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September , 2010
Friday
Some of my grown-up cinephile friends, perfectly reasonable beings otherwise, turn into crybabies when it ...
Departures is nakedly manipulative. Its director, Yôjirô Takita, doesn’t show any sensitivity to tone or ...
Ghost stories. They have haunted many genres – horror-slash-supernatural, comedy, romance,  fantasy. They have been ...
Hot Fuzz is the type of movie that offers up something for just about anyone, ...

Archive for the ‘American Cinema’ Category

Please Give - Nicole Holofcener

Posted by Daniel Montgomery On June - 2 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

I wish I could write the way Nicole Holofcener writes. I wish I could write the way she directs too. It’s sometimes difficult to articulate the feelings and motivations of her characters in Please Give — they contain layers of often contradictory emotions — but they elicit our immediate empathy. There is a scene, and [...]

The Stoning of Soraya M. - Cyrus Nowrasteh

Posted by Stephanie Lundahl On May - 14 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

The Stoning of Soraya M. begins with a quote: “Don’t act like a hypocrite, who thinks he can conceal his wiles while loudly quoting the Koran;” and then proceeds to explore a situation in which the Koran becomes little more than a tool to oppress and punish. It is a film with a strong point [...]

Where the Wild Things Are - Spike Jonze

Posted by Daniel Montgomery On May - 9 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

Director Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s children’s book Where the Wild Things Are is subdued and beautiful, intelligent about the emotions of a boy from a broken home but clear and direct in expressing them. It features sublime cinematography by Lance Acord and production design by K.K. Barrett, who create a visual landscape that [...]

Cold Souls - Sophie Barthe

Posted by Stephanie Lundahl On April - 24 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

What is it that makes us human? What is it that makes each of us unique? Sophie Barthe’s Cold Souls takes on this heavy subject in a mind-bending and very meta story constructed with a lot of dark, subtle humour. Paul Giamatti, one of the most reliable actors working today, takes the lead, treating viewers [...]

Hollywoodland - Allen Coulter

Posted by Stephanie Lundahl On April - 13 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

Truth, justice, and the American way. These are the wholesome ideals in which the Superman mythology has its roots, which must have made it doubly traumatic for fans when George Reeves, the man who played Superman on TV in the 1950s, was said to have committed suicide. Allen Coulter’s Hollywoodland takes the mystery surrounding Reeves’ [...]

A Serious Man - Joel and Ethan Coen

Posted by Daniel Montgomery On March - 20 - 2010 1 COMMENT

The experience of watching A Serious Man I can only describe as an ordeal. I sat squirming in my chair, fidgeting, and then finally thrashing — yes, thrashing — in frustration. It instilled a claustrophobia that made me want to claw out of my skin.
Is it a bad movie? I think our first question should [...]

The Wolfman - Joe Johnston

Posted by Stephanie Lundahl On March - 16 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

Directed by Joe Johnston and adapted from the 1941 film starring Lon Chaney Jr., The Wolfman is a film caught between the gothic beauty of old fashioned horror films and the glossy CGI favoured by so many films today. It’s captivating when it leans towards the former, but when it gives in to the latter [...]

Shutter Island - Martin Scorsese

Posted by Daniel Montgomery On March - 10 - 2010 2 COMMENTS

Shutter Island was shuffled from an intended fall 2009 release date to February 2010, which changed its profile from Oscar-season prestige picture to a late-winter thriller with low expectations (a studio delaying a film is often a sign of a lack of confidence), but it has proven to be a sound business decision; though the [...]

A Single Man - Tom Ford

Posted by Daniel Montgomery On February - 28 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

“Even the music makes me want to kill myself,” said a man a few rows down from me during the closing credits. I laughed; sometimes someone just says it all.
But being depressing is only one of the problems with A Single Man, helmed by fashion designer-turned-director Tom Ford. Watching it, you can see that Ford [...]

Ed Wood – Tim Burton

Posted by Leonora Pinto On February - 10 - 2010 1 COMMENT

What if you had a passion for doing something you were terrible at? Would you make it your life’s work regardless, or would you shove The Dream down under a pile of Get Real? Most people would do the latter. “When I grow up I want to…” says everybody, but hardly anybody actually grows up [...]

  • On The Canvas - Vladimir Kush

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Police recovers Picasso’s Little Guitar

Art News, News

The Roman police have recovered Picasso's Little Guitar, from a local businessman, CBC news reported. ...

Gold fresco by Richard Wright wins Turner Prize

Art News, News

Glasgow-based artist Richard Wright, who created a gorgeous fresco in gold leaf, has won this ...

Nabokov’s unfinished novel reappears

Literature News, News

Vladimir Nabokov wanted it burned on his death, but The Original of Laura survived and ...

Paltrow joins Kidman’s transsexual film The Danish Girl

Cinema News, News

Gwyneth Paltrow has signed on to The Danish Girl, a film chronicling the real-life story ...

Haitian-born Montrealer wins Blue Met writing prize

Literature News, News

Dany Laferrière, a Haitian-born Montrealer known for his provocative and thoughtful novels, has won the ...

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