Lewin paces his film almost perfectly before bringing things to a resounding and moving conclusion, and all within a sub-100-minute running time that proves – once again – that a film doesn’t have to be a three-hour epic to offer something of value. Highly recommended.
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There’s a tension that runs throughout the entire film, culminating in a final half hour that is literally edge of your seat stuff. This is up there with some of the best moments of tension you’ll ever see in a Hitchcock film; it’s that good.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Argo
The Sapphires is an incredibly ambitious outing. Any film that tackles racism, the Stolen Generation and the Vietnam War is going to have its work cut out. Even more impressive is that fact that the film ends up being such a feel-good experience.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading The Sapphires
Alois Nebel leaves a lot of blanks for the audience to fill in. The stylised nature of the film itself meant that I wasn’t even sure of the timeframe in which the film was set until I heard mention of the Berlin Wall coming down.
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Their moments of pure ambition, wonder and apprehension at what is going on before them are truly palpable, and if it wasn’t for such well-written characters, we’d find it hard to believe that they’d go to the lengths they do.
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The strength of Love Like Poison lies in the simple and honest nature of the storytelling. In the quest for realism, writers Quillévéré and Mariette Désert aren’t too focussed on easy answers, so don’t expect everything to be tied in a neat bundle by the film’s end.
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Infused with a palpable sense of place, the film’s images feel constantly dirty and/or soggy. Despite the denizens of the Bathtub living in what might seem to many viewers as squalor, we quickly gain an appreciation of the community and their traditions. This is the type of film that really made me think about the way in which I live.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Beasts of the Southern Wild
I was fully prepared to believe that he’s a much better actor than the Twilight films would have you believe, but if that’s the case then he doesn’t prove it here. Cosmopolis needed a magnetic central performance to keep it all together; Pattinson regularly sounds like he’s merely reciting the lines of a script.
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The foul odour of imperialism isn’t too far off, yet the film manages to avoid it for the most part by simply not being concerned about the country in which it’s set at all. First and foremost it’s about a group of people nearing the end of their lives and looking back on what they’ve done; the setting is for the most part immaterial.
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As a psychological drama and depiction of life in the theatre, it’s an interesting tale. Above all, the performance of Christensen is magnificent. The film doesn’t stack up perfectly against similarly-themed contemporaries, but it’s a decent film nonetheless.
Rating: Hoopla Factor: Continue reading Cracks in the Shell