10 November 2017. FINAL PORTRAIT **** You feel you are in the Paris of the 1960s in this intimate portrait of Swiss artist, Alberto Giacometti and his friend, the American art critic and writer, James Lord. Stanley Tucci, the actor, proves his directorial talent once again with this amusing, informative and delicately rendered study of […]
FILM: RISK – a fascinating trip into Assange’s singular life
3 November 2017. RISK *** WikiLeaks. Julian Assange. A unique, mysterious figure in the modern annals of technological scandals. Why and how did he release so many sensitive classified files on countless governments? Is he for real, what are his motivations, and what is his future? It is simply astounding how filmmaker Laura Poitras managed […]
FILM: THE SQUARE – a harsh reflection on the hypocrisy and idiocy of the art milieu
20 October 2017. THE SQUARE ***1/2 An audacious social commentary at this year’s Cannes film festival, Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s film is a harsh reflection on the hypocrisy and idiocy of the art milieu. It also delves into the guilt complex of Northern Europeans vs. immigrants, and the arid state of instant, impersonal sex. The […]
FILM: BORG vs McENROE – better than any thriller
27 October 2017. BORG vs McENROE ***1/2 Whether you’re into tennis or not, this is a brilliant look at opposite characters, world-class competition and the confines of celebrity. Done by Danish director Janus Metz, it covers the crucial years in the early 1980s when Borg was the king of the courts and McEnroe was the […]
FILM: BORG vs McENROE – better than any thriller
27 October 2017. BORG vs McENROE ***1/2 Whether you’re into tennis or not, this is a brilliant look at opposite characters, world-class competition and the confines of celebrity. Done by Danish director Janus Metz, it covers the crucial years in the early 1980s when Borg was the king of the courts and McEnroe was the […]
FILM: AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL – a film that should be shown in US Congress
13 October 2017. Too many releases this week – so they are mini-reviews. AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL – Truth to Power **** Ex-vice-president Al Gore is back, this time with an even more convincing argument for solving global warming. He is passionate about saving our planet, and makes one want to follow his lead. This documentary […]
FILM: VICTORIA AND ABDUL – Touching on the cruelties of the British Empire
6 October 2017. A great deal of FINE cinema coming at you this week – get ready for a film marathon! VICTORIA AND ABDUL (Confident Royal) *** Here’s a tender biopic on Queen Victoria’s last years, made sweet by a young, charming Indian clerk. Stephen Frears, of such excellent and varied films as “My Beautiful […]
FILM: The young Karl Marx
29 September 2017. THE YOUNG KARL MARX **** (vo German, French, English) Haitian director Raoul Peck knows how to make films that move you and shake you to the core. As a political militant, he makes films about history, humanity and injustices that cause you to reflect and feel the larger truths with your gut, […]
FILM: LOVELESS – The present state of Russian society brilliantly exposed
22 September 2017. FAUTE D’AMOUR (NELYUBOV /LOVELESS) **** (vo Russian) The present state of Russian society is brilliantly exposed in this latest Andrey Zvyagintsev film, a grim but powerfully constructed tale of a destructive couple in the midst of a divorce who have no use for their poor 12-year old son. The mother is a […]
FILM: Insyriated – a film that places you in the middle of the Syrian tragedy
15 September 2017. INSYRIATED (UNE FAMILLE SYRIENNE) **** (vo Arab, English, French) A large, comfortable, well-decorated bourgeois apartment. A decent, obviously well-educated family with a mother, a younger woman with her husband and their baby, a few teenagers, a grandfather, and a young maid. But they seem tense and on edge. Terrible things are happening […]
