THE TAKING OF TIGER MOUNTAIN has blood, guts, and sentiment. Based on actual events, and on the novel by Bo Qu, it’s a sweeping epic of a war film set in northwest China just after World War II has ended, when the government has collapse into corruption, bandits are terrorizing the villages, and the People’s… Read More »
THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ALLEGIANT
As is the wont with these franchises based on young adult novels, THE DIVERGENT SERIES: ALLEGIANT, the third in the series, begins where the last one left off. No flashback montage, no character narration bringing us up to date. Instead, there’s just a quick reminder that Jeanine is dead, and that everyone on screen is… Read More »
EYE IN THE SKY
As if we needed to be reminded of what a loss Alan Rickman’s death represents to cinema, we have his final speech in Gavin Hood’s incisive consideration of collateral damage and the ethics of warfare, EYE IN THE SKY.
LONDON HAS FALLEN
Full disclosure, I was not a fan of OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN, the previous film exploring the victim/savior relationship between President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and crack Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler). Thus, I was not hoping for much when I approached LONDON HAS FALLEN. The trick to staying sane in this business is… Read More »
GODS OF EGYPT
The ancient Greeks preached moderation in all things, and while GODS OF EGYPT is set in that ancient land, not the Peloponnese, I was put in mind of that advice. This is a film of craven excess in all things except what would have helped most: a good script. For two hours or so, we… Read More »
THE WITCH
The true horror in THE WITCH does not lie in its supernatural underpinnings. Rather this dour psychological thriller plumbs the depths of madness that human nature invites upon itself with a closed mind and a conviction of righteousness. Set in a New World colony in the early 17th century, it is an incisive deconstruction of… Read More »
THE CLUB (El Club)
Near the beginning of THE CLUB, a shot rings out and the ramifications of that sound will echo throughout this quietly intense film about accepting guilt and attempting redemption. It happens shortly after a new resident arrives at a secluded house on the windswept Chilean coast where priests live cloistered an apart from the world… Read More »
THE WAVE (Bølgen)
A refreshing Nordic reserve permeates the action/adventure in Norway’s Oscar™ contender, THE WAVE. While most films vying for the foreign language award are of the small, intimate, and character-driven variety, THE WAVE pulls out all the stops with a disaster epic that is edge-of-your-seat suspenseful. Even the usual clichés to be found in the genre… Read More »
RAMS (Hrútar)
In northern Iceland where distractions are few, there is time enough to refine feuds to a fine art. And so it is with brothers Gummi (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and Kiddi (Theodór Júlíusson), the metaphorical rams of RAMS, whose 40-year feud has been fueled by living side by side for all that time on the sheep ranch… Read More »
WOMAN IN THE DUNES (SUNA NO ONNA)
WOMAN IN THE DUNES, based on the novel by screenwriter Kôbô Abe, is the kind of film that sparks all manner of discussion over what it all means. When it arrived stateside in 1964, it was hyped as being wildly erotic. Well, there are a few shy nude shots of the winsome leading lady, but its eroticism, replete… Read More »
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