Film and Issue 592

I'm Not There - interview with Todd Haynes

13 Dec 2007

Todd Haynes is an artist who knows about shedding skins. The director originally came to prominence as part of the New Queer Cinema movement, a group that reacted to the arrival of AIDS by making films that investigated its impact on gay America. Now…

It's a Wonderful Life

(U) 130min

13 Dec 2007

You know Christmas has arrived when Frank Capra’s perennial festive season favourite receives its annual reissue. The 1947 classic is one of the most inspirational films of all time, as well as being a fine romance, a terrific comedy and genuine…

Les Chansons d’Amour - review

Musical/comedy

13 Dec 2007

MUSICAL/ROMANCE LES CHANSONS D’AMOUR (LOVE SONGS) (15) 100min In Les Chansons d’amour Christophe Honoré uses the great French filmmaker Jacques Demy’s 1964 film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg as a template, splitting his musical romance into three…

The Kite Runner

(12A) 127min

13 Dec 2007

This adaptation of Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini’s popular novel arrives in cinemas trailed by the news that its two young stars have been evacuated out of Afghanistan by the film’s producers, for fear of reprisals from still active Sunni…

Princesses (Princesas)

(18) 113min

13 Dec 2007

Madrid-born and bred filmmaker Fernando León Aranoa confirms himself as Spain’s answer to Ken Loach with this affecting but unsentimental, gritty but humorous drama about a pair of prostitutes eking out a living in the Spanish capital. Just as Aranoa’s…

Paranoid Park

(12A) 85min

13 Dec 2007

With this freewheeling adaptation of Blake Nelson’s young adult novel, Gus Van Sant returns to the territory he mined successfully in 2003’s Elephant. Where that film examined teenage behaviour through the extreme event of high school shootings…

Les Chansons d’Amour - profile of Christophe Honoré

13 Dec 2007

PROFILE Name Christophe Honoré Born 10 April 1970, Cahaix, France. Background Having grown up in Brittany, Honoré studied literature and cinema at Rennes university, before moving to Paris in his mid-20s, where he contributed to Cahiers du…

Youth Without Youth

(15) 124min

13 Dec 2007

Francis Ford Coppola was arguably the greatest of the New Hollywood directors, before losing his way in the 1990s with Jack and The Rainmaker. A decade on and Coppola has returned to the director’s chair with an experimental musing on what it means to…

Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium

(U) 94min lllll

13 Dec 2007

Written and directed by Zach Helm (who wrote last year’s underrated Stranger Than Fiction), Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium tells the tale of a 243-year-old toyshop proprietor (Dustin Hoffman) and his faithful store manager Molly (Natalie Portman). When…

Bee Movie

Animation/comedy

13 Dec 2007

The buzz about Bee Movie is that it’s a cute animated fable for children that also showcases popular comic Jerry Seinfeld, who developed the project with the writers from his titular sitcom. The sting in the tale is that, while vaguely palatable to both…

Balls of Fury

Comedy

13 Dec 2007

The prospect of a comedy about table tennis isn’t a particularly exciting one; somewhere over the course of Dodgeball, Talladega Nights, Blades of Glory and Hot Rod, the comedic possibilities of idiot sportsmen ran out of puff some time ago. Randy…

Talk to Me

(15) 118min

13 Dec 2007

African-American filmmaker Kasi Eve’s Bayou Lemmons brings the story of Washington DC radio personality Ralph Petey Greene to the big screen. Petey (Don Cheadle) was a former convict who made his mark as a radio DJ and community activist in the 1960s as…

Enchanted

(PG) 107min(PG) 107min

13 Dec 2007

Like all large conurbations New York City can be a frightening place. Especially if you have just fallen out of an animated Disney fairytale world that resembles every cartoon feature made by the dream factory since 1937’s Snow White and the Seven…

Closing the Ring

(12A) 117min

13 Dec 2007

God bless Sir Richard Attenborough. Bless him for all his charity work and his renowned philanthropic spirit in an industry of Brutuses. Bless him for his long and varied acting career which includes unforgettable performances in Brighton Rock, The…

We Own the Night

(15) 117min

13 Dec 2007

Despite sounding like a 1980s power rock anthem, writer/director James Little Odessa Gray’s tough cop melodrama owes its title to the motto emblazoned on the badges of New York’s lawmen. Entrepreneur Bobby (Joaquin Phoenix) and straight-laced policeman…

Trent's Last Case - DVD review

(U) 90min

13 Dec 2007

Following the 1920 original and Howard Hawks’ 1929 remake, this third version of the archetypal English country house murder mystery, based on EC Bentley’s novel and made in 1952, is a workmanlike whodunnit directed by Irish journeyman Herbert Wilcox.

Society - DVD review

(18) 99min

13 Dec 2007

Fifteen years after its release (which wasn’t until some years after its making) Brian Yuzna’s unheralded genre film still shows the capacity to both appall and challenge, standing beside John Carpenter’s They Live as one of the most explicit attacks on…

Elizabeth - Special Edition DVD review

(15) 118min

13 Dec 2007

Given the recent, and rather belated, cinematic release of a sequel to Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a renewed interest in 1998’s original historical drama based on the life of Queen Elizabeth I was inevitable. It may not have started the public’s liking…

Breaking News - DVD review

(15) 90min

13 Dec 2007

Despite its rather extensive, one-note commentary on the media, this 2004 Hong Kong-set thriller from director Johnnie Fulltime Killer To doesn’t forget its main purpose – to thrill. When resourceful, ruthless heist planner Yuen (Richie Jen) and his…

A Silent Duel - DVD review

(12) 94min

13 Dec 2007

Akira Kurosawa was, more than most, a director who worked both in miniature and epic form. Where Ikiru, Dodesukaden and Madadayo cover the intimate, there are also the many epics, from Seven Samurai to Yojimbo, Kagemusha to Ran offering something more…