In an unnamed African nation, child soldiers wield guns and machetes, swallow fistfuls of pills and hunt for a rebel leader called “The Boxer”. A coffee plantation is falling apart with no one to bring in the harvest. Workers are threatened by government soldiers, marauding bands of thugs, and their own liberation movement. In White [...]
Read More blu-ray, Claire Denis, drama, DVD, Isabelle Huppert, Unrate, war, White Material“How are you going to go back to the civilian world?” “I have no idea.” A documentary is not the gospel, yet they’re treated most times as absolute truth. Sadly, most historical dramatizations committed to film are treated this way. Witness Oliver Stone’s JFK. We feel that “fact” is presented before us on the screen, [...]
Read More blu-ray, documentary, DVD, R, Restrepo, warTriage is a solid if unspectacular war-photographer drama á la Under Fire or Salvador that, while not nearly as energetic as those films, contains some solid performances from a cast including Colin Farrell, Paz Vega and 86-year-old Christopher Lee. Based on a book by war correspondent Scott Anderson, it’s set in 1988 and shows Irish [...]
Read More blu-ray, Branko Djuric, Christopher Lee, Colin Farrell, Danis Tanovic, drama, DVD, Jamie Sives, Paz Vega, R, Triage, warAs a guy, I’m pretty much the wrong gender to be reviewing any movie based on a book by Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook), but here we are with Dear John, a particularly nasty piece of dude repellent starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried about a pair of pretty young people and their absurdly melodramatic romantic [...]
Read More Amanda Seyfried, blu-ray, Channing Tatum, David, Dear John, drama, DVD, Henry Thomas, Jamie Linden, Lasse Hallström, Nicholas Sparks, PG-13, Richard Jenkins, romance, warThe Messenger has a lot going for it. The plot line is unique and ripe with potential. Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster play soldiers assigned to the Casualty Notification Office – they are the ones who ring the doorbell of the survivors to tell them that their loved one has died. Harrelson’s character, Tony Stone, [...]
Read More Ben Foster, blu-ray, drama, DVD, joyce, R, romance, Samantha Morton, Steve Buscemi, The Messenger, war, Woody HarrelsonThe Men Who Stare at Goats is the first feature directed by Grant Heslov. Heslov is perhaps best know as a producer and writing partner of George Clooney. To me he will always be the guy who loved coffee in Dante’s Peak.
Read More blu-ray, comedy, DVD, Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Grant Heslov, jeff bridges, Jon Ronson, Kevin Spacey, Noah, R, The Men Who Stare At Goats, warBrothers is a 2009 American drama-war film starring Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman. Directed by Jim Sheridan, the film is based on Susanne Bier‘s 2004 Danish film Brothers (Brødre) which takes place in Afghanistan and Denmark.
Read More blu-ray, Brothers, camilla, drama, DVD, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jim Sheridan, Natalie Portman, R, Suzanne Bier, thriller, Tobey Maguire, warFrancis Bacon not so much with a brush but with scalpel strokes lay back the skin of a dark existence. Gauguin sought, found and painted his garden of Eden. Basquiat, careerist that he was, perhaps didn’t completely translate but at least jotted down semaphore signals from the streets. In films trying to interpret the lives [...]
Read More biography, drama, DVD, Not Rated, Seraphine, Ulrich Tukur, war, Yolande MoreauLately I’ve been a bit vexed by the phrase “action movie.” Of all the genres into which films are categorized, it might be the most nebulous and perhaps most likely to disappoint those who seek it. What exactly defines an action flick? A cynic might say that an action picture is one that uses violence [...]
Read More action, Anthony Mackie, blu-ray, Brian Geraghty, drama, DVD, Guy Pearce, Jeremy Renner, Kathryn Bigelow, R, The Hurt Locker, thriller, war, willWhen I saw Adam Resurrected at the Telluride Film Festival in 2008, I thought Jeff Goldblum would finally receive some accolades for his acting – at least a Best Actor nomination. Instead, nothing. This strange, riveting and powerful film received almost no theatrical release, and no critical acclaim to speak of. Let’s give it its [...]
Read More Adam Resurrected, Bruce, drama, DVD, Jeff Goldblum, Paul Schrader, R, war