remembering the films that the audience forgot
“I didn’t read reviews earlier in my career, but I read them now as I’m older. I read them all.”
— Steven Spielberg
Curse Of The Golden Flower was a 2006 film spectacle from acclaimed Chinese director Yimou Zhang, and I mean spectacle in the best sense of the word. Anyone familiar with his other films, Hero and House Of Flying Daggers, will know exactly how good his spectacles are.
Read MoreElegy: a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, esp. a funeral song or a lament for the dead.
The first film I saw from director Isabel Coixet was The Secret Life of Words. And that was by accident, when my PVR recorded the wrong movie. However, it was a happy accident because I really liked that film. So, back in 2008 when Elegy was released I made a point of going to see it in the theatre. And, I was very happy I did.
Read MoreBug is a film that came and went, back in 2007, with relatively little fanfare. Which I remember finding somewhat surprising given that it was directed by William Friedkin. Although, maybe I shouldn’t have been, given that most of the general film-going public probably wouldn’t recognize the name or his place in film history.
Read MoreThe Wackness: The year is 1994 and our hero, Luke Shapiro, has just graduated from high school. He isn't one of the cool kids (he might be the most popular of the unpopular kids or the least popular of the popular ones), but they all know him because he’s their pot dealer. He also deals to this psychiatrist who happens to be the step dad of this chick he has a huge crush on...
Read MoreCes’t Pas Moi, Je Le Jure! translates to It’s Not Me, I Swear! The French-Canadian film takes place in 1968. Leon is a 10-year-old boy with some issues. He’s like Dennis the Menace times 100. Not only does he have a fertile imagination and is kinda suicidal. He seems to have no moral compass when it comes to his actions. Especially when his unhappy mother decides to move to Greece - causing him to act out even more.
Read MoreWhat really struck we about the film was how simple it was. The opening scene has Tommy Lee Jones getting a phone call asking if he knows where his son is. And from there his search begins. There’s no big preamble or anything like that. The movie starts and there we go. And this isn't some grand melodrama as one might expect from such a premise.
Read MoreTaika Waititi was nominated for an academy award for his short film Two Cars, One Night back in 2003 and more recently his film JoJo Rabbit picked up a number of Oscar noms and Waititi got a win for Best Adapted Screenplay. But lets go back to his first full-length feature, Eagle Vs Shark. And what a wonderful debut it was.
Read MoreThere have been some great rivalries in the history of sports and some epic battles among champions. There was the Ali v. Foreman Rumble in the Jungle, there was Aarons quest to pass Babe Ruth's career home run number, the epic 2008 Wimbledon finals between Federrer and Nadal and then there was Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell.
Read Moreif I was putting together a list of directors who have wasted their potential, D.J. Caruso would definitely be on that list. However, if the only films of his you have seen are Taking Lives, Two For The Money, Disturbia, I Am Number 4 and Eagle Eye you would probably be asking yourself, “where is the ‘potential’ in the first place?” “What is he wasting?”
Read MoreSienna Miller is the Lindsey Lohan/Paris Hilton-type celebrity actress (Katya) and Steve Buscemi is the political reporter assigned - unhappily - to interview her. That is all you need to know going into Interview. The rest is for you to discover. And what you’ll discover is a really good film with two great performances - especially the one delivered by Sienna Miller.
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