Shame Directed by Steve McQueen Written by Abi Morgan and Steve McQueen 2011, UK If there is one aspect of human psychology that is truly at odds with our evolutionary imperative, it is shame. It’s not that shame is antithetical to sex, but it is a revulsion of the body and a retreat from the …
My Week with Marilyn Written by Adrian Hodges Directed by Simon Curits 2011, USA My Week with Marilyn showcases a pantheon of amazing British talents and gives them the chance to do what they do best: awe an audience, but the performance everyone will be talking about belongs to Michelle Williams. Williams inhabits Monroe in …
When we talk about modernism in cinema, we are talking about filmmaking that acknowledges the medium as part of the storytelling, a melding of form and content so that the images on screen portray not just actions but interior psychology and moral quandaries. Keeping that in mind, it is hard to deny that the Dardenne …
Miss Bala Directed by Gerardo Naranjo 2011, Mexico Yet another long day at the Lincoln Center, the wait for Miss Bala proved to be just as timely. And rightfully so. With an array of festival passes lining the newly established Beale Theater of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, it was indeed a sure sign …
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory Directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky 2011, USA The cameras and filmmakers are plainly visible in Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, the third, and likely last, documentary on the West Memphis Three from Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. The two previous Paradise Lost films have been a major driving force in …
This Is Not A Film Directed by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb & Jafar Panahi Written by Jafar Panahi 2010, Iran When the Iranian government moved last year to formally ban Jafar Panahi from writing or directing any future films for the next two decades, Panahi decided to interpret the ban in the narrowest terms possible. He can …
A Dangerous Method Directed by David Cronenberg Written by Christopher Hampton 2011, Canada At the press conference immediately following a screening of David Cronenberg’s latest, A Dangerous Method, the director was asked how the film relates to the rest of his work. “I don’t really think about my other movies,” Cronenberg replied. It is a …
A Separation Written and directed by Asghar Farhadi Iran, 2011 A Separation is one of those multi-purpose titles that suggests many different conditions under examination in this richly textured film. The most obvious separation is the dissolution of the marriage between two main characters, Simin (Leila Hatami) and Nader (Peyman Moadi). Simin has a visa …
The only way to start talking about Nicholas Ray’s We Can’t Go Home Again is to first search for the words to describe how the film appears on screen. For the most part, a black rectangle appears over a matte – a shifting series of still images of the Binghamton University campus, where Ray was …
Carnage Directed by Roman Polanski Written by Roman Polanski (screenplay), Yasmina Reza (play) 2011, France Carnage is a lean story about a group of people who cannot leave an apartment. Sometimes they manage to go into an alternate room, even as far as getting into an elevator, but somehow each person is pulled together again. …
Carnage Directed by Roman Polanski Written by Roman Polansi 2011, France The inciting incident of Carnage involves two preadolescent boys having a disagreement in a public park. Their tiff escalates until one of them strikes the other in the face with a stick. The majority of the film then focuses on the parents of …
The 99 Unbound Directed by Dave Osborne The 99 Unbound, the first animated feature to be derived from comic series The 99, opens with these lines: “It is said that all the darkness of the world could be shattered by the light in just one pure heart. Imagine then, the hope that …
Andrew Bird: Fever Year Directed by Xan Aranda 2011, USA Andrew Bird’s music has been described as “unclassifiable.” Likewise, the movie that chronicles the last couple concerts of what Bird playfully names his “Fever Year” is also hard to categorize. An intriguing amalgamation of documentary and concert film, Andrew Bird: Fever Year provides incredible insight …
We Can’t Go Home Again Directed by Nicholas Ray Screenplay by Nicholas Ray 1976 – USA Rain isn’t stopping reviewers and critics alike from getting their first tastes of the 49th annual New York Film Festival. With cups of coffee readily in hand, the New York mentality is definitely in the air as the festival …