L’EMMERDEUR December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 1 Star, 12 Dec 08, 2008, Avoid, French.add a comment
L’EMMERDEUR * vo French
Berry/Timsit just can’t hold a candle to the Brel/Ventura original from 1973. When it’s a super classic, why redo it?!
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
STELLA December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 12 Dec 08, 2 1/2 Stars, 2008, French.add a comment
STELLA **1/2 vo French
A touching portrait of a little girl who is raised in a family that owns a rowdy bar. Her adjustments in a new school are not easy. There’s a touching cameo by the late, great Guillaume Depardieu.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
HAPPY NEW YEAR December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 12 Dec 08, 2 1/2 Stars, 2008, German.add a comment
HAPPY NEW YEAR **1/2 vo SwissGerman
It’s New Year’s Eve and various couples and characters around Zurich are struggling with their relationships. Clichéd but sweet, and finally all’s well that ends well…
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
TRICKS December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 12 Dec 08, 2008, 3 Stars.add a comment
TRICKS (Sztuczki) *** vo Polish
Directed by Andrzej Jakimowski, here’s a sweet and curious Polish film about an adorable little boy’s observance of people and life in his small town. From disconnected episodes adorned with haunting music, this languid tale slowly turns into a search for a lost father. His sister has an uncanny resemblance to Scarlett Johansson.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
LARGO WINCH December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 12 Dec 08, 2008, 3 Stars.add a comment
LARGO WINCH ***
Here’s a film that the James Bond franchise could emulate. It has a compelling storyline, great pacing and action, and characters that one can care for. Based on a comic book series, it’s centered in exciting Hong Kong and concerns a huge conglomerate run by a secretive tycoon who is murdered at the outset of the film. From there, we follow his possible young heir, Largo Winch (Tomer Sisley), and all the intrigues in this lucrative powerplay. Having all the class and excitement that Quantum of Solace lacked, let’s hope this French-made action-thriller by Jérôme Salle can break through the American and international markets, for it certainly deserves great success.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
CRIMSON WINGS December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 12 Dec 08, 2008, 3 Stars.add a comment
CRIMSON WINGS (Ailes Pourpres) ***
Natron is a remote and curious lake in northern Tanzania that each year during the rainy season becomes the breeding ground for more than a million flamingos. This poetic and enlightening documentary by the British team of Matthew Aeberhard and Leander Ward opens up the amazing secrets of the lake and its flamingos, as did The March of the Emperors for the penguins. Made with huge difficulty and patience, this is a wondrous tale of birth and survival.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
BODY OF LIES December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 12 Dec 08, 2008, 3 Stars.add a comment
BODY OF LIES (Mensonges d’Etat) ***
Ridley Scott (of Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise and Gladiator fame) directing Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe in a CIA thriller has to be a bombastic equation.
DiCaprio plays a top-notch Arab-speaking field agent, while Crowe is his puppeteer back at headquarters in cozy, suburban U.S.A. Based in Amman, Jordan, but moving around the Near and Middle East with great agility, DiCaprio’s character ends up caring too much for the people he feels his government is exploiting and manipulating with arrogance. His collaboration with the debonair Jordanian security chief, played by the up-and-coming Mark Strong (last in Rock’n Rolla), is especially intriguing. There’s even a romantic interlude with a nurse, portrayed by the lovely Iranian actress, Golshifteh Farahani, that’s handled with charm and great chemistry. Despite all the right ingredients the film has not received the reviews and box-office it deserves, possibly due to terrorism-fatigue of the general public, similar to the ostrich syndrome. This is crafty and exciting entertainment, with a sly Crowe, and DiCaprio shining throughout.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 12 Dec 08, 2008, 3 1/2 Stars, Sundance.add a comment
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE ***1/2
Using the TV game show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? as the centerpiece of a puzzle, this tale of the destiny of two little brothers in Bombay/Mumbai also becomes a gripping kaleidoscope of the churnings of life in modern India. Spanning from the famous game show to their miserable existence in the slums and little Jamal’s unending love for an orphan girl, director Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting) cuts from scene to scene with a surgeon’s precision, depicting their lives with the colors and rhythms of Bollywood, yet with a certain Western restraint. The boys as youngsters are heartbreakingly charming and the film feels more vital at that point than their more melodramatic older years, but it’s nevertheless an intense panorama of this multifaceted country full of contradictions. This film will stay with you.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
DIE WELLE December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 12 Dec 08, 2008, 4 Stars, German, Run To.add a comment
DIE WELLE (La Vague/The Wave) vo German ****
Somewhat like Entre les Murs – in the realm of students, except this time in Germany – this film delves even further and deeper. A teacher (Jürgen Vogel) decides to experiment with an idea: whether a form of totalitarianism could still cast a spell in the present day. His theory of group dynamics quickly takes hold of his students and becomes Die Welle or the Wave. Building up to a powerful climax, the film raises many questions on the fascination of leadership and discipline. Using an experiment that took place in California in 1967 and became a famous book by Todd Stasser, director Dennis Gansel has made a film that shakes up comfortable, politically correct notions. You end up wondering, are such mass reactions possible anywhere or mainly in Germany? Is the attraction of power an innate human trait? Here’s an outstanding film with alarming reflections.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 12 Dec 08, 2008, 4 Stars, Run To.add a comment
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL (Une Fiancée pas Comme les Autres) ****
This is the ultimate non-judgmental movie. With sweetness and generosity, a small town reacts with surprising patience to the ultra-strange shyness of a favorite son. Ryan Gosling is superb as the loner who retreats into a fantasy world as his family and neighbors look on. Director Craig Gillespie, originally from Australia, is a talent to watch. Run to this gentle film.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
CLIENTE December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 11 Nov 08, 2 1/2 Stars, 2008, French.add a comment
CLIENTE **1/2
Natalie Baye and Josiane Balasko are two sisters who look at love in different ways. Baye’s non-committal version, by paying for sex, turns painful and complicated.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
LES GRANDES PERSONNES December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 11 Nov 08, 2008, 3 Stars, French.add a comment
LES GRANDES PERSONNES ***
A delicate coming-of-age film about a father and daughter on holiday in Denmark.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
COLUCHE December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 11 Nov 08, 2008, 3 Stars, French.add a comment
COLUCHE ***
A fine portrait of Coluche, the beloved French comedian who also ran for president of France. François-Xavier Demaison is astounding as the concerned comic.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
HOME December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 11 Nov 08, 2008, 3 1/2 Stars, French.add a comment
HOME ***1/2
A powerful parable of modern life showing a contented family that lives at the end of an unfinished highway. Swiss director Ursula Meier directs Isabelle Huppert and Oliver Gourmet with a sure and compassionate hand
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA December 26, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 11 Nov 08, 2008, 3 1/2 Stars, Run To.add a comment
VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA ***1/2
Ah, Woody, Woody, dear old Woody. It’s such a gift to have a film a year from this wise/funny storyteller. And as I’ve mentioned before, they all have certain similarities and his distinctive voice, yet each film is unique, like the different facets of a single diamond. This one, a knowing, world-weary, yet glowing tale of romance, will have you smiling from beginning to end. Like an intriguing, sophisticated soap opera, Allen weaves the story of two lovely girls visiting Barcelona from New York and their chance encounter with an artist who lives for the moment and his unpredictable ex-wife. Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz are the tantalizing mouthpieces for Woody’s feelings and theories on attraction, art and life. The European and American acting styles are distinctly evident here – one passionate, the other somewhat superficial.
An elegant little gem, which shows Barcelona in the loveliest of lights.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
HELLBOY II December 25, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 2008, 3 Stars.add a comment
HELLBOY II ***
A tender futuristic yarn that’s become an enjoyable franchise, this second one is as good, if not better than the first. By Mexico’s eccentric Guillermo Del Toro, it has a monster-like hero spouting great dialogue, who’s all gruff and tough on the outside and a softy on the inside, employed by the government as a sort of Batman/savior. The various quirky characters are lovable and funny, from Hellboy’s bumbling, worried boss to his fishlike sidekick and cute human girlfriend. There’s action, special effects and thrills, but no gory violence and a mercifully welcome lack of vulgarity. Hellboy is actually a gentleman at heart, sort of an ugly, underground James Bond. So there.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
MESRINE: l’Instinct de mort December 25, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 2008, 3 Stars, French.add a comment
MESRINE: l’Instinct de mort *** (French)
Jacques Mesrine (pronounced Mayreen by himself) was public enemy no. 1 in the 60s and 70s and has been fascinating the French ever since. In a double feature by Jean-François Richet, this first episode is the more powerful and coherent, with the excellent Vincent Cassel as the strangely charming and brutal outlaw who creates chaos, whether in Algeria, Paris or Canada. It also features a malicious Gérard Depardieu, Cécile de France and the Canadian Roy Dupuis. This is a sort of French Goodfellows, so be prepared for excessive violence, sex and cruelty. In Switzerland it has been given an age 14 rating – I would have given it a minimum 16.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
BURN AFTER READING December 25, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 2008, 3 1/2 Stars.add a comment
BURN AFTER READING ***1/2
A biting and brilliant spoof of government and especially CIA incompetence, this is another ferocious offering from the inexhaustible Coen brothers. Don’t want to divulge too much, but there’s Washington D.C., George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand (Joel’s wife), and (the above-mentioned) Richard Jenkins in this hilarious tale of amateur espionage, misguided mayhem and…plastic surgery! If you appreciate the offbeat talents of Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, OBrother, Where Art Thou?), run to this one.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
FROZEN RIVER December 25, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 2008, 4 Stars, Festival, Run To, Sundance, Won.add a comment
FROZEN RIVER ****
Also in New York, but upstate, way up north next to the Canadian border, here’s another delicate tale, with different economic conditions, but similar longings and human dilemmas. Melissa Leo plays a working mother who, in desperate need of cash, falls into a precarious scheme of smuggling illegal immigrants from Canada into the U.S. across the frozen St. Lawrence River. Typical of fine independent films, there is a graceful weaving of the emotional problems of the characters into an over-all view of social and racial injustices that produces films which have a universal quality of compassion. Director Courtney Hunt adds an element of tension, making her film not only a social outcry but a thrilling suspense. Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.
© 2008 Neptune Ingwersen
THE VISITOR December 25, 2008
Posted by neptunestars in 2008, 4 Stars, Festival, Run To, Sundance, Won.add a comment
