A swift, pure cry by Siobhan Dowd
Author: Siobhan Down ISBN: 9780099488163 DDC: 823.92 LibraryThing | Wikipedia | Siobhan Dowd Trust The place brought to mind a sinking ship. Wood creaked on the floor, across the pews, up...
14 January 2010
Where the Wild Things are dir. by Spike Jonze
based on the book by Maurice Sendak I was never exposed to this book as a kid so didn’t have that “cool, but I hope they don’t wreck it” sort of...
3 January 2010
Gran Torino dir. by Clint Eastwood
This is an odd film. Hard to write about because there are so many different ways to take it. On the one hand it is about a racist old man who...
12 January 2009
The Reader [based on the book by] by Bernhard Schlink dir. by Stephen Daldry
based on book, Der Vorleser. In Germany, 1958, Michael Berg is feeling unwell. He wanders through the streets for a while before almost collapsing in the entrance to an apartment block....
10 January 2009
Changeling dir. by Clint Eastwood
It is 1920’s Los Angeles and single mother Christine Collins is trying to raise her boy. One Sat she is called in to work and when she returns home little Walter Collins is nowhere to be found. The police set about looking and eventually, after 5 months they bring him back. Only the boy they return to Christine is different; she is, however, informed that those changes are the result of her shock and the boys trauma. Why it is quite the done thing for a boy to shrink 4 inches as a result of such a horrifying encounter. And circumcised now you say? Well it is healthy, and who knows what that drifter may have been thinking. Ms. Collins is not about to rest however. She wants her boy back.
4 December 2008
Elegy dir. by Isabel Coixet
IMDb ; OtherReviews David Kepesh, sometime narrator of this film, is an ageing lecturer. Or an ageing Tom Cat, going from woman to woman in order to maintain his independence. And...
13 September 2008
There Will Be Blood dir. by Paul Thomas Anderson
It is hard to know how to describe this film. It is more of a character study than a story. Of course there is some plot, an oilman and his desire to suceed, but the story isn’t too important. What is important is the character of Daniel Plainview, as played by Oscar winning Daniel Day-Lewis.
The opening scenes show just how driven Daniel is. We watch him, working on his own, in a mine. No dialogue at all for around 15 minutes, just this man in a hole, digging, dynamiting up the earth, falling down the hole, injured and yet still having the drive to pull himself out of that hole and struggle back into town to get his bit of dirt evaluated.
7 March 2008
Juno dir. by Jason Reitman
Juno is 16. And pregnant. At first she thinks she’ll have an abortion, but changes her mind, she’ll continue to be pregnant but she isn’t interested in being a Mommy. She’ll...
14 February 2008
The Kite Runner dir. by Marc Forster
based on book by Khaled Hosseini I haven’t read the book this film is based on so I can’t comment on how well the story makes the translation from one medium...
5 February 2008
Hotel Rwanda dir. by Terry George
This is a film with impact.
The opening voice-over is a speech on the radio, an anti-tutsi speech, broadcast on Hutu Power radio, over a black screen so as to really let us hear the words. It describes the flaws, reveals the prejudices in Rwanda, tells the viewer of the cockroach infestation the Hutu people will have to wipe out. This is then contrasted by the opening scenes; In Kigali airport we see Paul (Cheadle) collecting fresh lobsters to serve in the hotel where he works as house manager. It shows a bustling, growing, on the up city. But on the way back to the hotel we are introduced to the undercurrent of tension that is played out so well throughout this film.
9 December 2007
Death at a Funeral dir. by Frank Oz
You never quite know what to hope for when you go to see a so-called black comedy/farce. I mean, the trailers might give you an idea of some of better moments,...
12 November 2007
No Such Thing dir. by Hal Hatley
So there I was, flicking around this afternoon when I came across No Such Thing. My wonderful browse feature told me it was the story of a young female reporter who...
2 November 2007
Recent Comments