Posted on October 4th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
The Soloist - Joe Wright
Why do we go to the movies? I guess for as many different reasons as there are different kinds of films: to be entertained, informed, moved; to be made to laugh or cry, or exceptionally, both at the same time; or more rarely to be challenged, stimulated, provoked into thought. Some [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Drama, Extended essay, Hollywood, Joe Wright, Philosophical | No Comments »
Posted on September 25th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Fish Tank - Andrea Arnold
I’m bemused, bewildered and to be honest, bloody angry. What is the widespread acclaim and exaggerated praise for this movie all about? OK, I’m sorry that feisty, attractive 15 year-old Mia’s mother is a dysfunctional, feckless waste of space. I understand that makes Mia conflicted and angry enough to pick a [...]
Filed under: 2 star, Andrea Arnold, Drama, General | No Comments »
Posted on August 17th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino
The penny finally dropped: Quentin Tarantino simply has no imagination. He can’t create characters so he borrows bits from characters in films he’s seen. He can’t create a believable setting or narrative, so he echoes, parodies, de-constructs those of others. He is either passive or unaffected by reality or possesses no [...]
Filed under: 2 star, Action, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, General, Historical, Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino, War | No Comments »
Posted on May 24th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Il Divo - Paolo Sorrentino (2008)
Shakespearean in content, operatic in tone, writer director Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo (the extraordinary life of Giulio Andreotti) is a masterly work. Richly textured and at times demanding, Sorrentino’s film is a profound study of power, and its irresistible affects on men who possess it and those drawn to them. [...]
Filed under: 5 stars, Action, Drama, Europe/World cinema, Extended essay, Film Essay, Historical, Humorous, Paolo Sorrentino, Philosophical, Political, Thriller | No Comments »
Posted on May 7th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Is Anybody There? – John Cowley
Is there a nation on earth more contemptuous or contemptible about the old than the British? Politically and socially we under-resource shamefully large numbers of the elderly literally to the point of starvation; or we freeze them to death. Politicians with a toxic self-serving sentimentality exploit them. We ‘vanish’ them: [...]
Filed under: 1 star, Comedy, Drama, John Cowley, Philosophical | No Comments »
Posted on April 5th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Surveillance - Jennifer Chambers Lynch
A sick movie – in a sick genre. Do not be conned by the publicity for this sleazeball movie: it is not a thriller. It is a horror movie pretending to be a thriller. The essence of the horror movie for me is that the tension, the suspense, arises not from [...]
Filed under: 1 star, Horror, Jennifer C Lynch, Philosophical | No Comments »
Posted on February 26th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Gran Torino - Clint Eastwood
Dirty Harry got to be old. And mean. I guess we expected that. Curmudgeonly, cranky, rollie-smoking, beer-drinking – a can and by-the-neck man, nary a glass in sight – ex-Korean War vet Walt Kowalski isn’t actually cop Harry Callaghan, just a kind of alter ego ‘with-no-name’ grown old, prejudices intact: justice [...]
Filed under: 3 star, Clint Eastwood, Drama, General, Hollywood, Philosophical, Political | No Comments »
Posted on February 22nd, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Vicky Christina Barcelona - Woody Allen
Woody Allen doesn’t simply film women: he makes love to them with the camera. I don’t really know how healthy this is or even by what criterion of health one should judge it. Cinema is irreducibly voyeuristic so we are complicit. If you doubt me consider this: by instinct Allen’s [...]
Filed under: 3 star, Comedy, Fantasy, General, Hollywood, Humorous, Romance, Woody Allen | No Comments »
Posted on February 21st, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
This simply is the best film of the Oscar year 2008/9. Don’t let negative reviews put you off. It always arouses my interest when a film receives diametrically opposing reviews. It proves that thought and critical faculties are alive and well. Was there ever a genuinely original work of art [...]
Filed under: David Fincher | No Comments »
Posted on January 17th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Slumdog Millionaire – Danny Boyle
Slumdog Millionaire is like a shot of bad tequila – feels great as it goes down then begins to burn at your gut and eventually makes you feel queasy. ‘Slumdog’, for it already has an abbreviated nickname; is a nice, naïve, pacy little romantic fairytale knocked up inexpensively by Danny Boyle [...]
Filed under: 3 star, Comedy, Danny Boyle, Europe/World cinema, General, Philosophical, Political, Romance | No Comments »
