‘Trumbo’ looks big but feels small
Though there is much to admire in ‘Trumbo,’ it never quite sparks to life
Elle Fanning
‘Low Down’ hits some off notes but thrives on actors and style
Jazz can be vivacious and alive, but it can also get down real low. It becomes reserved, intimate, raw and wholly adult. Bebop demands a refined ear and a patient listener, and good music challenges you to listen closely and find the blues and pain within.
CIFF Day 5: ‘The Look of Silence’ and ‘Low Down’
On this, my last day of the festival, I saw two films that didn’t make me smile but made me glad I was there. Both The Look of Silence and Low Down proved to be among my favorites, this despite the fact that they are bleak, hard to watch, and provocative pieces of filmmaking. The …
‘Maleficent’ boasts a memorable lead performance and little else
Maleficent Written by Linda Woolverton Directed by Robert Stromberg USA, 2014 Every year or so, apropos of very little, the Walt Disney Company will showcase a new series of ads courtesy of acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz, in which a celebrity plays one of the company’s iconic human characters, whether it’s Jessica Chastain as Princess Merida …
Beautifully shot, ‘Ginger & Rosa’ is otherwise a misfire from Sally Potter
Ginger & Rosa Written and directed by Sally Potter UK/Denmark/Canada/Croatia, 2012 The latest film from writer-director Sally Potter opens with the famous images of the spreading mushroom cloud detonation in Hiroshima. After letting that footage unravel in all its slow-motion horror, the film cuts to the start of its narrative, but not before one addition …
Sally Potter’s ‘Ginger & Rosa’ is pretty but vacant
Ginger & Rosa Written and directed by Sally Potter UK/Denmark/Canada/Croatia, 2012 The latest film from writer-director Sally Potter opens with the famous images of the spreading mushroom cloud detonation in Hiroshima. After letting that footage unravel in all its slow-motion horror, the film cuts to the start of its narrative, but not before one addition …
NYFF 2012: Sally Potter’s ‘Ginger & Rosa’ builds upon silent pain to brief poignancy
Ginger & Rosa Directed by Sally Potter UK / Denmark / Canada, 2012 Less daring than her adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s gender bending Orlando and more accessible than the erotic Yes (with all dialogue spoken entirely in iambic pentameter)- director Sally Potter’s Ginger & Rosa is emotionally raw but disappointingly uneven in it’s storytelling. Centering …
Ten Filmmakers Who Should Have Directed The Great Gatsby
Though time will only tell if Baz Luhrmann is the right filmmaker to tackle The Great Gatsby, I remain a skeptic. The material may suggest a certain grandiosity that Luhrmann has proved to be able to bring to life but the story remains fundamentally simple and down to earth. The novel is highly critical of …
‘Twixt’ Movie Review – Bounces with self-deprecating humour and love for American Kitsch
Twixt Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola USA, 2011 Francis Ford Coppola’s newest film, Twixt, enters the realm of popular supernatural dime novels. Val Kilmer is Hall Baltimore, a second-rate Stephen King who is in a slump. Not only has he lost all enthusiasm for the series of novels about witches, but his personal …
‘Super 8’ pays tribute to early Spielberg, with mixed results
Super 8 Written by J. J. Abrams Directed by J.J. Abrams USA, 2011 Depending on who you ask, Steven Spielberg is either Hollywood’s longest-running hack or its most dependable artist. On one point, however, his detractors and defenders must surely agree: Spielberg is, or at least was, an innovator. His run of blockbusters starting in …