MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENEFebruary, 2012
Writer/director Sean Durkin’s impossibly-titled drama features a genuinely breakthrough performance by Elizabeth Olsen who is the younger sister of billion-dollar twins Ashley and Mary-Kate, and while she’s equally cute, the family resemblance there essentially ends, as the girl can actually act.
J. EDGARFebruary, 2012
J(ohn) Edgar Hoover (1895 - 1972) was the first head of the Bureau of Investigation from 1924 until he died (the ‘Federal’ bit was added by him in 1935). Clint Eastwood’s treatment of this lavish 137 minute biopic upon Hoover’s life and somewhat conflicted times seems torn in its loyalties: it wants to pay some sort of respect to the guy while deeply criticising him and his paranoid, pit-bull tactics.
YOUNG ADULTFebruary, 2012
You will have to hit the film history books to find a main character as unlikeable, childish and as delusional as Young Adult’s Mavis Gary.
MAN ON A LEDGEFebruary, 2012
Man on a Ledge is a film on the edge and that’s not to mean it’s “edgy”.
THE IRON LADYJanuary, 2012
The Iron Lady is a film about two formidable, accomplished women.
ALBERT NOBBSJanuary, 2012
Glenn Close’s pet project finally hits the screen 30 years after the five-time Academy Award nominee first played the stage role of a woman surviving late 19th century Dublin by dressing as, and practically becoming, a male waiter.
THE DESCENDANTSJanuary, 2012
Co-writer/director/producer Alexander Payne’s latest character drama (drawn from the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash) is also his best work since the despairingly wonderful About Schmidt (dismiss the overrated Sideways). The film even features a few similar plot points, especially the shared themes concerning wasted lives and the inescapable sureness of fate.
AGES OF LOVE (MANUALE D’AMORE)December, 2011
While this is, in fact, the third (and final?) installment in co-writer/director Giovanni Veronesi’s Manual of Love series (the preceding chapters barely made it outside Europe in 2005 and 2007, respectively), the title has been changed to make it seem an entity unto itself, and certainly an exhaustive understanding of the previous outings isn’t necessary to make sense of its irksome silliness.
MELANCHOLIADecember, 2011
A planet hurtling towards Earth is destined to eradicate life on impact – welcome to Lars von Trier at his most accessible with Melancholia.
ATTACK THE BLOCKDecember, 2011
It’s alien to me, the zombie flick. Not that there’s any such un-dead in comedian-cum-writer/director Joe Cornish’s debut film Attack the Block, but there may as well be.| NEXT > |
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