Sometimes, maybe most of the time, ambiguous endings are cop-outs. The crime isn’t in subverting audience expectations—who wants movies without surprises?—but in betraying the stories themselves. Most stories deserve definitive endings, and audiences are rightfully frustrated when they don’t get them. But sometimes the situation is reversed and an ambiguous ending is the only way [...]
“Extraterrestrial” Director: Nacho Vigalondo Writer: Nacho Vigalondo Starring: Michelle Jenner, Carlos Areces, Julián Villagrán “Extraterrestrial” is a movie I’ve been excited about for a while, in part because of how it was marketed – the small, almost invisible glimpses of the alien ships in the posters, and the creative viral marketing aspect to it all. [...]
“Melancholia” is Lars von Trier’s intelligent, melodramatic, achingly beautiful and wickedly funny new film. It tells the story of Justine (a transcendent Kirsten Dunst), a severe depressive, and her doting and practical sister, Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Justine’s depression takes the corporeal shape of a planet called Melancholia, which is on a steady collision course with [...]
It’s Guy Fawkes Night, and the South London sky is pulsing with brilliant explosions. In the midst of the celebration, Sam (Jodie Whittaker) is mugged at knife-point by a gang of teen hoodlums. Before they get away with their meager take, however, a flaming object smashes into a nearby car. Moses (John Boyega), the gang’s leader, [...]
Critics can be a fickle bunch. Lavishing this, lambasting that. But with most films it’s relatively easy to predict the critical response. Originality, cohesiveness, perky dialogue and fleshed out characters get the O.K. Convoluted stories, dull characters and shameless wish-fulfillment fantasies are blasted. But since “Jaws” gave birth to the summer blockbuster in 1975, and that [...]
What would it be like if Alfred Hitchcock directed an episode of “Quantum Leap” with a script based on “Groundhog Day”? Well, it wouldn’t turn out exactly like “Source Code,” but it’d be pretty close. Duncan Jones (or Zowie Bowie if you prefer) wowed audiences lucky enough to catch his debut sci-fi thriller “Moon” (2009) [...]
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the cheeky Brits who brought us “Hot Fuzz” and “Shaun of the Dead,” put their heads together once again to give us their signature fanboy take on the alien encounter movie. “Paul” has enough “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” references to delight the geekiest of geeks, and more four-letter punchlines [...]
Do humans really have free will? It certainly seems like we do. But, given the right conditions, science can accurately predict the behavior of atoms. And aren’t our bodies just a giant cluster of billions of atoms? So, it should be possible, theoretically, to consistently predict human behavior, thus rendering our freedom to choose a [...]
“Enter the Void” will be loathed by a lot of people. Dismissed as a pretentious stoner flick trying desperately to dazzle. And I won’t completely disagree. But French director Gaspar Noé’s third effort is also hard to ignore. Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) is a young, soft-spoken American drug dealer who moves about almost exclusively in the [...]
At the London Film Festival press conference for Never Let Me Go, the most insightful comments about the film were made by, in this order, Andrew Garfield (lead male actor), Kazuo Ishiguro (who wrote the novel the film was based on), Ella Purnell and Izzy Meikle-Small (child actresses) and finally, director Mark Romanek, whose observations [...]
Why did we watch ‘Amour?’
Short and Swede
No: Too Good at Recreating the 80s
Lawrence of Arabia: Deserving of its Place in the Sun
Top 10 of 2012Sound of My Voice (2012)
The Master (2012)
‘Village at the End of the World’: Help Wanted?
‘Eat Sleep Die’: Asking for a little more
From Senegal to Saudi Arabia: Girls working for change
