Reviews

Jim Carrey is truly outstanding, as is Kate Winslet -the supporting actors are all up to the same great performances as Carey and WInslet.Like "Adaptation" the point gets repeated too many times, but at least in this movie it's not as repetitive as in Adaptation( the endless ending). It's too bad, both are great movies with wonderful plots and styles, but why belabor them? - An excellent movie despite the slight dragging or repetitiveness, starting a little after the second half of the movie.

What a movie to start the New Year with! Even knowing the story by André Dubus, The House of Sand and Fog was still an intense viewing experience, I think an excellent transposition from the page to the screen. The casting is absolutely perfect, and while I'm not necessarily a Jenn.Connelly fan, she was absolutely up to par with the outstanding performances from all the other characters. The policeman's character looked out of place to me in the preview, but I was very impressed with Ron Eldard's performance, a very sincere, vulnerable man caught up, as everyone, in this one ugly wrinkle-in-time and circumstances...Pure tragedy, sadder even than "Tous les Matins du Monde", but a great achievement on the director's and all the actor's part. Ben Kinglsy, and the equally outstanding Shohreh Aghdashloo as his wife are amazing. The cinematography was nice, tastefully saturated and controlled to contrast with the desaturated foggy moments. An MTV-moment of Jennifer Connelly on a pier didn't work at all for me, in was the only time I was 'pulled out' of the story, though. One helluva sad story, an excellent filmic version of the very sad and excellent novel.

A literary style, namely poetry, make this energetic and non-linear

movie a real joy to take in; the mixing of sounds and dialogues or

monologues also follow a poetic and jazz-like bee-bop approach.

The characters presented are very real and yet also seems like

phrases in a continually changing musical piece. The DV'ography is just beautiful, some of the most tasteful and

downright pleasurable work I've ever seen in these video-to-film

times...Tom Richmond and Richard Rutkowski have really set a

new standard with this movie, where the form (digital video)

doesn't intrude on the content, but rather complements (and even

compliments!) the tones and textures of the story. Ethan Hawke

did a great job with the actors and the story, I totally recommend

this movie.

While this isn't an unusually great movie, it's not nearly as bad as

some of the press is saying. It's a reasonably well-done story of a

very smart and in some ways mature 15 years, and his growing

pains. While there are some goofy lines, overall the dialogues are

alright - if not always very natural sounding. The setting of being surrounded by academia helps with some of

the overly - literate dialogue, but at times, there's still a ring of

"senior-project student film". The videography is quite nice, some nice color-schemes. The

digital-video wasn't a distraction. I enjoyed the movie overall, and would still recommend it.

Similar in many ways to the fantastic "Cléo de 5 à 7", a charming, mature and playful look at temptation and marriage.Not only great for it's chromatic & musical scales (color-fades, very colorful scenes are organized like moments withing a musical composition), the dialogues are right on as well - at first, it might seem a little 'sappy', but with 15minutes, you're enraptured!

Like any of Agnès Varda's movies, this one displays all her talents

as a filmmaker: a strong story to contrast the 'flighty' main

character; her playfulness with form, which later became a

common technique for Godard's and Truffaut's as well as other

French New Wave filmmakers; the same playfulness in casting,

as in having the great composer Michel Legrand as Cléo's pop- song writer, or the cameo appearance of Godard, all wonderful,

unpretentious and charming moments, inter-leaved within the

worries of the narcissistic main character, Cléo. The movie is less

existential than it is about life, and Varda has masterfully

juxtaposed a range of moments and emotions and situations to

create a true classic with Cléo's day from 5 to 7.

Due to the excellent direction, the acting is just outstanding; not

showy, but exactly what it needed to be for this movie; the tone was

perfectly maintained, unlike similar movies that hit & miss with this

sort of style. The cinematography was just perfect, exactly fitting the

story. I can't say enough good about this movie!

Even more than the previous, awesome movie by the Polish brothers, "Jackpot" presents a quiet, even-keeled portrait of what at first seem like a ridiculous pair, but who's sincerity and refusal to give up makes you admire them. There's a kindness to the ironic view that is a relief; the characters are not exaggerated or spoofed into cartoon-condition, their audiences aren't either. The tone of the film is respectful yet ironic - a healthy mix. The cinematography is nothing less than beautiful, again as was the previous film from M & Polish, "Twin Falls Idaho". Same cinematographer, David Mullen, but this time the movie originated on 24P, high-definition video, and was converted to film. It's really very beautiful, the tones are just right, the look doesn't distract from the story at any time, but if you care for such things, it is really a visual treat. I think the movie might have gained from a little 'scissors action' towards the end it started to drag a bit, but not enough to change the fact that this is a wonderful and completely enjoyable movie in many ways.

Especially in light of the recent election and it's theatrics (not to

mention it's outcome!), "Being There" is a timeless tale - Kosinki's

only 'upbeat' story, performed perfectly by Peter Sellars, Melvyn

Douglas is outstanding and Shirley MacLaine in one of her best

performances. Truly beautiful cinematography enhance the wry script that reminds us the true nature of politics. The VHS &

laserdiscs copies I have are mediocre-quality, hopefully someone

will put out a DVD that shows this wonderful movie the way the film

looked.

A 'quirky' story from a director who likes to keep the viewer guessing - as in the wonderful 'Hairdresser's Husband'.The dialogues are wonderful in this movie, far wittier than the semi-silly 'Ridicule'; Although the subtitles are not perfect (which they rarely are, it's a very tough craft), they were difficult to read on top of that, at least in the film print I saw. But the storyline and the relationship in the movie more than carries it. Because of the occasional awkward subtitling, some of the lines might seem sillier than they are in the original French. The black & white cinematography is truly outstanding, beautiful & fitting. Daniel Auteuil shows more physical liveliness in this role than usual, and he's a true pleasure to watch; but the heart of this movie is truly Vanessa Paradis - an outstanding performance, full of charm & and pathos. The chemistry between the principles is enchanting. Leconte has completely succeeded in presenting a 'higher love' story.

As described here previously by McVouty, this movie is a true gem - I had the pleasure of seeing it projected at a local art house theater, and was blown away by Alec Guinness' performance, as well as the excellent black & white cinematography, by none other than Robert Krasker; the same writer/director/cinematographer team that created "The 3rd Man", here again created a wonderful film. While it may not be of the caliber of The 3rd Man, it's very sad that this movie was so poorly received that Carol Reed's career was so adversely affected...esp since the movie is actually so good! Will it ever become available on tape or DVD?

The style of the film, described elsewhere as in the 'Dogme 95' genre, really works well for this story, especially on the cinema screen; on video, the transfer was made from a slightly poor-quality print, which is too bad - the photography in the movie is excellent. For the technically-oriented, "Fin Aout, Début Septembre" was filmed in Super-16mm, and in my opinion this sort of plot is perfectly suited to the S16, or the DV-originated type of storytelling technique. It's true there was no murder or gratuitous violence, no rape or incest, no endless spurting of tears and confessions, which is frankly the reason I love this film. The dialogues are believable, the characters are very real, with that feeling of people we've known and maybe not always loved or cared to be around, but who are part of life nonetheless...I admire a filmmaker who is willing to present characters that are based in life, not in movie clichés, and Assayas pulls it off here wonderfully in my opinion.