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The Artist 2011
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
Neither the pandering Oscar bait its detractors labelled it nor the dazzling reinvention its celebrants claimed, Michel Hazanavicius’ Academy-adorned classical Hollywood homage is just that: a joyous celebration of days gone by, of the simpler times of silent cinema. It’s perhaps The Artist’s greatest achievement that its portrayal of the period is not so simply rendered, though, the stark darkness of its third act and emotionally wrenching arc of its protagonist…
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Monsieur Lazhar 2011
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
It’s a good indication of Monsieur Lazhar’s tone that it begins with the discovery of a teacher’s suicide by one of her pupils. Philippe Falardeau’s is a dark film indeed, its overall mood never straying far from the bleak note on which it begins, yet its dedication to the reality of life never robs it of the key moments of touching humanity peppered throughout. Mohammed Felag is nothing short of incredible…
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Manhattan 1979
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
Infamously dismissive of his own work after the fact—he considers only a handful of his films to actually match his original vision—Woody Allen has long claimed bafflement at the praise showered upon his 1979 romantic comedy masterpiece Manhattan. However the film might differ from that envisaged in his head, it could scarcely be a more visually resplendent one: cinematographer Gordon Willis does arguably his best work capturing the streets of New…
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Leave 2011
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
It’s a wonder how rapidly a skilled director can pull you into a mystery. Leave begins with a sense of ethereal intrigue, its eerily shot and oddly edited opening treading a line between dreams and reality, paving the way for the psychological drama to follow. Robert Celestino makes his presence behind the camera known early, and maintains a stronghold on the viewers’ attention throughout. What a shame, then, that the screenplay…
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Harold and Maude 1971
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
No matter how many I watch or how deep I dive, I never fail to be surprised by the staggering subversion displayed by the films of the New Hollywood movement. Hal Ashby’s almost obscenely dark 1971 comedy offers a satirical yet scabrous critique of contemporary society, its young protagonist’s unsettling obsession with death and mortality audaciously juxtaposed with the expectations and demands of his prudish mother. Harold is a marvellous creation,…
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Elena 2011
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
A Russian reflection of the world in the aftermath of the financial crisis, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Elena examines the social gulf in the country through the life of one woman. Nadezhda Markina gives a fine performance as the title character, wife to a wealthy industrialist and mother (from a previous marriage) to a scrounging working-class son, eager to financially help the latter despite the former’s disdain for being made to support the…
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
Having to its name a grand total of four Oscars, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s lasting legacy in the history of the western is assured, its immortal story of the eponymous outlaws seeing it remain among the genre’s most popular films. George Roy Hill’s biographical retelling of the pair’s highly successful career as train robbers propelled Robert Redford to Hollywood stardom, he and Paul Newman forming a formidable double act…
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Bug 2006
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
Praised plentifully for his shocking black comedy in this year’s Killer Joe, William Friedkin first collaborated with playwright Tracy Letts on an adaptation of Bug, the story of a man convinced he is under government surveillance, and the woman who falls for him after he arrives at her hotel room. The great master of unhinged performances, Michael Shannon might be said to be at his best here, the hectic mania the…
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Bottle Rocket 1996
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
After 16 years and 7 features, Wes Anderson has risen to become the de facto quirky darling of American independent cinema. It all began with 1996’s Bottle Rocket, an extended remake of Anderson’s own short of the same name from four years earlier. Co-written with Owen Wilson, and starring he and brother Luke as friends eager to join a group of low-rent criminals, the film offers an interesting look at the…
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Bloody Sunday 2002
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
Fully funded by, and intended for, broadcast television, Paul Greengrass’ breakthrough earned a UK cinema release after it won the audience award at Sundance in 2002. The signature shaky handheld style its director would go on to become known for in his Hollywood action films benefits Bloody Sunday greatly, being as it is an intimate account of the 1972 shootings of 26 unarmed civil rights protestors by the British army. Centred…
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Barton Fink 1991
Review from my VOD column "This Week on Demand".
Conceived and scripted during a period of difficulty in the formulation of Miller’s Crossing, the Coen Brothers’ follow-up is one of the quintessential cinematic texts on the subject of writing: a glorious metatextual tome steeped in allegorical significance and defiantly straddling several generic divides. Operating at his barmy, bemused best, John Turturro shines as the eponymous playwright motivated by the allure of money to make the move to Hollywood, a setting…
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Ataque de pánico! 2009
Very impressive ultra-low budget special effects short from Fede Alvarez, the guy tasked with remaking The Evil Dead (this is the film that won him the gig, in fact). Goes a long way to showing you how needlessly over-budgeted Hollywood movies are.
