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Cinema by
Leonard Heldreth
Thrills, mystery and the effects of war
The films this month include a surrealistic thriller set in New Orleans by a famous German director, a Swedish mystery based on an international best-seller and two apolitical but moving examinations of the effects of the Iraq-Afghanistan wars on young soldiers and their families.
[ Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo | The Messenger | Brothers ]
All
films reviewed by Leonard Heldreth, unless otherwise noted,
and are available
as DVDs or videotapes from local video stores at time of review. Home
Cinema Archives
July 2010: Examining the extremes: love ’em or hate ’em
None of this month’s films has been hailed universally as a “masterpiece,” at least not so far, and none of them have won academy awards, although they’ve collected some other awards. Critics tend to be sharply divided, either praising them or attacking them. Nonetheless, each of them has virtues, and, for this viewer, their entertainment values outweigh their shortcomings.
[ Alice in Wonderland, The Imginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Nine, It’s Complicated ]
June 2010: Different take, familiar tale offers good cinema
The films this month include two variations on familiar plots, a powerful Belgian film and a major Hollywood game-changer.
[ Crazy Heart | Sherlock Holmes | Lorna’s Silence | Avatar ]
May 2010: Eye on animation, and debated interpretations
The films this month included two widely different kinds of animation as well as two films that have generated controversy over their interpretation.
[ Up in the Air, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Ponyo, Precious... ]
April 2010: Cinematic smorgasbord:
No stars to Bright Stars The films this month are a collection of inquiries and entertainments with little direct connection between them.
[ A Serious Man, Cold Souls, Bright Star, Where the Wild Things Are ]
March 2010: Running the genres
This month’s films cover a variety of genres—comedy about love, bio-pic, vampire film and one of the best action movies about war in a long time.
[ (500) Days of Summer | Julie & Julia | Thirst | The Hurt Locker ]
February 2010: Science fiction on the big screen
The focus is on science fiction this month, with all four films falling into that genre in some fashion.[ [ District 9 | 9 | Moon | Inglourious Basterds ]
January 2010: Traversing
a familiar frontier of love and poetry
The films this month start
the new year on a distinctly positive note, from the animated adventures of Up
through the familiar frontier optimism of Star Trek, the eternal quandaries of
love and poetry in The Edge of Love, and the unflagging exuberance of Happy Go
Lucky.
[ Up | Star Trek | The
Edge of Love | Happy
Go Lucky ]
December 2009: Insight into the
world’s oldest profession
Two films this month deal with what is said
to be the world’s oldest profession, while the remaining two examine personal
experience as public spectacle and “whatever works.”
[ Chéri,
The Girlfriend Experience,
Adoration, Whatever
Works ]
November 2009: Thankful for DVDs: independent films
that missed the big screen
For various reasons, the films this month,
sometimes despite big budget and award-winning actors and directors, received
little marketing or publicity from their distributors and often went directly
to video release.
Some are “independent” films that traditionally
are ignored because they show little profit in commercial release, tying up a
screen that could be running Animal House 2009 and pulling in scads of money.
Fortunately, we can access some of these films on the DVD shelf.
[ Goodbye,
Solo | In the Electric
Mist | Wendy and Lucy
] October 2009: Foreign movie buffet offers supreme acting: The
films this month are a cross-section of current world cinema—a new film from
an acknowledged Russian master, a first film from a Chinese-American director
shooting in Mexico, a South American film with two well-known actors and a prize-winning
semi-documentary from France.
[ Alexandra
| Sin Nombre | Rudo
y Cursi | The Class
] September 2009: 3D film to be classic; graphic epic debated
This month’s films include an interesting father-son independent film that
debuted at Sundance, a stop-motion 3D animated film destined to become a classic
and a graphic-novel epic that left viewers and critics debating its success.
[ The Great Buck Howard |
Coraline | Watchman
] August 2009: Three stories of love, and a tale of wine
for dessert
The films this month provide three variations on love and a look
at the way California wines beat French wines in the “Judgment of Paris”
in 1976.
[ Two Lovers,
Revolutionary Road,
The Curious Case of Benjamin
Button, Bottle Shock
] July 2009: A closer look at some Academy Award nominees
All of the films this month were nominated for multiple Academy Awards, and some
won. Three of the films examine the effects of doubt and guilt on their characters,
while the fourth presents the end of a professional athlete’s career.
[ Doubt | The
Reader | Frost/Nixon
| The Wrestler ] June
2009: Movements, miracles, music and other oddities
The films this month include
two Academy Award winners and, at the opposite end of the popularity spectrum,
two independent films.
[ Milk
| Mr. Lonely | Cadillac
Records | Slumdog
Millionaire ] May 2009: A comparison of vampire flicks
and actors in dual roles
The films this month, in addition to being
recent releases, are connected partly by themes and partly by actors. Two of the
films deal with vampires, two of them star Samantha Morton, and two of them use
Diego Luna in a lead or supporting role.
[ Twilight
and Let the Right One In | Synecdoche,
New York ] April 2009: Documentary examines WTC acrobatic
feat
The films this month present five women trying to deal with the problems
they encounter, and one man trying to keep his balance a quarter of a mile above
the ground.
[ Frozen River
| I’ve Loved You
So Long | Man on Wire
| A Girl Cut in Two
] March 2009: Multitasking directors see film success
Acting, writing and directing all require major efforts in the creation of a successful
motion picture. Three of the films this month have one person carrying out all
three tasks, and in the other, one man is both writer and director.
[ Appaloosa
| Tropic Thunder |
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
| Roman de Gare ] February
2009: Comedies, documentaries without objectivity
The films this month include
two comedies and two documentaries, although neither of the latter fits the “objective”
quality usually expected of documentaries.
[ Burn
After Reading | Ghost
Town | My Winnipeg
| Encounters at the End
of the World ] January 2009: Offbeat film salad, with
a side of French
Three distinctly offbeat films and two distinctly French
films balance each other this month.
[ XXY
| Mister Foe | Sukiyaki
Western Django | Priceless
| Flight of the Red Balloon
] December,
2008: Trains, parks and screwball comedies
The films this month include
a thriller set on a Russian express train, an account of a young man coming to
terms with his own actions, a middle-aged college professor’s encounter with
the world of illegal immigrants and a frothy female buddy movie that imitates
the screwball comedies of the ’30s.
[ Transsiberian
| Paranoid Park |
The Visitor | Miss
Pettigrew Lives for a Day ] November,
2008: The films this month include a British fantasy, an international children’s
adventure story, a new Woody Allen film and a comedy about the last days of two
men.
[ Hogfather | The
Fall | Cassandra's
Dream | The Bucket
List ] October,
2008: Music examined from opposite spectrums
[ The
Band's Visit | The Counterfeiters
| Shine a Light ] September,
2008: Horror times two, with a side order of drama
[ The
Last Winter | The Orphanage
|
Before the Devil
Knows You’re Dead | Starting
Out in the Evening ] August,
2008
[ In Bruges |
Persepolis | Savages
| Charlie Wilson’s
War ] July,
2008
[ I'm not there
| Youth Without Youth
| Romance and Cigarettes
| Slipstream ] June,
2008
[ Death at a Funeral
| Lust, Caution | Atonement
| Silk ] May,
2008
[ The Brave One
| No Country for Old Men
| Sweeney Todd | Ojibwa
Drum Songs ] April,
2008
[ Michael
Clayton | The Assassination
of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford |
Beowulf
| Once
] March,
2008
[ 3:10 to Yuma
| Sunshine | Stardust
| Eastern Promises
] February,
2008
[ Waitress |
La Vie en Rose (La Mome)
| Paris Je T'Aime (I Love
Paris)
Renaissance:
Paris 2054 | Paprika
] January,
2008
[ Sicko
| Ratatouille
| Firefly
and Serenity ]
December,
2007
[ 13
Tzameti | The Inheritance
| Black Snake Moan
| 1408 ] November,
2007
[ The
Perfect Crime | Black
Book | Inland Empire
| Death Proof
]
October,
2007 is currently not available
[ Disturbia |
The Lives of Others
| The History Boys
| Blades of Glory]
September,
2007
[ The Host |
The Aura | Perfume:
The Story of a Murderer | The
Abandoned ] August,
2007
[ Venus | Little
Children | Little Miss
Sunshine ] July,
2007
[ The Queen |
Notes on a Scandal
| Volver ] June,
2007
[ Babel | Children
of Men | Pan’s
Labyrinth | L’Enfant
(The Child) ] May,
2007
[ The Illusionist
| The Prestige | The
Departed ] April,
2007
[ Time to Leave
| La Moustache | Stranger
than Fiction ] March,
2007
[ Sympathy
for Mr. Vengeance | Oldboy
| Lady Vengeance ] February,
2007
[ The Devil Wears
Prada | Art School
Confidential | Brick
| Clean ] January,
2007
[ The Proposition
| Lucky Number Slevin
| Where the Truth Lies
| Pride and Prejudice
] December,
2006
[ The Family Stone
| A Prairie Home Companion
| Proof | Three
Times ] November,
2006
[ Caché
| Marilyn Hotchkiss Dancing
Class and Charm School |
Don’t
Come Knocking | The
Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada ] October,
2006
[ Dot the i |
Memory of a Killer
| The Ice Harvest ] September,
2006
[ Match Point
| My Mother’s Smile
| Breakfast on Pluto
| Jarhead ] August,
2006
[ Thumbsucker
| Milwaukee, Minnesota
| Transamerica | Winter
Passing ] July,
2006
[ Mrs. Henderson
Presents | Walk the
Line | Casanova |
The Wild Parrots of
Telegraph Hill ] June,
2006
[ Crash | Brokeback
Mountain | Capote
] May, 2006
[ Good Night and Good Luck
| The Constant Gardener
| A History of Violence
] April,
2006
[ Wallace & Gromit:
The Curse of the Were-Rabbit |
Tim
Burton’s Corpse Bride | Howl’s
Moving Castle | MirrorMask
] March,
2006
[ Millions |
Broken Flowers | 5X2
| Junebug ] February,
2006
[ Being Julia
| 2046 | Goodbye
Dragon Inn ] January,
2006
[ Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory | 3-Iron
|
Schultze Gets the
Blues | Mysterious
Skin ] December,
2006
[ Since Otar Left
| Me and You and Everyone
We Know | 6ixtynin9
|
Last Life in the
Universe ] November,
2005
[ A Very Long Engagement
| Closer | Undertow
| A Love Song for Bobby
Long ]
October,
2005
[ Kung Fu Hustle
| Layer Cake | Sin
City | A Talking Picture
] September,
2005
[ Red Lights
| Time Out | Wilbur
Wants to Kill Himself | The
Machinist ] August,
2005
[ Primer | The
Jacket | White Noise
| Final Cut ] July,
2005
[ Bad Education
| The Woodsman | Birth
| P.S. ]
June,
2005
[ Twilight Samurai
| Stage Beauty | I
(Heart) Huckabees |
What
the #$*! Do We Know? | Collateral
] May, 2005
[ Motorcycle Diaries | Incredibles
| Dirty Pretty Things
| Nine Queens ] April,
2005
[ Young Adam
| Kitchen Stories |
Jersey Girl | De-Lovely
] March,
2005
[ I’ll Sleep
When I’m Dead | Satoichi,
the Blind Swordsman |
The
Son (Le Fils) | Under
the Tuscan Sun |
Facing
Windows | Springtime
in a Small Town ] February,
2005
[ The Return
| My Father and I |
I’m Not Scared
|
A Home at the End
of the World ] January,
2005
[ Rivers and Tides:
Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time | The
Station Agent |
Spring,
Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring | Mystic
River ] December,
2004
[ The Triplets of
Belleville | Angels
in America |
The
Barbarian Invasions | Kill
Bill | Love Actually
] November,
2004
[ Eternal Sunshine
of the Spotless Mind | Peter
Pan | Hellboy
Fahrenheit 9/11 | Songs
from the Second Floor ] October,
2004
[ Japanese Story
| The Dreamers | Flower
of Evil ] September,
2004
[ American Splendor
| Lost in Translation
| Man on the Train
| Dust to Dust ] August,
2004
[ The Weather Underground
| The Fog of War |
The Endurance | Winged
Migration ] July,
2004
[ Girl with a Pearl
Earring | Big Fish
| The Cooler | 21
Grams ] June,
2004
[ Intolerable Cruelty
| Twin Falls Idaho
| Jackpot | Northfolk
] May, 2004
[ Respiro | Russian
Ark | The Housekeeper
| Nowhere in Africa
|
The Sea is Watching
| Better Luck Tomorrow
] April,
2004
[ Bend It Like Beckham
| Femme Fatale | 28
Days Later | The Swimming
Pool
The Italian
Job | The 25th Hour
| Trembling Before G-d
] March,
2004
[ The Cuckoo
| The Man Without a Past
| Whale Rider | Movern
Caller | Love Liza
] February,
2004
[ 8 Women | With
a Friend Like Harry | Read
My Lips | The Piano
Teacher ] January,
2004
[ Heaven | Sex
and Lucia | Real Women
Have Curves | Secretary
| Roger Dodger ] December,
2003
[ Lost in La Mancha
| Bowling for Columbine
|
The Kid Stays in
the Picture | The Believer
] November,
2003
[ Spider | The
Good Thief | Punch
Drunk Love | Chicago
] October,
2003
[ The Hours |
About Schmidt | Solaris
] September,
2003
[ Talk to Her
| Amores Perros | Y
Tu Mam Tambin ] August,
2003
[ The Good Girl
| The Man from Elysian
Fields | All or Nothing
|
Innocence | Scotland,
Pa ] July
2003
[ One Hour Photo
| Spirited Away | Far
fom Home | Adaptation
] June 2003
[ About a Boy | Dangerous
Lives of Altar Boys | Igby
Goes Down | Ratcatcher
] May 2003
[ My Big
Fat Greek Wedding | Possession
| Road to Perdition
| Full Frontal ] March,
2003
[ Sunshine State
| The Son's Room |
Italian for Beginners
| Up at the Villa ]
February,
2003
[ Signs | Panic
| Changing Lanes |
Panic Room ] January,
2003
[ Big Fat Liar
| Flawless | Death
to Smoochy | Happiness
| Storytelling ] December,
2002
[ Monsoon Wedding
| L.I.E. | Insomnia
| Frailty ]
November,
2002
[ A Beautiful Mind
| Iris | The
Brotherhood of the Wolf | Monster's
Inc ] October,
2002
[ Cat's Meow
| Gosford Park | The
Devil's Backbone | In
The Bedroom ] September,
2002
[ The Shipping News
| Last Orders | Armelie
| The Vertical Ray of
the Sun ] August,
2002
[ Royal Tenebaums
| Vanilla Sky | Bridget
Jones's Diary | Kate
and Leopold ]
July,
2002
[ Sexy Beast
| The Deep End | Under
The Sand | Lantana
] The Month of Love: June,
2002
[ The Others
| The Girl on the Bridge
|
The Princess and
the Warrior | In the
Mood for Love ] May,
2002
[ The Man Who Wasn't
There | Mulholland
Drive | Donnie Darko
]
April,
2002
[ Tortilla Soup
| Brother | The
Million Dollar Hotel ] March,
2002
[ The Anniversary
Party | Series 7: The
Contenders | An Everlasting
Piece ] February,
2002
[ Family Man
| Me Myself I | Hedwig
and the Angry Inch | Moulin
Rouge ] January,
2002
[ Theremin—An
Electronic Odyssey | The
Straight Story
Goya
in Bordeaux | You Can
Count on Me | Liebestraum
]
December,
2001
[ Along Came a Spider
| Swordfish | Snatch
| State and Main |
Shrek ] November,
2001
[ The Claim |
Memento | Chocolat
| Spy Kids ] October,
2001
[ An Affair of Love
| Steam: The Turkish
Bath | Shower
All About My Mother
| 8 1/2 Women ] September,
2001
[ O Brother, Where
Art Thou? | The Pledge
The Emperor's New
Groove | Traffic ]
August,
2001
[ Crouching Dragon
Hiden Tiger | Shadow
of the Vampire
The
Contender | Unbreakable
] July,
2001
[ Way of the Gun
| Return to Me | Waking
the Dead ] June,
2001
[ Saving Grace
| Best in Show | Drop
Dead Gorgeous ] May, 2001
Is currently Unavailable April,
2001
[ Center
Stage | Topsy Turvy
| The Cell ] March,
2001
[ The Iron Giant
| Titan A.E. | Princes
Mononoke | Chicken
Run ] February,
2001
[ Snow
Falling on Cedars | Frequency
The Whole Nine Yards
| Big Momma's House
] January,
2001
[ Rules
of Engagement | Final
Destination | U-571
| Gladiator ] December,
2000
[ High Fidelity
| American Psycho
| Election ] November,
2000
[ Erin Brockovich
| Magnolia | Fight
Club ] October, 2000
[ Girl,
Interrupted | The Green
Mile |
Ghost Dog,
The Way of the Samurai ] September, 2000
[ Bringing
Out the Dead | Dogma
|
Cradle Will Rock
| American Beauty ]
August, 2000
[ The
Talented Mr. Ripley | Man
on the Moon
Wilde
| An Ideal Husband
] July, 2000
[ Galaxy
Quest | Sleepy Hollow
| Three Kings ] June,
2000
[ Being John Malkovich
| The End of the Affair
| Eyes Wide Shut
] May, 2000
[ Payback
| The Limey | The
Replacement Killers | Heat
] April, 2000
[ The
Blair Witch Project | The
Haunting
The Sixth
Sense | Stir of Echoes
] March, 2000
[ Ma
Vie en Rose | Run,
Lola, Run | Tango
| Tarzan ] February,
2000
[ Playing by Heart
| The Thirteenth Floor
| eXistenZ ] January,
2000
[ Tea With Mussolini
| Life is Beautiful
| Bent ] December,
1999
[ The Matrix
| Analyze This
| Central Station
] November, 1999
[ Little
Voice | A Midwinter's
Tale ] October, 1999
[ I
Went Down | The
General
Lock,
Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels ] September, 1999
[ Waking Ned Devine
| Dancing at
Lughnasa | The
Butcher Boy ] August, 1999
[ Gods
and Monsters | Velvet
Goldmine | In Dreams
| Apt Pupil ] July,
1999
[ Love
and Death on Long Island | The
Governess | Ever
After ] June, 1999
[ Lolita
| Chinese Box
| In the Company
of Men ] May, 1999
[ Blade
| John Carpenter's
Vampires | Dark
City ] |
