Posted on July 12th, 2013 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet The Bling Ring – Sofia Coppola A rarity: a movie without a single genuine emotion throughout its full 90 minutes. The unspeakable ersatz world of celebrity slavishly but pathetically emulated by a bunch of young people descending like a plague of designer-brand locusts to strip celebrity homes of every famous named product […]
Filed under: 1 star, Comedy, Drama, General, Hollywood, Political, Sofia Coppola | No Comments »
Posted on February 7th, 2013 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Zero Dark Thirty – Kathryn Bigelow Lincoln could be described as portraying the unprincipled pursuit of a principled objective, in conflict with the principled pursuit of an unprincipled end. It is a tragic lesson of history that when old men possessed of power talk with passion about principles – young people die. No […]
Filed under: 4 stars, Action, Drama, Hollywood, Kathryn Bigelow, Oscar Winner, Political, Thriller, War | No Comments »
Posted on February 3rd, 2013 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Lincoln – Steven Spielberg “The past is another country. They do things differently there.” L P Hartley’s now almost proverbial opening lines of The Go-Between constantly resonated in the back of my mind throughout this powerful, accomplished, superbly acted film. With typical authority and characteristically meticulous attention to detail, Spielberg assembles to great […]
Filed under: 4 stars, Drama, Extended essay, Historical, Hollywood, Oscar Winner, Political, Steven Spielberg, War | No Comments »
Posted on September 22nd, 2012 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Killing Them Softly – Andrew Dominik One of the deepest and most interesting issues in Philosophy is that of knowledge of other minds. How is it that we can come to know, understand, care, hate, love another person? Indeed the idea of what it is to be a person is an […]
Filed under: 2 star, Action, Andrew Dominik, Drama, Gangster, General, Hollywood, Philosophical, Political, Thriller | No Comments »
Posted on May 15th, 2011 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Oranges and Sunshine – Jim Loach Hypocrisy is the besetting vice of the English. Many of our greatest writers, like George Eliot and Dickens knew this and created some of the squirmyest hypocrites in fiction: from the Rev Edward Casaubon and Nicholas Bulstrode in Middlemarch to David Copperfield’s Uriah Heep. Fans of Austen could […]
Filed under: 3 star, Documentary, Drama, Extended essay, Film Essay, Historical, Jim Loach, Philosophical, Political | No Comments »
Posted on May 24th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet 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 […]
Filed under: 5 stars, Action, Drama, Europe/World cinema, Extended essay, Film Essay, Historical, Humorous, Paolo Sorrentino, Philosophical, Political, Thriller | No Comments »
Posted on April 21st, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet State of Play – Ken MacDonald Question: you have a cleverly plotted, superbly crafted, well written movie with first class actors on top of their form: these ingredients are drawn together with assurance and style by an excellent Director and edited to a heart-beat – at times racing with the breakneck pace of events; […]
Filed under: 4 stars, Action, Hollywood, Political, Thriller | No Comments »
Posted on February 26th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet 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 […]
Filed under: 3 star, Clint Eastwood, Drama, General, Hollywood, Philosophical, Political | No Comments »
Posted on January 17th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet 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 […]
Filed under: 3 star, Comedy, Danny Boyle, Europe/World cinema, General, Philosophical, Political, Romance | No Comments »
Posted on January 12th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet The Reader – Stephen Daldry This is a morally complex film: which probably explains why it has polarised critical opinion. The Reader demonstrates better than any recent film I can remember, the vital importance of what the viewer brings to the artistic experience – both to the quality of that experience and the value […]
Filed under: 4 stars, Europe/World cinema, Extended essay, Philosophical, Political, Romance, Stephen Daldry, Thriller, War | No Comments »