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Moneyball – Bennett Miller. Sorkin: a Dickens for our times

Tweet      Moneyball – Bennett Miller Aaron Sorkin is a Dickens for our times (of which more at a later date). He is already an acknowledged master of the Television Series; and through writing like Sports Night, Studio 60 Sunset Strip and his masterpiece, the first 3 series of The West Wing, he excels in the [...]

The Journey of Life, Creation, Metaphysics, Mystery – Malik’s vision

Tweet            The Tree Of Life – Terence Malik “Why should I be good?” asks pre-pubescent Jack O’Brien (Hunter McCracken), one of three brothers whose childhood doubts and fears form the central narrative of this extraordinary film. In voiceover at the beginning of the movie his long-suffering, stoical mother Malik doesn’t [...]

Tarantino – enfant – terrible: but no longer both.

Tweet 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 [...]

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button – myth, magical realism, time, age, love and loss

Tweet 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 [...]

BAFTA Awards 2009 – poverty-chic fable cleans up

TweetBAFTA – Winners 2009 A mystery: why is a film setting a ‘feel good’ fairytale in a Mumbai slum called “courageous”? I applaud the four technical BAFTA awards to Slumdog Millionaire; especially the award of best music to A R Rahman’s superb musical score. Editing, cinematography, sound – no complaints there either. But calling Slumdog [...]

Babel – simply a masterpiece

Tweet Babel – Alejandro Gonzalez Inárritu (BBC Prize Review) Simply a masterpiece: of conception and writing, direction, performance and technical accomplishment integrating the whole. If not already, Inárritu will be one of the great directors. This is a work of consummate warmth and humanity – beyond language, beyond religion, beyond politics. In a world bedevilled [...]