The First Assignment Directed by Giorgia Cecere Italy, 2010 The First Assignment is a triumph of a romantic drama. Beautifully paced, photographed, and acted, the film takes well-worn material – the long-distance relationship – and fashions it into a meaningful experience that’s refreshingly free of cinematic sap and outdated gender roles. Nena (Isabella Ragonese) is …
The Devil Inside Me Directed by Zhang Qi China, 2011 The Devil Inside Me is either one of the all-time, comically bad attempts at a dramatic thriller, or one of the best tongue-in-cheek B-melodrama this side of John Waters. Unfortunately for director Zhang Qi, all signs, including the serious way that the subject matter …
The Good Neighbour Directed by Stephan Rick Germany 2011 Falling somewhere between cold psychodrama and deliberate thriller, Stephan Rick’s The Good Neighbour is a slick, cyclical drama filled with moral anxieties and suburban violence. David (Maxim Mehmet) moves next door to Robert (Charly Hübner). David is good-looking, young and ambitious. Robert is the opposite, yet …
Friday Killer Directed by Yuthlert Sippapak Thailand, 2009 The first part of a trilogy (followed by, you guessed it, Saturday Killer and Sunday Killer) Friday Killer is an odd hodge-podge of allusion and genre bending that very nearly clicks fully together in the end. Pay Uzi (Thep Po-ngam) is a professional hitman. He’s old, …