Posted on April 18th, 2014 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet The Amazing Spiderman 2 – Marc Webb Dramatic tension, suspense depends on imperilment, uncertainty of outcomes. The flaw in the super-hero genre which this Spiderman suffers from more than most, is that because the impossible can be convincingly depicted, outcomes are either certain, therefore predictable; or unconvincingly plotted to tidy up […]
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Posted on November 28th, 2013 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Blue Is The Warmest Colour – Abdellatif Kechiche Filming fictional sex is very much like filming fictional sport. It doesn’t work – because it is a contradiction in spirit. Nothing planned and scripted can ever, by definition, capture the immediacy of the drama of sport in which the unpredictability of outcome is the very […]
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Posted on October 11th, 2013 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Blue Jasmine – Woody Allen Woody Allen is blessed. He has a God-given gift. That gift is to make us laugh: with an articulate wit, incisive irony, and a delicious sense of the personal and metaphysical absurdity of life. Camus in drag. His gift as an artist, is not to […]
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Posted on April 13th, 2013 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet The Place Behind The Pines – David Cianfrance The paradoxes of cool. If you think you are – you aren’t. If you try to be – you won’t be. Worst of all: if everyone tells you are and you believe them – you never could or will be. Cool is impossible to define: […]
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Posted on February 26th, 2013 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Django Unchained – Quentin Tarantino Django contains the many strengths and several weaknesses of Quentin Tarantino. As with all his best movies, he takes a well-established generic form, here the Western, and develops its elements to farce; to absurdity; even finally to destruction. With scabrous dialogue, scandalous amorality and an almost childish determination […]
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Posted on February 22nd, 2013 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet A Good Day To Die Hard – John Moore Don’t. No, seriously – don’t. At last I can shed my secret shame – I’ve always enjoyed most of the Die Hard series. But this latest crass, meritless, ear-splitting drivel finally emancipates me from this affliction. I like trashy films; good trashy films: […]
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Posted on December 16th, 2012 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Technical Quality Dramatic Quality The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Peter Jackson This visual realisation of a fantasy world of endlessly warring kingdoms is a technical tour-de-force: graphically state of the art with special effects to match. Simon Bright’s Art Direction aided by Andy McLaren and Ben Milson, together with Dan Hennah’s […]
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Posted on November 30th, 2012 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet End Of Watch – David Ayer End of Watch is David Ayer’s much praised follow-up to his equally critically approved Training Day. It is action-packed, often tensely exciting, rattles along at a furious pace and looks like being a massive box-office hit. It is also in my view a thoroughly bad movie […]
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Posted on November 24th, 2012 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Silver Linings Playbook – David O Russell The mesmeric Jennifer Lawrence almost makes this phoney movie work – but not quite. For me at least. Claudia Winkleman on BBC’s now equally unwatchable Twittery Film 2012 loved it; while her mate on the show, Danny ‘Boy’ Leigh hated it. Reluctantly, I’m with Danny […]
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Posted on October 22nd, 2012 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Ruby and Calvin Ruby Sparks – Jonathon Dayton, Valerie Faris Thoughtful, imaginative, perceptive and different. Not common epithets for Hollywood romantic comedies nowadays so don’t let this quirky, charming little gem disappear before you catch up with it. Playwright turned screenwriter Zoe Kazan, granddaughter of Elia, holds the movie together as the […]
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