Only God Forgives (2013 Cannes review)
The beauty of every frame of Only God Forgives—the striking compositions, the vivid colors—is so exceptional that it mostly offsets the questionable creative decisions that go on within that frame. Director Nicolas Winding Refn’s follow-up film to Drive is even bolder in its design, mixing his trademark violence with an almost austere, dreamlike quality that positions this revenge thriller as something of a revenge tone poem. The characters never become more than well-positioned furniture in those frames, but the movie’s quite gorgeous in its own limited way.... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsThe Woman in the Fifth
The Woman in the Fifth is a tale of psychological unraveling and dread. This lovely, troubling new film from director Pawel Pawlikowski is loosely adapted from Douglas Kennedy’s novel of the same name, and tells of Tom Ricks (Ethan Hawke), an American writer set adrift in Paris with no money, no family and no second novel.... read more
Found in: MoviesBel Ami
The dizzying recitals of greed, lust and betrayal that occur throughout directors Declan Donnelan’s and Nick Ormerod’s Bel Ami are exhausted by the time one reaches the final scene. Based on Guy de Maupassant’s beloved French novel, Bel Ami is set in 1890s France within a social circle of wealthy newspaper journalists. The novel, which was released in the early 1900s, is a scandalous page-turner packed with story and fleshed-out character plot lines. In sum: the opposite of what emerges from its screen adaption.... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsLove Crime
The central goal of a classic whodunit is to unravel how a crime was committed. Love Crime turns that convention around—halfway through it shows exactly how a crime was committed, and then leaves the audience to figure out why it was committed in such a strange and specific way. It’s an experiment in narrative that, while not entirely successful, still makes for a captivating story.... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsSarah's Key
The creation of “Holocaust films” as a genre would seem to symbolize the world at large attempting to address and recognize the untold horror, suffering and genocide that occurred during World War II. There’s certainly something of that in the constant stream of movies released post-Schindler’s List that regularly inundate art-house theaters (especially in December), but most of these pictures take us further from the events that actually happened. It’s a topic that’s better left unaddressed than addressed poorly, and unfortunately like nearly all films that have attempted to dramatize the Holocaust, Sarah’s Key not only fails to do justice... read more
Found in: Movies, ReviewsOscar Buzz: Who's ahead in this year's key races?
There's a surprisingly gargantuan Internet faction dedicated to predicting who will be up for film's most coveted prize, the Academy Award. Publications like Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times and New York Times all have Oscar blogs that obsessively trail the fluctuations in buzz amongst the year's top films. That's not to mention stand-alone sites like Awards Daily and In Contention, or well-known bloggers like Jeff Wells, Dave Poland and Anne Thompson. Even Roger Ebert has devoted a wealth of recent ink on the subject. But, the truth is, no matter how much someone knows, it's still... read more
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