Saturday, July 4, 2015
The Imposter (2012)
A documentary centered on a young man in Spain who claims to a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who has been missing for 3 years.
A compelling documentary about a very unusual crime that has style and atmosphere - and the perpetrator himself as one of the main interviewees.
New Stuff: Jazz e altre visioni
Three jazz films by Gianni Amico, made in the late ‘60s, when Italy was embracing the American leaders of the avant garde movement. These films which include Don Cherry, Gato Barbieri, Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, Mal Waldron and others are said to document the era in a cinema verite style.
127 Hours (2010)
A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive.
An unusual stoy about a terrifying misadventure is professionally handled with an imaginative inventory of cinematic tricks, but exactly all the cleverness in its production makes it artificial and only fairly engaging.
Maltin***: "Franco gives a fearless and emotionally engaging performance in this unusual film from Boyle...Squeamish viewers may want to avert their eyes during one key scene."
Friday, July 3, 2015
Thursday, July 2, 2015
First Lines: E. C. Bentley - Trent's Last Case
Between what matters and what seems to matter, how should the world we know judge wisely?
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
The Divide (2011)
Survivors of a nuclear attack are grouped together for days in the basement of their apartment building, where fear and dwindling supplies wear away at their dynamic.
Intense closed-room drama with some nasty scenes and a lot of over-the-top performances.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Per un pugno di dollari (1964)
A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.
Not the first, but by far the most influential and best known spaghetti western masterpiece, creating its first international star, cementing its director's reputation as one of cinema's greatest and setting the standards for the genre in attitude, mise en scene, cinematography and sound (score by Ennio Morricone).
Halliwell***: "A film with much to answer for: it began the craze for 'spaghetti Westerns', took its director to Hollywood, and made a TV cowboy into a world star. It turned the Western into a brutal baroque opera, a violent clash between individuals."
Maltin***: "Sagebrush remake of YOJIMBO single-handedly invented the "spaghetti Western", made an international superstar of Eastwood, and boosted the carrerers of Leone and composer Ennio Morricone as well...Amusing, violent, and very stylish."
Hallowed Ground (2007)
After she becomes stranded in a small town, a young woman discovers her arrival there was foretold a century earlier by the town's founding preacher and that she is an integral part of his impending - and terrifying - rebirth.
Run-of-the-mill horror thriller slovenly staged and with no surprises to uphold any suspense.
Monday, June 29, 2015
First Lines: Arthur Conan Doyle - The Hound of the Baskervilles
One of Sherlock Holmes' defects - if, indeed, one may call it a defect - was that he was exceedingly loth to communicate his full plans to any other person until the instant of their fulfilment.
R.I.P. Chris Squire
Eulogy:
http://www.noise11.com/news/r-i-p-chris-squire-of-yes-1948-2015-20150629
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Dorian Gray (2009)
A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty eternally, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.
Docile adaptation of the Oscar Wilde novel with some emphasis on the goth elements; despite good production value and a worthy cast not particularly stirring.
Maltin**: "Glum, often ghastly rendering of Oscar Wilde's novel...Director Parker did well by Wilde in AN IDEAL HUSBAND, but this adaptation removes all the wit from the source material and substitutes gore and gloom."