Reviews

one of the best films i've seen this year. unfortunately nobody got a chance to see it because harvey and bob over at miramax decided to release it on only ONE screen. it's sad that they didn't have faith in it. martin donovan is absolutely incredible in it. it's a really remarkable film - it has the most innovative narrative structure i have seen in a film in years (including pulp fiction). It's a brilliant film - rent it when it comes out on video.

a really terrible film that goes nowhere quickly. Though it's nice to see Keith Carradine in a starring role (when was the last time that happened?), the film is truly misconceived in everyway. The only question is: why did so many "name" actors choose to be in this film. The story is idiotic at best - an Estonian Jewish tap dancer in the 30's whose career on Broadway has dried up goes back to his family's country, Estonia, to perform in a nightclub owned by Judd Hirsch. He falls in love with a girl (played by the wonderful Mia Kirschner) and falls into trouble with the Nazis. As a period piece goes the film is a clumsy mix of attempted humor and drama that isn't dramatic. Our tap dancer hero is completely unlikeable and his motivations don't make much sense. That's all well and good, but the film itself doesn't make much of an impression. What were they thinking?

the film is hilarious. i laughed from start to finish. It isn't unintentionally hilarious either as some people have suggested because it takes away the credit where it is due. Having scene Ruiz's films before, his first "American" film seems to be at first glance lifted from late night cinemax in the erotic thriller category. The script is amazingly awful. The acting is terrible. Especially Billy Baldwin. But I'd say that's the whole point and I'm not being willfully perverse in saying this. Raul Ruiz is a brilliant director and he knows exactly what he's doing. The joke isn't that obvious because it is mostly in the insane mise-en-scene wonderfully photographed by Robbie Muller (Wings of Desire, Dead Man). It's easily one of the best "thrillers" to come out in this category in some time. Just don't take it too seriously.

I've seen Ozon's previous feature Sitcom and his hour-long short See the Sea so I pretty much knew what to expect from his latest provocation. He obviously takes relish at SHOCKING the audience but this one is a bit milder. Amazing performance by Natacha Regnier who you might remember from the fantastic DREAM LIFE OF ANGELS. Jeremie Renier is also terrific as the male lead. The film starts out as a BADLANDS-esque crime spree when the two leads kill an Arab schoolmate and go cross country to bury the body. The film then takes a bizarre twist into the land of GRIMM BROTHERS fairy tale. While I don't think he has yet made a completely succesful film (perhaps his desire to shock leads him astray), Ozon is a talented, young French filmmaker to watch.

I just saw it at the Montreal Film Festival on a whim - I needed something to see in between two other movies so I had the time to kill. At first, I considered walking out because the film seemed like it was going to be terrible. A Yorkshire tale of a family whose child has cancer. Meanwhile, their new neighbors, a family of Indian neighbors, struggle to adjust to a somewhat (but not really) hostile environment. It aspired to be a Ken Loach or Mike Leigh film though with more of an after-school special style approach to narrative. I actually was tempted to walk out of it during the first half-hour, but once I stayed with it, it actually wasn't that awful. I was actually slightly moved by it. It's a low-key British Kitchen Sink-style domestic drama that takes an interesting second act turn for the better. Though the direction and editing was sometimes quite clumsy and amateurish, the cinematography (by a woman too which is a rarity!) was outstanding.

The set-up is a bit contrived and we've seen it all before (a drifter comes back "out of the past" and insinuates himself back into the lives of the woman he left, her new husband and her child) Generally this seems to be a plot out of a cinemax movie or a steamy adult thriller. And sure enough the film has a full-frontal orgy scene that would have made Stanley Kubrick jealous. But it also has a lot of interesting things to say about relationships. It actually reminded me of Eyes Wide Shut, so you can take that for what it's worth(I loved EWS). And it's definitely one of the best Israeli films I have seen in recent memory. The film is narratively flawed at times, but I can forgive it for that because at least it is refreshingly frank and honest. And not too many movies these days are.

The shock of the mostly elderly crowd at the film festival I saw it in also made it all seem worthwhile. Sagall is a director to watch.

Another dark, moody Hollywood serial killer thriller just in time for fall! In the "tradition" of such films as SEVEN and SILENCE OF THE LAMBS comes this utterly uninspired, needlessly sadistic, fare. Denzel is bedridden through the entire film and Angelina Jolie is woefully miscast. Poorly written, cardboard thin stock characters just add to the "we've seen this all before" deja vu experience this film offers. While director Phillip Noyce has a few camera tricks up his sleeve (mostly used in the service of jolting the audience rather than creating true suspense), the film manages to be uninvolving and uninteresting despite the large amounts of requisite nastiness.