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April 27, 2007
The Invisible
(out of four)
A high school golden boy is beaten and left for dead while his spirit sticks around to spy on the assailants in The Invisible, that rare mystery in which auds know everything upfront and the characters, rather than investigating, simply wait for the culprit to turn herself in. Previously adapted as Swedish thriller Den Osynlige, Mick Davis' script brings out director David S. Goyer's emo side. His take, more star-crossed romance than Matthew Shepard-inspired ghost story, plays like a very special episode of The OC. Approach could work for teens, though The Invisible will surely go unseen by others.
Continue reading "The Invisible" at Variety.com
Posted by Peter Debruge at 06:51 PM | Comments (0)
Year of the Dog
(out of four)
In Year of the Dog, director Mike White willfully violates one of the great unwritten rules of Hollywood screenwriting: Kill as many human characters as you want, just spare the dog. Take a movie like Independence Day, a textbook example that entertains by wiping entire cities off the face of the Earth, but in one key scene, concentrates all the audience's emotions on the fate of a single pooch.
Three dogs die in Year of the Dog, and White genuinely seems to care about each one. The movie, in fact, marks an ambitious attempt on his part to wrestle the challenges and contradictions facing those who empathize with animals, tackling all causes, from hunting and pharmaceutical testing to wearing furs and eating meat. The problem is that White shows considerably less respect toward people.
Continue reading "Year of the Dog"
Posted by Peter Debruge at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
April 24, 2007
Julia
(out of four)
Sorry, but I don't buy the image of Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda) in a rowboat that bookends Fred Zinnemann's Julia. It's painterly, sure, and open-ended enough that audiences can project virtually any emotion they wish on the playwright's private, reflective moment, but it’s out of character with both Lillian and the film itself. The movie, a 1977 best picture nominee that ran alongside Star Wars and Annie Hall, was heralded in its time for its audacious structure, and yet, that’s precisely the element that seems most frustrating today.
Posted by Peter Debruge at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
April 21, 2007
Mon Colonel
(out of four)
It will sound petty, but it must be said: Film is not made to support horizontal pans (as in, those moves in which the camera swivels briskly from left to right), and at times Mon Colonel feels like nothing but significant vistas reduced to herky-jerky blurs. Laurent Herbiet’s feature debut is just the ambitious political stick in the eye you might expect from an story idea hatched by Costa-Gavras (the director of Oscar winner Z), and its inquiry into the dirty dealings of France’s Algerian occupation is considerably more sophisticated than last year’s Indigènes, though nowhere near as entertaining.
Continue reading "Mon Colonel"
Posted by Peter Debruge at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2007
Hot Fuzz
(out of four)
Hot Fuzz does for buddy-cop flicks what Shaun of the Dead did for zombie movies: It delivers a solid specimen of the genre even as it lampoons the category from every conceivable angle. Director Edgar Wright with star and co-writer Simon Pegg are first and foremost movie buffs, and their sense of humor reflects a deep reverence for the work of guys like Jerry Bruckheimer (Bad Boys) and Joel Silver (Die Hard). They see the poetry in, say, Point Break typically lost on film critics and Jane Austen fans.
Posted by Peter Debruge at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2007
Pathfinder
(out of four)
Savage Vikings are outwitted by one of their own in Pathfinder, a visionary chest-thumper set 600 years before Columbus. Boldly reinventing Norway's 1988 Oscar nominee Ofelas, musicvid director Marcus Nispel relocates the adventure to primeval America, where evidence suggests the European invaders landed but did not last. Like 300 and Apocalypto, this latest bit of historical balder-dash stands in direct defiance of proven action-movie formulas, trusting its brutal concept and striking visuals to overcome a lack of star power. But without a muscular campaign, Pathfinder will likely draw only a fraction of their biz, despite Conan-like appeal to testosterone crowds.
Continue reading "Pathfinder" at Variety.com
Posted by Peter Debruge at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
April 07, 2007
The Earrings of Madame de...
(out of four)
From the opening shot, Max Ophuls’ masterpiece is a tug-of-war between passion and propriety, opulence and restraint. We discover Madame de… (Danielle Darrieux) pawing through her possessions — fur coats and exquisite jewelry the likes of which silver-screen fantasies are made — until she finds the one item she feels safe selling, a pair of diamond earrings that were a wedding gift from her husband (a Sean Connery-strong Charles Boyer).
Throughout the picture, Ophuls’ camera is a moving, dynamic participant in this romantic charade. Introducing his title character as a thing of envy, he withholds her face until the last moment of the shot, finally catching it reflected in a vanity mirror, a captive to the trophies of her privileged lifestyle. The countess's surname will remain the movie’s secret, as befits a lady of polite French society, but she could just as easily be called Gabrielle, the subject of a radically different portrait of similar tensions by director Patrice Chéreau. Both films concern emotional violence in a loveless French marriage, and though Ophuls approach may seem formal, it’s miles removed from the detached austerity of Chéreau’s attempt.
Continue reading "The Earrings of Madame de..."
Posted by Peter Debruge at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2007
The Reaping
(out of four)
If God ever decided to repeat the 10 Old Testament plagues, He'd no doubt start with Hollywood, not backwater Haven, La. Unfortunately for the residents of Haven, when it comes to filmmaking, the screenwriter is god. Only he can decide who lives and dies, orchestrating everyone's fate as best suits his agenda.
So when The Reaping writers Chad and Carey W. Hayes decide to unleash everything from locusts to lice on the sleepy little town -- "the best-kept secret in the Bible Belt," as the locals call it -- you better believe they're up to something.
Continue reading "The Reaping"
Posted by Peter Debruge at 11:51 AM | Comments (0)