As though we could have forgotten, Ken Loach’s abrasive statement this week in the wake of Margaret Thatcher’s death serves to remind us just how fastidiously the director has remained aligned to the plight of the working class throughout his career. One of the most famed of Brit... Read More »
“The 18th film from Ki-duk Kim” proclaim the opening credits of Pieta, announcing auteurial authority with so booming a voice as to make entirely unsurprising the many ties that have been made between the film and its director’s previous efforts. Perhaps it’s appropriate that we ... Read More »
Few professions are not, by necessity, utterly repetitive, the same tasks repeated ad infinitum, replayed day after day after day. It must be all the worse for teachers, whose year-long cycle might seem initially preferable, but which nonetheless pits them in a similar carousel o... Read More »
There’s a terrifically ironic plot point in The Good Man, an otherwise misguided Irish film that premiered last year, where the affluent banker antihero uses his charity sponsorship of an African child to clear his own conscience, blissfully unaware that the very deals he is hatc... Read More »
The Scandinavians are coming this week on demand, with Nordic titles comprising almost half the films below. It’s a tempting range, tapping some of the finest Danish talent in cinema today, and offering a strong counterpoint to the comparably flaccid big Hollywood effort on offer... Read More »
It will surprise many who found themselves rigid with terror at the endlessly oppressive horror atmosphere of last year’s Kill List to learn that its director, Ben Wheatley, is one of the wittiest minds working in cinema today. His debut, 2010’s Down Terrace, was a wonderful play... Read More »
Being as it is in essence a road movie, traditionally a quintessentially American genre, it’s interesting to have The We and the I helmed by a Frenchman. But then Michel Gondry is no stranger to American genre filmmaking, his attempts at romantic comedy and superhero movies—thoug... Read More »
We can learn a lot about America from the constitution of its action movie heroes throughout the years. From the white-hatted purity of the Ringo Kid to the war-scarred trauma of John Rambo to the fantasy superheroism of Tony Stark, the evolution of the action hero has mirrored t... Read More »
It’s been a long wait for fans of Irish art film. In 2007, Garage was released: the second film by Lenny Abrahamson—who had debuted three years earlier with the acclaimed Adam & Paul—and arguably one of the finest works of indigenous cinema until then produced. A stark reject... Read More »
“A simple drawing can be more beautiful than an elaborate painting”. It’s rarely a film has the deftness and grace to so succinctly summate its own impact, but that’s precisely the power Jean-François Laguionie’s The Painting possesses as it weaves its story of painted figures in... Read More »
Another month, another overwhelming addition of titles to the Netflix database. Those distraught by the massive loss of movies which began May for Instant subscribers should be able to relax now that many such contracts have already been renewed; look at it like this: if they ren... Read More »
“It’s actually been difficult for me, seeing you be so sick,” protests Leif when his wife Ida, newly declared in remission from breast cancer, finds him in their living room with “Tilde from accounting”. It’s a line typical of the jet-black comedy of celebrated scribe Anders Thom... Read More »
If the impact of a film is to be measured solely in terms of its success in emulating the psychological state of its characters, then there’s a case to be made for Mark Mann’s Generation Um… as one of the year’s most resoundingly effective movies. Yet few could argue convincingly... Read More »
TIFF Remembrance of Things to Come Series: One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich (2001)
TIFF Remembrance of Things to Come Series: Remembrance of Things to Come (2003)
Cannes Review: The Bling Ring (2013)
Cannes Review: Borgman (2013)
Cannes Review: Le Passe (2013)
