Tagged: filmreview

Here we have a movie about deprogramming and manipulation through a cult, or more specifically, a dual narrative simultaneously showing both the joining and the leaving of a Manson Family-esque group living on a farm in the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York, which may or may not have perpetrated a heinous crime. The key to Sean Durkin's assured, if somewhat unsatisfying, debut is the unreliable nature of its central character's recollections, played with impressive skill by another debutante, Elizabeth Olsen, who through the devices of the screenplay's structure gives us her memories of the cult as a set of [...]

It's easy to see why Roman Polanski wanted to direct an adaptation of the hugely successful French stage play, God of Carnage. Many of the controversial director's lifelong artistic obsessions are present and correct in both subject and situation. Two seemingly civilised, class-conscious New York couples meet in the Brooklyn apartment of one – the Longstreets (Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly) – to discuss an incident involving their eleven year-old son, who has been injured in a playground fight by the son of the Cowans (Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz). Over the course of the subsequent seventy-nine minutes, played [...]

A few weeks ago we got the chance to speak with Madonna on the red carpet premiere of her latest directorial effort W.E. at the Zigfeld here in New York. It was a whirlwind event (read about it here ) and after our close encounter with M we rushed into the theatre, barely having time to take our seats before she took to the stage, delivering a heartfelt speech about her labor of love. Once she was finished, she then proceeded to take her seat just a mere four rows in front of us! [...]

I went into Cave of Forgotten Dreams without knowing anything about it and enjoyed it so much I hesitate to say anything here aside from it's one of the most extraordinary and beautiful films I've ever seen. Werner Herzog's documentary literally explores the Chauvet Cave in Southern France, which holds the most ancient cave paintings [...]

Director: Roman Polanski Cast: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, John C.Reilly & Christoph Waltz Certificate: 15a Running Time: 78 minutes There's always been a problem with watching a movie based on a play. It's glaringly obvious you're watching a play. You can dress it with elaborate sets and locations, garnish it with evocative orchestral scores or contemporary pop tunes and frame your shots seven ways from Sunday. It's still a play. Not that that is something to be criticised, and with Carnage , Roman Polanski's adaptation of Yasmina Reza's play God Of [...]

Alexander Payne's latest directorial offering, The Descendants , is based on the freshman novel of the same name by Hawaiian writer Kaui Hart Hemmings. It's been receiving rave reviews Stateside, garnering plenty of awards and multiple Oscar nominations. And once again, like Payne's previous megahit, 2004's Sideways , which starred Paul Giamatti, The Descendants is a beautiful observed comedy of American manners, albeit one that might be a little too slickly manipulative to really deserve the 'indie' mantle it so clearly aims for. Yet for those willing to leave their cynicism by the door, its delights [...]

A tale of mystifying proportions involving a former Miss Wyoming, and the kidnap and false imprisonment of a young Mormon, this documentary by Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line) is a slick re-telling of a news story that hogged the British headlines in 1978. It's also a good snapshot of how tabloid papers operate, with some scheming paparazzi and generous gilding of the lily to sell papers. The main protagonist, Joyce McKinney, had fallen in love and would certainly pursue that love beyond reasonable limits. The Mormon church, sensing its young recruit may lapse, sent away Kirk Anderson [...]

Director: Clint Eastwood Cast: Leonardo Di Caprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, Judi Dench Certificate: 12a Running Time: 137 minutes Prohibition, World War 2, the Lindenburg baby, John Dillinger, Machine Gun Kelly, cross-dressing, JFK's assassination and the birth of the FBI. The life and career of J.Edgar Hoover is so rich with content that any one looking to adapt his life was destined to fall upon on a double-edged sword. Unfortunately, it's a trap Clint Eastwood has fallen into with J.Edgar , which remains an adequate examination of the godfather of [...]

When Joyce Carol Vincent was found dead, all that remained was her skeleton. Her body had remained where she'd died, in front of a flickering TV, for three years. Carol Morley's thought provoking documentary tells of a profoundly disconcerting set of events that seem to defy all logic. As there was no body, no one could establish a cause of death, and Morley has been faced with the understandable silence of the Vincent family. Add to this the official silence of councils, housing associations – all that Morley has had access to are Vincent's friends. So this is a film [...]

Director: Steve McQueen Cast:Carey Mulligan, Michael Fassbender Cert: 18 Running Time: 99 min An average man thinks of sex every seven seconds. Or is it every three minutes? Though the details tend to vary, we've all heard the adage revealing mans active cerebral sex life. And like so many old clichés, it's completely unfounded. But what if sex really was all you could think about? To the detriment of your professional life, your relationships, your ability to connect with other human beings? Artist / director Steve McQueen explores these questions with [...]

'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol' // Words: Sundeep Patel The fourth installment of America's answer to the James Bond series brings us to 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol' . Once again, Ethan Hunt ( Tom Cruise ) is asked to miraculously do the impossible in an effort to prevent global destruction. With the help of his eager and able team, consisting of his loyal lap-dog Benji ( Simon Pegg ) and two capable side-kicks ( Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner ), [...]

We have a small pool of film writers at State so compiling this list was a lot easier than collating the 40 people who submitted to the top albums of 2011 list . Our intention here is to represent a tasty selection of films you may have missed if you didn't got the cinema as regularly as these film fantatics. Thanks to the film team and we're looking to 20122s cinematic gems... 1. Drive There's a lot of staring. Middle distance longing. There's an anti-hero, the strong silent type - Ryan [...]

'Arthur Christmas' (UK Release: 11 Nov '11) // Words: Saam Das I always find it concerning that the festive period begins so early. Case in point, Aardman's latest animated adventure 'Arthur Christmas' coming out approximately six weeks before its holiday namesake. Nonetheless, 'Arthur Christmas' duly carries outs its duties in evoking the "spirit of Christmas" and is likely to become a seasonal favourite for years to come. Aardman's roots may have been [...]

Director: Jonathan Levine Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anjelica Huston Cert: 15a Running Time: 100 minutes When it comes to comedy topics, cancer probably ranks somewhere at the bottom along with incest, pedophilia and rape. Subjects that are normally a no-go zone for laughs. Unless your name happens to be Todd Solondz . With 50/50 , a story about a man in his mid-twenties, dealing with a cancer diagnosis, writer Will Reiser attempts to do just that. A brave - [...]

Straight from its swelling, melodramatic, orchestral opening scenes, the sense of romance and true love as heightened by Terence Davies' meticulous treatment of Terence Rattigan's celebrated stage play leaves us in no doubt as to what we are about to witness. Namely, the slow unwinding of love and love-lost by post-war lamplight. Rachel Weisz (excellent) is Hester. Unsatisfied by a staid, physically distant marriage to her judge husband William (Simon Russell Beale) she begins an affair with an ex-wartime RAF pilot Freddie – as played by Tom Hiddleston (toe-to-toe with Weisz in the acting stakes). [...]

Rebecca Hall is Florence Cathcart a post World War One London-based hoax-exposer. Of high education (Cambridge) and fame (her widely read books) she's also, you would imagine at any rate, very much the Suffragette. She's independent, skeptic and very much her own woman. Then war wounded Robert Mallory (Dominic West – solid) comes calling from a rather stately all-boys' rural boarding school. He details the recent death of a young student, the chill that's swept through the atmosphere of the school, mysterious sightings and a newfound fear amongst the boys. He also brings some pictorial evidence of something [...]

A couple of things. No, actually, just one thing. Justice is a terrible movie. Journeyman director Roger Donaldson has made some perfectly watchable pictures, Thirteen Days and The World's Fastest Indian being two recent examples. But with Justice he has taken a serious misstep from his usual ordinary, yet satisfying formula. Co-produced – trivia fans – by Tobey Maguire's fledging Maguire Entertainment, the film stars Nicholas Cage as a New Orleans high school English teacher Nick Gerard whose wife, concert cellist Laura (January Jones we're still not convinced) [...]

This based-on-a-true-story drama gives Brad Pitt his most satisfying role in years and is a worthy addition to the canon of sports movies and its deserving sub-category – baseball movies. Pitt plays Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics. A Major-League baseball team, but think more Blackburn Rovers than Manchester United. Bean didn't match up as a player – never showing the promise the scouts saw and this underachievement drives him as a manager. After the Oakland As end another underwhelming season he decides to apply serious rational to the volatile intangibles of scouting. Their club can't [...]

Remarkable! Extraordinary! What an astonishing piece of work Twin Spirits is, I've never seen anything like it. A stage tribute to the love and music of Robert Schumann and his wife, Clara Wieck, Twin Spirits stars Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler, as the classical composing couple. Derek Jacobi narrates the event as Sting and [...]

Director: Gerardo Naranjo Cast: Stephanie Sigman, Noe Hernandez Cert: 15a Running Time: 113 minutes If there's one thing that we've learned from Walter White's skirmishes with the cartel in Breaking Bad , it's that they're a right brutal, bad bunch of bastards. Director Gerardo Naranjo is probably inclined to agree, although maybe doesn't share the same vision of finely-tailored-suit-wearing, Patrón guzzling Mexican warlords. In fact, he rejects the romanticised vision of these drug gangs, telling The Wall Street Journal, "these guys are ignorant and they are negating life." Loosely [...]