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FILM REVIEWS

SLEEP DEALER

" Alex Rivera’s remarkable Sleep Dealer is one of the most original and arresting takes on the cyberpunk genre I’ve ever seen or read. Told primarily from the point of view of a poor Mexican laborer, Sleep Dealer achieves two things: One, it turns the whole cyberpunk genre on its head ... "

STALAGS: PORNOGRAPHY AND HOLOCAUST

IN ISRAEL

" The subject matter of Ari Libsker’s Stalags: Holocaust and Pornography in Israel is utterly outrageous and absurd, yet this remarkable documentary manages to retain a sober, balanced tone, as if it were calmly analyzing global warming or rising unemployment. Stalags chronicles the rise and fall of a genre of literature ... "

TIMECRIMES

" Films that feature time travel are at best a difficult task. Fortunately, Spanish director Nacho Vigalando does not waste any time in trying to unravel or solve the paradoxes of this genre. Rather, his clever, if not 100% plausible Timecrimes is a playful experiment "

FANTASTICAL PARASUICIDES

" Combining the worst elements of avant-garde and masochistic Korean cinema, Fantastic Parasuicides is an incoherent mess. The film is divided into three separate chapters directed by three directors. The first chapter, Park Soo-Young’s Hanging Tough, opens with a schoolgirl. "

VISIONEERS

" With a strong nod to Brazil and Metropolis, and more oblique nods to Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz, VISONEERS relies on strong characters and quirky but compelling writing to tell its story of the ‘everyman’ George, who is suffocating under the oppressive weight of an ersatz, corporate crafted, “happiness” culture "

APOLLO 54

" Bobby Joe and Jim Bob are a modern day Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, or maybe more like Laurel and Hardy, who, after discovering a mysterious cable (that starts in a nearby woods, runs up through the clouds, and beyond), construct a ‘cable car’ space ship to ride the cable wherever it takes them. Meanwhile, the Earth they leave behind "

MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH

" In Mysteries of Pittsburgh Writer-director Rawson Marshall Thurber (whose previous film was Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story) presents a reasonably interesting and compelling seeming set-up. The basic elements of a good story are all lined up and ready to be knocked down. The cast is competent and attractive "

OPIUM: DIARY OF A MADWOMAN

" Opium: Diary of a Madwoman is one of the most difficult, but one of the most rewarding films I’ve ever seen. It is a heavy piece of work, but it never drives you away. Rather, like lunatic asylum inmate Gizella (an astonishing Kristi Stubo), you’ll also find yourself caged and trapped in a prison run by sadistic doctors and nuns. Fortunately, Opium is not a film that revels in sadism "

VEXILLE

"Fumihiko Sori’s Vexille is a mixed bag of delights and disappointments. Anime fans (such as myself) will enjoy immersing themselves in the visually stunning landscapes, the hard-edged cyberpunk storyline, and the rich, layered original score. Yet just as this film is about to soar, the writers unfortunately apply the brakes and grind Vexille into a series of woefully cliché scenes, undermining..."

JAR CITY

" Jar City is one of the grimiest, most appetite-killing films I’ve seen in the festival so far; even so, it is a surprisingly enjoyable, taut thriller. Set in the grim, washed out vistas of Iceland, Jar City is a sure-footed, confident police procedural in the tradition of Bullitt and Stray Dog. Ingvar Sigurosson is excellent "

CHOKE

" A “sex farce” with a warm heart that’s really more than a sex farce, and actually, surprisingly, has something of value to say about intimacy and memory, self-love and acceptance, CHOKE follows the somewhat cynical, under-achieving, sex-addict therapy-session-avoiding exploits ."

ABOUT WATER

" There is much in common between Udo Maurer’s About Water and Yung Chang’s brilliant Up The Yangtze. Both filmmakers take great pains to create a seemingly hands-free cinema verite, resulting in works of art that are far more moving and provocative than any politically charged..."

CHERRY BLOSSOMS HANAMI

" Inspired by the films of Yasujiro Ozu, Director/writer Doris Dörrie first overwhelms us with the noise and color of Tokyo, then utterly charms us with the revelation of its small-detailed, transcendent beauty. From a certain point forwards, we find ourselves at every step in deep resonance ..."

HALF LIFE

" Half Life has its quirks and a few minor flaws (this is the first feature effort by Phang), to be sure, but it is a sublime, poetic work that epitomizes the true appeal and strength of independent film, and one that you’ll want to watch more than once. Writer/director Phang is a talented and visionary filmmaker to watch for in the future."

THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD

" Written and directed by Sean McGinly, competently acted by all (the script does not demand any great emotional range from its players, apart from the sporadic, outrage of Buck), TGBH is not a great film, but it is a very good film ..."

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	BEN X " If you read the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, you will discover a lot of similar elements in Nic Balthazar’s extraordinary, cleanly produced Ben X. Both the novel and this movie bring us into the mindset of an autistic person ..." READ MORE
	YOUNG PEOPLE FUCKING " The agenda of Martin Gero’s Young People Fucking is fairly clear; to get couples (specifically, straight white couples) horny by creating situations they can “relate to”. However, he fails to realize people don’t talk like they are trying to remember their lines in an off-Broadway play ..." READ MORE
	MAD DETECTIVE " Stylish and bizarre, Mad Detective is a showdown between Inspector Bun (Lau Ching Wan), a cop with schizophrenia and Chi-Wai (Lam Ka Tung), another cop with multiple personalities. Mad Detective creates one of the most intriguing and original approaches to personality that I have ever seen on film ..." READ MORE
	BLOOD BROTHERS " Hackneyed and overly sentimental, Alexi Tan’s Blood Brothers is a by-the-numbers Hong Kong gangster flick that commits the cardinal sin of any crime film … it’s boring ..." READ MORE
	MIRAGEMAN " Charming and forgettable, Mirageman’s low budget works in its favor. The best scenes involve the low income, amateur status of Maco aka “Mirageman” (Marko Zaror); he puts together a laughably bad costume, and his quick-change is clumsy and under the circumstances, fairly realistic. Try ripping your clothes off and donning your superhero duds, and see how long ..." READ MORE

THE LAST MISTRESS

" This rich, sensual, period (19th century) drama delves deeply and darkly into sexual manners and manipulation, underpinned by the dual themes of fidelity and jealousy. It is the story of an “untitled gentleman” --one Ryno de Marigny (played by Fu’ad Aït Aattou )-- who must forsake his older mistress--the widow of a well-to-do Spanish aristocrat (played by Asia Argento)--for marriage to a younger, beautiful ingénue of noble blood ..."

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HIDDEN FACE

" From the initial, halting notes of an attempted Bach piano fugue, and then the voiced over, first person narration: “Sometimes waking up scares me…”, we are drawn into this well-executed, introspective film that is a throw back of sorts to the classic, art house, existential cinema so often associated with the French. The film is ..."

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SUMMER HEAT (ZOMMERHITTE)

" And yet, the story’s “mystery” is somehow obvious (or unexciting), not utterly predictable really (the were a couple of tense moments), but simply, well, ordinary. Everything that happens here seems perfectly acceptable, and minor questions are resolved in a satisfactory manner ..."

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BATTLE IN SEATTLE

"As much as I want to like this dramatization of the 1999 WTO protests, I’m sorry to report that Battle in Seattle is your run of the mill, horribly contrived underdog movie so full of formulaic dialog that you could practically watch this film in mute and still know what everyone is saying ..."

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SAVAGE GRACE

"Neither savage nor graceful, Tom Kalin’s ponderous and poorly edited Savage Grace is a sloppy attempt at Reversal of Fortune, minus the coherent story ..."

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THE EDGE OF HEAVEN

" It’s a bit of a cliché to compare a film so full of fully realized characters and shifting timelines to the works of Robert Altman. So, I’ll refrain from describing The Edge of Heaven as “Altmanesque”, for that pseudo-adjective does not do justice to this fantastic, heartbreaking film ..."

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BEFORE THE RAINS

"... Several times in the film we here someone say “I have/had no choice.” And yet, there is a choice at every turn (certainly for the two lovers at the very start, knowing the great risks), and these choices, of course, create the karmic threads of this affecting story ..."

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BALLAST

"... I will give Hammer and his crew this much credit: Ballast is a beautiful film, finely shot and edited, and for a debut, it’s not shabby at all. There is a finely realized naturalism to this film that is powerful and true. But I would challenge Mr. Hammer to do something more. Surprise me. Throw me off guard. For as pretty as this portrait is, it’s a picture I’ve already seen a thousand times..."

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GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF HUNTER S THOMPSON

"... Neither a slavish tribute nor a damning indictment, Gonzo is a simply a straightforward account (as straightforward as Hell’s Angles gangbangs, acid trips to Vegas, and drunken target practice can be) of Thompson’s life and times, accompanied by the most cliché of 60s tunes. Surely Gibney could have ..."

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SITA SINGS THE BLUES

"... A vivid, feminist recasting of the Indian epic Ramayana, Sita Sings The Blues has all you would expect in a lavish Bollywood production: romantic songs, bhangra dance beats, glitzy dance numbers, and a ridiculous story. But given the film’s source material, that’s not too surprising. An excellent companion piece to last year’s Persepolis, Sita Sings the Blues is another animated triumph ..."

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	CONTINENTAL, A FILM WITHOUT GUNS "... The most interesting part of the film is the first two minutes. A businessman gets on a bus, falls asleep, and wakes up to find the bus empty on a lonely road. He gets off, and then wanders off into the woods. Unfortunately, the film never really explores this cryptic opening. Instead, I was handed what amounted to a cinematic bait and switch ..." READ MORE
	MONGOL "... A certain, undeniable giddiness pervades Mongol. This excitement is primordial, one that we city dwellers have long buried in our sedentary, cement based lives. Sergei Bodrov’s Mongol revives that long slumbering love of wide-open spaces and unbridled freedom. Though this flawed epic does stumble with several arbitrary scene transitions, the sheer joy and grit of Mongol will stir the wild nomad in all of us..." READ MORE
	EMMANUEL JAL; WAR CHILD "... Still, through all the mawkish platitudes and hokey music, Jal’s story is at once powerful and unbelievable. There is no denying Jal has led an epic adventure, full of madness, brutality, courage, and tenacity. And it’s precisely for that reason that I wish Chrobog would just step back and stop trying to make a hagiography of Jal ..." READ MORE
	UP THE YANGTZE "... The result is a series of very evocative, emotional scenes, all the more heartbreaking as we watch the fairly stoic Yu and Chen’s dreams crumble around them. The surreal images are choice, from tourists dressed in kitschy emperor’s robes describing their impressions of China to a man attempting to teach Chinese through piano ditties. .." READ MORE

THE SAGA OF ANATAHAN

"... Anatahan, produced in 1953, was director Joseph von Sternberg’s last film. The story transpires over a 6 year period, during which the sailors continue to believe that the war waged beyond the horizon continues, and that their countrymen will return and rescue them. Told without subtitles, but with English narration, the black and white film has the distinct feel of an ..."

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BOTTLE SHOCK

"... Despite the heavy-handed scripting, cliché bar scenes of boisterous camaraderie, the obligatory familial drama, and, of course, the utterly predictable outcome, Bottle Shock will most likely prove popular with general audiences. This is primarily because the whole point of the movie is to restage the US’s upstaging (trouncing, actually) of the French wine industry and its elites. .."

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MERMAID

"... the film is decidedly darker despite its peppering of whimsical scenes, odd-ball humor, and eccentric characters. Directed and co-written by Anna Melikian, Mermaid is the story of Alisa, the “illegitimate” off-spring of a sailor and a rather corpulent young (and naked) maiden of a semi-impoverished, sea-side village (we never see the act, and one could infer that it was a rape) ..."

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