Valley of Shadow
In Belgian director Nic Balthazar’s visually stunning Ben X, a boy with Asperger's inhabits a video game fantasy world while being bullied and victimized at school.
by Howard Schumann
Also reviewed: Forever.
A SAD AWAKENING
The Visitor, Thomas McCarthy's sensitive, naturalistic sophomore effort, asks what would would happen: if average white middle-class Americans became truly sensitive to the horrific plight of many foreigners in this country, in the story of a lonely teacher (Richard Jenkins) who befriends the foreign couple renting his New York apartment.
by Chris Knipp
FLICKS
by Chris Dashiell
APPLAUSE (Rouben Mamoulian, 1929).
The creaky old story about a burlesque star (Helen Morgan) who tries to protect her daughter from the sordid life of show biz has not worn well. But Applause was a major advance for talking pictures--Mamoulian using multiple mikes and post-synchronized sound to free up the camera.
DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST (Julie Dash, 1991).
A dreamlike, impressionistic story about an early 20th century black community on one of the Gullah Sea Islands off the coast
of Georgia, and the first feature directed by an African American woman, Daughters of the Dust is truly one of a kind. Dash´s eccentric style lets the characters and events impress themselves on us subliminally.
THE NUN (Jacques Rivette, 1966).
An adaptation of the 18th century Diderot novel portrays the sad life of a young woman (Anna Karina) who is forced into being a nun, and experiences first persecution and then an atmosphere of corrupt sexuality. It's a model of sensitive, restrained drama, and it was banned by the French government.
WHEN A WOMAN ASCENDS THE STAIRS
(Mikio Naruse, 1960).
A Tokyo bar hostess (Hideko Takamine) faces difficult choices as she nears the age of thirty, in this complex, moving, fiercely intelligent film by the underrated Naruse. Not a tearjerker, but a multi-layered drama, measured in tone and covering a wide range
of feeling and insight.ALIBI (Roland West, 1929).
A policeman's daughter (Eleanore Griffith) marries an ex-con (Chester Morris) and then provides his alibi after a cop is murdered. The acting and the story are terribly outdated. What's interesting is the director's abstract visual style, heavily influenced by German expressionism.
Leatherheads
George Clooney's third directorial effort is a mere diversion, an entertanment about the days when pro football was a joke. But it has one thing going for it: Clooney himself in the lead role.
by Chris Knipp
Everyday Magic
In Caramel, a bittersweet comedy set in Beirut, writer-director Nadine Labaki has woven a tapestry of the fading beauty of an ancient city, old traditions being confronted by the new, and the discovery of the bonds between people that make relationships worth celebrating.
by Howard Schumann
Also reviewed: August Rush.
THE UNFORESEEN
Laura Dunn's documentary examines the role of developers in our ongoing eco-disaster, focusing on the case of Austin's threatened Barton Springs. Unfortunately, the films lacks the needed scope and perspective.
by Chris Knipp
FORSAKEN
J.A. Bayona's The Orphanage expertly employs ghost story conventions to go beyond the genre into an exploration of loss, mourning, and the deepest fears within motherhood.
Also: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days.
by Chris Dashiell
I saw Vantage Point six different ways—before I'd even seen it. The film itself, a soulless gimmick about an attempted assassination, told me nothing more than I'd already known from the trailer.
by Chris Knipp
THE COUNTERFEITERS
The struggle between survival and conscience has rarely been more clearly drawn than in The Counterfeiters, the true story of a Nazi plot to use Jewish prisoners to forge U.S. and U.K. currencies.
by Howard Schumann
Alex Gibney's powerful and disturbing documentary shows that the torture and wrongful imprisonment and lawlessness of the U.S. indicates a country that has become very cruel and very stupid under Bush the second.
by Chris Knipp
BUT ONLY HOPE...
Paolo Morelli’s City of Men tells of two friends trying to survive in the violent world of the Rio slums, while Eran Kolirin’s The Band's Visit dramatizes the gradual understanding between an Egyptian police band and their Israeli hosts.
Rotterdam
Martijn ter Haar reviews four films from the Rotterdam Festival: Recycle, What On Earth Have I Done Wrong?, Let the Right One In, and The Unseeable.
Diary of the Dead, the fifth installment in George A. Romero's zombie franchise, puts hip quotations around itself while delivering the old cheap thrills.
by Chris Knipp
Coming of Age
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi's adaptation of her own graphic novel about growing up in fundamentalist Iran, is a tribute to human resilience, while Juno, Jason Reitman's comedy about a pregnant teen, overcomes its smart-alecky cleverness to make a statement of generosity and unconditional love.
by Howard Schumann
