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Sundance Review: The Man Next Door (El hombre de al lado) |
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Spotlight Reviews
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Written by Blake Griffin
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Sunday, 31 January 2010 22:44 |
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The Man Next Door is working it’s magic in the World Dramatic Competition and Sundance. It comes from Argentina, and demands that it be noticed. It’s directed by two promising young men, Mariano Cohn, and Gastón Duprat, who co-wrote the script together as well. And are both credited as the film’s cinematography. Narcissistic much?
The film is overwhelming simple in it’s storyline. An extremely successful designer named Leonardo, lives in a home named Casa Curutchet. The only home that Le Corbusier built in the Americas. Apparently it’s a big deal in Argentina. He lives there with his wife and daughter. They’re awakened one morning to the noise of a sledgehammer, he finds that a neighbor has torn a hole in one of the Modernist icon’s perfect white walls, intending to build a window for the house on the other side. The soundscape created is almost as poignant as Australia’s Noise.
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Sundance Review: The Killer Inside Me |
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Spotlight Reviews
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Written by Blake Griffin
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Sunday, 31 January 2010 22:14 |
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I had tickets to Killer Inside Me long before all this crazy media attention it’s gotten over the past few days. Truth be told, I didn’t even know what it was about when I made the purchase. I just decided to tag along with my brother-in-law when he announced he was going. Since the premiere, there’s been all sorts of stuff going around about the violence in it. There’s this article from NYDailyNews.com, which clearly insinuates that Jessica Alba herself was so offended by the violence, she walked out during the premiere. Or there’s this recording of an angry audience, specifically an angry woman, during an Q&A, demanding, of director Michael Winterbottom to know ‘who’s responsible for this?’ Geez! You’d think these people have never been to a film festival before. And you know for certain they’ve never seen something like Antichrist, or even one of the Saw movies, or Lust, Caution, or Nurse Betty, or anything David Cronenberg has ever done. I will say now that yes, there’s violence. One specific scene shows Alba being beaten for literally several minutes. But on the grand scale of violent movies that have received an R rating, this is not one of the worst offenders. And without being a communist, I would say that I mildly agree with Han Suyin when she said, ‘moralists have no place in an art gallery.’ Or an arthouse theatre.
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Sundance Reviews: Welcome to the Rileys |
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Spotlight Reviews
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Written by Blake Griffin
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Sunday, 31 January 2010 22:07 |
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Kristin Stewart is continuing on her crusade to try and distance herself from the Twilight series, and establish herself as a serious actress. Last year she did it with Adventureland, and this year, she has a couple films at Sundance. In one, she plays Joan Jett, and in it has a lesbian love scene with Dakota Fanning. In the other, Welcome to the Rileys, she plays a 16 year old, runaway, making ends meet in New Orleans as a part-time exotic dancer, and part-prostitute. Okay, we get it Kristin, you’re a serious actress. Fortunately, she has some great company in Rileys that makes her look pretty good.
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Sundance Review: Jack Goes Boating |
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Spotlight Reviews
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Written by Blake Griffin
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Sunday, 31 January 2010 21:54 |
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It was only a matter of time before Philip Seymour Hoffman decided to direct. He’s gained enough cred in the business to warrant giving him a chance. But it is slightly shocking that he chose to make his debut with a romantic comedy. Did anyone else see that coming? His film, Jack Goes Boating is a movie version of a play by the same name. Hoffman actually played Jack in the off-Broadway production. He brought along two of his stage co-stars as well, and got Amy Ryan to play his leading lady. Not too shabby for his first cast.
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Sundance Review: Night Catches Us |
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Spotlight Reviews
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Written by Blake Griffin
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Sunday, 31 January 2010 21:37 |
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Night Catches Us is a mildly interesting first attempt at directing by Tanya Hamilton, an alum of the Sundance Lab. The story (which Hamilton also wrote) takes place in Philadelphia in 1978. It focuses on two former Black Panthers, Marcus (Anthony Mackie) and Pat (Kerry Washington). Marcus returns to Philadelphia, after several years in exile, to attend the funeral of his brother. His reasons for avoiding his hometown aren’t immediately clear. What is clear, is that he’s not welcomed there by many. His former comrades make it abundantly clear that he is no longer welcome, and should leave if he wants to avoid trouble. Pat is the only friendly face in town. But their budding relationship is difficult for friends, and especially for Pat’s daughter Iris (Jamara Griffin).
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Spotlight Review: Fish Tank |
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Spotlight Reviews
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Written by David DiMichele
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Sunday, 31 January 2010 20:05 |
Starring: Kate Jarvis, Michael Fassenbender Director: Andrea Arnold Release Date: January 15, 2010 (Limited)Running Time: 124 min MPAA Rating: NR
Distributor: IFC Films - - - Suffocation and boredom have grown extensively perverse for fifteen-year-old Mia, a young woman with an invisible visor shrouding her vision of the real world and who possesses lofty dreams that may not seem so rewarding. The weariness in the uncongenial surroundings of a housing project located in the underbelly of England, her home, overcomes hope and dreams. But there is a ruthless, intense and enlightening discovery to be found in this environment. A lesson that can educate an individual in the subject of Life can be located here. Innumerable individuals can willingly succumb to the realizations of the harsh conditions and descend morally and physically (like Mia’s mother does), or others can challenge and struggle with the unruly conditions to find self-transcendence. A naïve little girl, cynical in every approach she takes, wants to meet reality and mingle with ideas, forces and individuals who prove to be smarter, sexier, meaner and more cunning than she can ever be. She hasn’t a father, her younger sister is a foul-mouthed little brat and her mother drunkenly mopes around their home, barely clothed, with a cigarette always in her mouth dancing to hip-hop music. Maybe Mia ( Katie Jarvis) doesn’t want to ever come to resemble these characteristics which pervade her life. Maybe she is content with who she is but is just suffering due to her detrimental surroundings. Her window for opportunity is decreasing. If she plans on leaving her fish tank she needs someone to help her pry it open. Help arrives unexpectedly, though, and in an unexpected entity.
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Spotlight Review: A Prophet (Un prophète) |
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Spotlight Reviews
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Written by Blake Griffin
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Tuesday, 26 January 2010 05:16 |
Starring: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Hichem Yacoubi, Adel Bencherif and Jean-Emmanuel Pagni Director: Jacques Audiard Release Date: January 20, 2010 (Limited)Running Time: 150 min MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong violence, sexual content, nudity, language and drug material.
Distributor: Celluloid Dreams, Canal +, France 2 Cinema - - - Jacques Audiard, who has long been considered a French master, takes his work in a completely new direction with his latest project A Prophet. While I was extremely happy with his previous style (The Beat My Heart Skipped, still ranks in my top ten favorite movies of all time), his new focus is infinitely more broad, and brings a new sense of realism to the table that I could stare at for hours (and ended up doing just that since the film runs around 150 minutes).
What's more impressive, is that Audiard co-wrote the script with Thomas Bidegain. His story is a gritty, and brilliant look at the French prison system (which the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly condemned, and Nicolas Sarkozy himself called a national disgrace). It centers around a young Arab man, Malik. At nineteen, he's been sentenced to six years for assaulting an officer. It's never clear if he actually did the crime. In fact the matter is settled by one indignant response to the accusation by a prison guard, he claims not to have done a thing. Whether or not he did is of no consequence to the rest of the film, but it seems to me he's innocent, which makes his evolution into a crime boss in his own respect that much more interesting. Malik is played by a virtually unknown actor named Tahar Rahim. His performance is remarkable in all aspects. The film spans six years (where Malik ages 19 to 25). His physical performance is remarkable, as he seems to mature quite rapidly. His face is in a constant state of healing, whether it's his cheek bleeding where a razor blade was hidden, or the marks of a spoon shoved so far into his eyeball, he temporarily loses his vision. Audiard, who frequently enjoys working with some of the best actors in France, couldn't have asked for a better leading man.
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Movie Review: A Single Man |
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Current Releases
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Written by Blake Griffin
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Friday, 15 January 2010 18:42 |
Starring: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, Nicholas Hoult Director: Tom Ford Release Date: December 11, 2009 (Limited)Running Time: 99 min MPAA Rating: R for some disturbing images and nudity/sexual content Distributor: The Weinstein Company - - -
Tom Ford’s A Single Man was a giant risk for most those involved. It was a risk for Ford, a beginner film maker and script adapter. A risk taking a staple of homosexual fiction and turning in to something possibly trite and decidedly unworthy. A risk for Colin Firth who may have alienated his rom-com following, or presenting as unable to carry a serious role. Okay, so it wasn’t a risk for Julianne Moore who has no dignity any more (remember Savage Grace?). However, those that ventured the most, certainly gained the most. A Single Man is that quiet, understated film that you wait for, every year, during the awards season.
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Movie Review: Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans |
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Current Releases
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Written by Blake Griffin
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Friday, 15 January 2010 15:57 |
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer Director: Werner Herzog Release Date: November 20, 2009 (Limited)Running Time: 121 min MPAA Rating: R for drug use and language throughout, some violence and sexuality Distributor: First Look Studios - - -
It's been a long time since a movie has left me as speechless as after I watched Werner Herzog's latest mess of a film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans. Leaving the theatre, I really, honestly, didn't have a thing to say about it. I'm not sure that's changed.
Nicolas Cage plays a mildly crooked cop who goes from bad to worse when his back is permanently injured while doing a good a deed. The injury leads to an addiction to pain killers, which leads to coke, accidentally snorting heroin, falling deeper into a co-dependant relationship with his hooker girlfriend and fellow drug user Frankie (Eva Mendes), and engaging in more and more illegal acts. These include robbing Frankie's clients, selling police information to drug dealers, robbing and raping young adults when he believes they have drugs he can take from them in the name of the law. And he frequently hallucinates aggressive iguanas.
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Movie Review: Up in the Air |
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Current Releases
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Written by David DiMichele
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Friday, 25 December 2009 05:12 |
Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick Director: Jason Reitman Release Date: December 23, 2009 Running Time: 109 mins. MPAA Rating: R - for language and some sexual content Distributor: Paramount Picture - - - Airports have come to look like malls. These places seem to be irreverently trying to get you to forget that you are always on the go. Everyone seems to be going about in the same way, eating the same buffet, drinking the same drinks and thinking the same thoughts. When someone flies 350,000 miles in one year all of this becomes futile. You eat what you have to eat. Drink what you have been taught to drink. Inquiry becomes useless because this type of world is decentralized, harboring a sparsity of individualism and catering to a state of repetition. This is a post-modern way of living because there is no center for these frequent fliers, these business moguls. No wholeness in which they can construct their lives around. Without a lack of a solid foundation life can be formidable.
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