Film, Drama, Issue 633

Moon: interview with director Duncan Jones

Cerebral science fiction thriller Moon heralds the arrival of an impressive new filmmaking talent in Duncan Jones, the son of David Bowie. Miles Fielder meets him.

Moon

Cleverly conceived, evenly paced and consistently intriguing, this old-school science fiction thriller is a very welcome repost to the numbing spectacle of what passes for sci-fi these days. Taking his cue from genre classics from the late 1960s through…

Frozen River

It’s a week before Christmas, and in upstate New York Ray Eddy (Melissa Leo) is struggling to keep her head above water. Her husband has gambled away their savings and promptly disappeared, she is having to support herself and her two sons on her meagre…

Lake Tahoe

More small-time deadpan shenanigans from Fernando Eimbcke, the mischievous young Mexican writer/director of 2004’s Duck Season. In a sleepy sun-baked Mexican suburb, teenage Juan (Diego Cataño) crashes the family car. Stranded and fearful of…

35 Shots of Rum (35 Rhums)

Claire Denis’ latest venture is a far more intimate affair than 2004’s sprawling and elliptical The Intruder and a fine addition to the director’s challenging and protean body of work. Centring on the delicate but loving bond between a father and his…

Crossing Over

Seven stories involving immigration and customs enforcement officials are awkwardly fused together in this well-meaning but compromised drama in the Crash/Babel mode. Writer/director Wayne Kramer graduates from promising lightweight B-movies Running…

Funuke, Show Some Love, You Losers

A long-winded title for a film that ultimately runs out of puff, Funuke is at its best in the early stages. As a conceited struggling young actress comes back to her hometown after her parents’ death, Sumika (Sato Eriko) is as trapped in denial as she…