and his last feature, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, received near-universal acclaim, including a best director Oscar nomination. Not bad for a painter who treats film-making as a mere sideline.
His latest film, Miral, chronicles the lives of several generations of Palestinian women, in particular an orphan who is drawn towards violent activism as she comes of age during the first intifada in the late 1980s. Played by Slumdog Millionaire star Freida Pinto, Miral is based on writer Rula Jebreal; the movie is adapted from her book of the same name.
- 10/25/2010
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
It's the second ever Guardian film liveblog, and our inaugural effort covering something on the TV. You voted for Michael Hann to sit down in front of Layer Cake; join him from 9pm (when it's on Fiver) and let us know your thoughts
10.33pm: @Wedgemondo's looking forward to The Social Network. It's fine, but it stops short of greatness. It's so specific to its era that I wonder whether anyone will even be able to watch it in 10 years' time.
10.31pm: Another well-handled beating, in which Colm Meaney repeatedly slams Craig into a chest freezer full of frozen goods. I think there's an interesting comparison between this film and Eastern Promises, another one set around London's underworld. This one, I think, has a rather better feel for London - Cronenberg's in Eastern Promises didn't seem too sure, and it certainly didn't feel like London to me. Though it's true I've...
10.33pm: @Wedgemondo's looking forward to The Social Network. It's fine, but it stops short of greatness. It's so specific to its era that I wonder whether anyone will even be able to watch it in 10 years' time.
10.31pm: Another well-handled beating, in which Colm Meaney repeatedly slams Craig into a chest freezer full of frozen goods. I think there's an interesting comparison between this film and Eastern Promises, another one set around London's underworld. This one, I think, has a rather better feel for London - Cronenberg's in Eastern Promises didn't seem too sure, and it certainly didn't feel like London to me. Though it's true I've...
- 10/4/2010
- by Michael Hann
- The Guardian - Film News
He wrote his first block-buster as a student, went on to make the cult TV show Lost - and now the new Star Trek film. How does Jj Abrams do it? Steve Rose finds out
I was trying to avoid using the G-word, but Jj Abrams brings it up himself, unprompted. We're talking about his childhood and I begin a question with a slightly meandering: "So were you a ..."
"Geek?" he interjects, pre-empting a question he's clearly heard many times. Well, now you mention it, were you? "I don't think it's much of a question," he laughs.
I was trying to avoid using the G-word, but Jj Abrams brings it up himself, unprompted. We're talking about his childhood and I begin a question with a slightly meandering: "So were you a ..."
"Geek?" he interjects, pre-empting a question he's clearly heard many times. Well, now you mention it, were you? "I don't think it's much of a question," he laughs.
- 5/6/2009
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
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