Posted on January 24th, 2012 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius A film that unites critics; but I suspect divides cinema-goers. I find myself with a foot in both camps. The Artist is almost entirely silent throughout its 100 minutes running time. Cleverly and I think effectively, Hazanavicius has created an impressive blend of form and content: telling his Singin’ [...]
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Posted on February 4th, 2010 by Zettel Film Reviewer
TweetFilm, performance, screenplay, art Technical, Effects, Art direction Avatar – James Cameron Avatar sucks: the bambification of an aboriginal narrative. A sentimentalised pastiche of a Native American stereotype. The Na’vi sound like Hollywindians and worship an Earth-mother who looks like a fibre-optic willow tree spiritually reified by tinsellated dandelion-seed-like Christmas tree baubles that slo-mo around [...]
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Posted on May 7th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet 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 [...]
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Posted on February 24th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
TweetOscar 2009 – Update Well my predictions just get worse. Glad I was wrong about Kate. Thrilled I was right about Man On Wire – if you haven’t seen it, make sure you do. Inspirational. I’m as disappointed about Benjamin Button as I was in 2006 when Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s masterly Babel was also virtually [...]
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Posted on February 9th, 2009 by Zettel Film Reviewer
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 [...]
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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 December 20th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Lemon Tree – Eran Riklis At the very heart of this quiet, dignified film is a performance by Israeli-Arab Hiam Abbass of such power and stillness that it not only draws us into the pain and mental anguish of poor Palestinian widow Salma Zidane, but also resonates with the ancient Israeli/Palestinian conflict for which [...]
Filed under: 4 stars, Drama, Eran Riklis, Europe/World cinema, General, Philosophical | No Comments »
Posted on August 30th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet Crash – Director Paul Haggis Art and Architecture have one key thing in common: both need foundations. The bigger the building, the deeper and stronger the foundations it needs. Crash is like a complex set of card houses: eight overlapping linked structures are fashioned with great skill into a neatly integrated whole. But it [...]
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Posted on August 8th, 2008 by Zettel Film Reviewer
Tweet About Schmidt – Alexander Payne The late Pauline Kael – one of the consistently best writers on movies for over 30 years and the feistiest, had a pet hate: meretricious movies cynically calculated in conception and performance to manipulate easy emotion and worse, to plug into the worthy sentimentality characteristic of the Oscar Academy [...]
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