Adapted from David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Rabbit Hole” ferries us down into the blackest void of parental despair and bravely leaves us without a sturdy rope to climb back out. Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) are an affluent married couple half-heartedly pursuing the American dream somewhere in the gorgeous Northeast. After their [...]
December 27, 2010 – The Online Film Critics Society (OFCS), the international professional association of Internet-based film reviewers, has announced the nominations for its 2010 OFCS Awards. The award winners will be announced on January 3, 2011. The OFCS is online at www.ofcs.org. The nominees for the 2010 OFCS Awards are: BEST PICTURE Black Swan [...]
“Washington is like Hollywood, only without the pretty faces.” This, according to Kevin Spacey’s idealistic, wise-cracking super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff on the two-faced, backstabbing nature of capitol hill. In 2006, Abramoff, who, by many accounts, was one of the most powerful men in Washington, pled guilty to defrauding four American Indian tribes of tens of millions [...]
l Any time Terrence Malick decides to direct a film, it becomes an event, for film fanatics at least. Every one of his pictures has been called a masterpiece by at least a few prominent critics. “Badlands,” “Days of Heaven,” “The Thin Red Line” and “The New World” all have dedicated followers and they all [...]
The month of January is named after Janus, the Roman god of exits and entrances. Janus is most commonly depicted in ancient art as having two faces, one looking backwards while the other looks forward. Janus is also symbolic of changes and transformations. The prospect of exiting and entering, of endings and new beginnings, and [...]
Sylvain Chomet’s animated film The Illusionist (2010) is based on a script by Jacques Tati, the famous French director and master of live-action physical comedy. The film’s lead character, a magician, goes on a tour of the UK which takes him from London to Edinburgh. The magician is given Tati’s own original Slavic surname, Tatischeff. [...]
Inspired by Norse mythology, Thor was created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby in 1962. The film follows the hero (Chris Hemsworth), who is a god and lives in a realm called Asgard. His father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is the king of Asgard and he casts Thor to earth as punishment for his [...]
Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer triumphed at this year’s European Film Academy’s 23rd European Film Awards. The film, which I have reviewed here, took the best screenwriter, composer, director and the overall film award, at a ceremony on Saturday (04/12/2010) in snowy Tallinn, Estonia – European Capital of Culture 2011. The best animated feature film award went [...]
Teetering on the edge between melodrama and high art, “Black Swan” is a gripping, spooky, exultant picture that is as beautiful as it is ugly. Sure to divide audiences, its experimental, allegorical magic realism is the skeleton upon which the flesh of a twisted, psychological character piece is built. Nina (Natalie Portman) is a rising star in [...]
We’ll always have Casablanca
‘Carnage’ slaughters dialogue with theatrics
Loco: London’s 1st Comedy Film Festival
Orlando: Does Sex Matter?
A soothing demise: Lars von Trier’s ‘Melancholia’ considered
The Power of Limits in The Five Obstructions
Surviving ‘Surviving Life’
‘The Other’ at The 2nd London Iranian Film Festival
‘Leaving’: Made in Prague
A Step Forward: New African Film in Paris
