This year, New Directors/New Films is "breaking precedent and presenting a film nearly 20 years older than the festival itself."
Nick Schager in Slant: "So loathed by Stanley Kubrick that the legendary director reportedly confiscated all existing copies to keep it out of circulation, Fear and Desire proves a modest, if relatively promising, 1953 debut for the late auteur, touching on his trademark themes via the allegorical tale of soldiers shot down behind enemy lines in an unnamed country in an unspecified time. Kubrick's story, penned by Howard Sackler, is deliberately vague with regard to nationalities and politics so that its focus can remain squarely on the psychological turmoil of its characters, a ragtag quartet that includes ruminative Lieutenant Corby (Kenneth Harp), gruff Sergeant Mac (Frank Silvera), meek Private Fletcher (Stephen Colt), and sensitive Private Sidney (future filmmaker Paul Mazursky) — men whose narrated internal monologues articulate, with frequent pretentiousness, Kubrick's investigation...
Nick Schager in Slant: "So loathed by Stanley Kubrick that the legendary director reportedly confiscated all existing copies to keep it out of circulation, Fear and Desire proves a modest, if relatively promising, 1953 debut for the late auteur, touching on his trademark themes via the allegorical tale of soldiers shot down behind enemy lines in an unnamed country in an unspecified time. Kubrick's story, penned by Howard Sackler, is deliberately vague with regard to nationalities and politics so that its focus can remain squarely on the psychological turmoil of its characters, a ragtag quartet that includes ruminative Lieutenant Corby (Kenneth Harp), gruff Sergeant Mac (Frank Silvera), meek Private Fletcher (Stephen Colt), and sensitive Private Sidney (future filmmaker Paul Mazursky) — men whose narrated internal monologues articulate, with frequent pretentiousness, Kubrick's investigation...
- 3/27/2012
- MUBI
When Restless opened Un Certain Regard in Cannes this spring, most critics groaned and moved on to their next screening. Some, though, such as Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, weren't ready to dismiss it entirely, and Daniel Kasman found a few kind words for cinematographer Harris Savides. Still, having screened in Toronto and now set for a limited release in the States tomorrow, Restless is being slapped with another round of pans.
Nick Schager in Slant: "Gus Van Sant's cinema, which of late has been fixated on immersing viewers in particular times and spaces, takes a detour into excruciating quirkland with Restless, a work of off-putting bathos and lovey-dovey nonsense that inspires not just the titular agitation, but stomach-cramping, eye-rolling antipathy. Written by Jason Lew with a dedication to making every single note ring false, this modern-hipster Love Story charts the unexpected and ill-fated romance of two dopey fictional creations,...
Nick Schager in Slant: "Gus Van Sant's cinema, which of late has been fixated on immersing viewers in particular times and spaces, takes a detour into excruciating quirkland with Restless, a work of off-putting bathos and lovey-dovey nonsense that inspires not just the titular agitation, but stomach-cramping, eye-rolling antipathy. Written by Jason Lew with a dedication to making every single note ring false, this modern-hipster Love Story charts the unexpected and ill-fated romance of two dopey fictional creations,...
- 9/16/2011
- MUBI
Updated through 6/12.
Let's begin this quick run through goings on in New York and with J Hoberman in the Voice: "Dennis Hopper changed the game with Easy Rider (1969), blew up his career with The Last Movie (1971), and then, through a never clearly explained series of events, took over and reconfigured a Canadian tax-shelter project for which he had been hired to act, thus contriving a dialectical comeback with his brutal, accomplished Out of the Blue (1980)."
"Widely banned and/or shoved under the rug at the time of its limited release primarily due to its violently bonkers ending, the film's alternately herky-jerky and languid cadence is suggestive of a terminally wounded body undergoing a death rattle." Joseph Jon Lanthier in Slant: "This produces a look and feel that communicates the blind rage and ennui out of which punk's jabby power chords and raucous lyrics sprang. But the film's punk apotheosis — the...
Let's begin this quick run through goings on in New York and with J Hoberman in the Voice: "Dennis Hopper changed the game with Easy Rider (1969), blew up his career with The Last Movie (1971), and then, through a never clearly explained series of events, took over and reconfigured a Canadian tax-shelter project for which he had been hired to act, thus contriving a dialectical comeback with his brutal, accomplished Out of the Blue (1980)."
"Widely banned and/or shoved under the rug at the time of its limited release primarily due to its violently bonkers ending, the film's alternately herky-jerky and languid cadence is suggestive of a terminally wounded body undergoing a death rattle." Joseph Jon Lanthier in Slant: "This produces a look and feel that communicates the blind rage and ennui out of which punk's jabby power chords and raucous lyrics sprang. But the film's punk apotheosis — the...
- 6/12/2011
- MUBI
"What is the famed 'Lubitsch touch' if not the quiet thrill of being in on the joke?" asks Matthew Connolly in Slant. "The director's penchant for sly elisions — the knowing pan away from imminent hanky-panky or the arch relish of his double entendres — rests upon an implicit understanding between filmmaker and viewer, a trust that, coming from such a sophisticated source, feels like a gift unto itself. He takes for granted not only a worldly knowledge of sex, romance, class, and the multitude of ways that adults so royally mix them up, but an attitude toward such foibles that is at once wry and empathetic. This cocktail of urbane compassion is a very specific blend (the eye must roll in bemusement, but also twinkle in self-recognition); or, rather, it feels specific when you watch a Lubitsch film, his observations on human experience as seemingly candid as a wicked bon mot...
- 12/24/2010
- MUBI
Updated through 5/30.
"It wasn't until I sat down and re-watched Breathless — in a beautifully restored new 35mm print — that I remembered that its sleek surface charms, while hardly insubstantial, don't really account for why we keep watching it so many decades later." Matthew Connolly in Slant: "Rather, what remains most striking, and most moving, about Breathless is its sophisticated yet largely guileless faith in the filmic medium, a cinephilia untainted by smugness or cynicism. Of course, such affection did not stop Godard from throwing out a slew of established filmmaking rules, from the continuity editing system to the notion that a film had to be inhabited by psychologically-consistent 'characters' acting out a linear, cause-and-effect 'plot.'But watching Breathless, one never gets the sense that Godard breaks these conventions out of anger or disgust — at least not yet. It comes from a place of jittery excitement and possibility, the double vision...
"It wasn't until I sat down and re-watched Breathless — in a beautifully restored new 35mm print — that I remembered that its sleek surface charms, while hardly insubstantial, don't really account for why we keep watching it so many decades later." Matthew Connolly in Slant: "Rather, what remains most striking, and most moving, about Breathless is its sophisticated yet largely guileless faith in the filmic medium, a cinephilia untainted by smugness or cynicism. Of course, such affection did not stop Godard from throwing out a slew of established filmmaking rules, from the continuity editing system to the notion that a film had to be inhabited by psychologically-consistent 'characters' acting out a linear, cause-and-effect 'plot.'But watching Breathless, one never gets the sense that Godard breaks these conventions out of anger or disgust — at least not yet. It comes from a place of jittery excitement and possibility, the double vision...
- 5/30/2010
- MUBI
Much like Green Zone, the reviews for this weekend's nerd fantasy comedy She's Out of My League are all over the map.
"...that rare modern screen comedy that is better than the trailers make it appear. What threatened to be yet another routine exercise in raunchiness instead turns out to be a sweet, charming, hilariously funny love story that could emerge as a sleeper hit. "
— Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
"...sort of a good comedy..."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"I laughed here and there, but I sort of hated everything it had to say about nerds and babes and the sliding scale of self-image."
— Michael Phillips, Chiago Tribune
"...eager to be a latter-day Woody Allen/Revenge of the Nerds fairy tale of hormonal wish fulfillment, in which a "funny" guy with quick-witted neurotic charm triumphs over the fact that he doesn't look like a stud-muffin."
— Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"...an uninspired...
"...that rare modern screen comedy that is better than the trailers make it appear. What threatened to be yet another routine exercise in raunchiness instead turns out to be a sweet, charming, hilariously funny love story that could emerge as a sleeper hit. "
— Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
"...sort of a good comedy..."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"I laughed here and there, but I sort of hated everything it had to say about nerds and babes and the sliding scale of self-image."
— Michael Phillips, Chiago Tribune
"...eager to be a latter-day Woody Allen/Revenge of the Nerds fairy tale of hormonal wish fulfillment, in which a "funny" guy with quick-witted neurotic charm triumphs over the fact that he doesn't look like a stud-muffin."
— Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"...an uninspired...
- 3/11/2010
- by reelz reelz
- Reelzchannel.com
Dear John, the latest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks romance starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried, is getting better reviews than one might've expected, given that the last adaptation of a Nick Sparks book was 2004's The Notebook.
"As midwinter sudsers go, you could do a lot worse than Dear John..."
— Matthew Connolly, Slant Magazine
"The latest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks romance looks like The Notebook with rearranged furniture."
— Scott Tobias, Onion Av Club
"Dear John exists only to coddle the sentiments of undemanding dreamers, and plunge us into a world where the only evil is the interruption of the good."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"The film takes itself much too seriously, yet its characters exist in a realm of fiction, never coming alive as actual human beings."
— Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
Next Showing:
Dear John - Trailer
Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried star - in theaters
Link | Posted...
"As midwinter sudsers go, you could do a lot worse than Dear John..."
— Matthew Connolly, Slant Magazine
"The latest adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks romance looks like The Notebook with rearranged furniture."
— Scott Tobias, Onion Av Club
"Dear John exists only to coddle the sentiments of undemanding dreamers, and plunge us into a world where the only evil is the interruption of the good."
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"The film takes itself much too seriously, yet its characters exist in a realm of fiction, never coming alive as actual human beings."
— Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
Next Showing:
Dear John - Trailer
Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried star - in theaters
Link | Posted...
- 2/5/2010
- by reelz reelz
- Reelzchannel.com
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