Thanks to umpteen versions and retellings, this whole thing has become a bit of a bedtime story, no matter how it’s sliced. Moving to the beat of that aforementioned tiny music box and not something deeper, Besson’s Dracula, and its selection of emphasized overtones and reduced undertones, are misaligned to become a lullaby from what could have been grander results.
Read MoreThe plot of Islands tries its hardest to add doubt to the current conundrum, but it does so in such a soft fashion. Peeks are weaker than pokes and prods every time. Not enough stings about this mystery. A film like this, using such a prime, exotic setting to add awe and infinite scope, should be putting us through our paces and making us sweat.
Read MoreMissing children are an unsettling movie crisis, often rapt in thriller-sized peril. The helplessness is crippling, even if a happy ending arrives. As well, the fear and uncertainty hit very close to home, even if the viewer is not a parent themselves. More often than not, films about missing or kidnapped children amplify the danger to an exasperating and overwrought level. Stranger Eyes encapsulates the aforementioned proliferating dangers in an almost entrancing, methodical way
Read MoreAs a whole, Michael Winterbottom took on a very difficult slice of history, with many facets and fractures that pit “our land” versus “promised land,” and chose an observant path over a declarative one. In one regard against that arms-length of safety, more terse politics were possible, and probably preferred with this many decades of reflection since the Palenstinian Revolution. The decision not over-project is understandable.
Read MoreThroughout Four Letters of Love, two 1970s families in Ireland—one living on a remote western island and another from a more urban city home—experience difficult roads of distressing life events. Between them, there’s a drastic career change, the transition to a new school, future career uncertainty, parental abandonment, a few cases of writer’s block and artist’s block, relationship woes and competing affections before marriage, parental approval of their children’s paths, a handicapping injury, and two losses of parents and spouses.
Read MoreFinally Dawn hinges on the collision between fandom and stardom. Even being set far before today’s times of social media-driven celebrity access and a massive cycle of multi-pronged tabloid coverage, the matinee stars of cinema still carried a hold over awestruck commoners. Their mere public presence added to their legend. Finally Dawn grants a fan a night with her idols, a scenario that radiates with potential dream fulfillment.
Read MoreWhen done well, the emotional catharsis of human stories within peril can be just as impactful as the escapism and heroics, all without sacrificing the heady science fiction of the premise. The Danish film Eternal, enjoying a limited theatrical release after a run on the festival circuit, has this particular sort of ambitious aim.
Read MoreThe Kiss (Kysset), the most recent film from Oscar-winning Danish director Bille August, a two-time Palme d’Or recipient, has finally arrived in limited theaters for North American audiences. Set during the onset of World War I in August’s native country of Denmark, The Kiss is adapted from novelist Stefan Zweig’s 1939 book Beware of Pity. Thematically, that titular emotion of pity from the source material courses through this film’s every vein.
Read MoreStrong with the aforementioned wisdom and historical truth channeled through Medina, Los Frikis was unafraid to present the squalor the brothers rose from and, unfortunately, how AIDS would sever and silence any cultural growth or lasting personal legacies. The result is a difficult and no-less-impressive film that smashes the spirited human condition against aspects of fulfilling indepdence people should never take for granted.
Read MoreIn Before Dawn “c’est la guerre” constitutes defeatism because, more often than not, war cannot be helped by the grunts in the dirt holding or pushing a line. These young men who are uttering the phrase halfway around the world from their homes and families have learned the futility of their actions. They say it knowing they are trapped in what they thought would be a heroic quest and a patriotic cause.
Read MoreWith that domesticated and relatable-beyond-borders quality, Cottontail is creating a greater journey, one venturing beyond any map charting the route to Akiko’s destined lakeside. Completing one’s final wishes is a quest of closure. You are answering a soul beyond the grave to finish something they could not. Yet, that course has branching paths of unsettled grievances, corrected connection, overdue forgiveness, and fulfilled promises.
Read MoreThe Animal Kingdom manifests a present-day landscape where an unexplained divergence of evolution has been causing citizens to gradually metamorphose into animal-human amalgamations. Set in the modernized nation of France, these occurrences over the last two years are being treated and investigated like a disease or contagion. This precariously established environment of mutations puts director Thomas Cailley’s film closer to the disturbing pages of H. G. Wells than some uncanny Marvel comic adventure.
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