This is a story relayed through an old man’s eyes. Chico is a broken down old piano player; once famed for his deft ivory tinkling, he now polishes shoes on street corners. But a fiery glint in his eye tells the tale of another lifetime when he fell for a beautiful woman and became swept […]
Beginners (2011), written and directed by Mike Mills, is at its most effective when portraying the tender relationship between father and son. In the aftermath of his father Hal’s (Christopher Plummer) death after a long battle with illness, graphic designer son Oliver (Ewan McGregor), who has been drifting rather aimlessly through life, must take a
Day is Done features a novel narrative structure. Whilst pointing his camera outside his Zurich apartment, director Thomas Imbach has cobbled together a non-fictional ‘story’ entirely from messages left on his answering machine over the course of many years. We hear the ramblings of his parents, relatives and other well-wishers, but most dominant is the
Chilean director Pablo Larrain’s Post Mortem will tease and torture you. This is the turgid, drab tale of a civil servant, Mario (Alfredo Castro), who transcribes the notes of a coroner in Santiago, 1973. Mario has a thing for his neighbour, Nancy Puelma (Antonia Zegers) a fading cabaret dancer with connections to some politically minded
Highly anticipated by all who treasure its source material Haruki Murakami’s classic 1987 novel Norwegian Wood’s undeniable aesthetic beauty is sadly diluted by an underwhelming treatment of its main themes. Perhaps director Anh Hung Tran has tried too hard to translate Murakami’s most accessible, only surrealism-free book with a reverence that might well please the
Errol Morris has been responsible for some of the finest documentary films of recent decades, including The Thin Blue Line (1988), Mr. Death (1999), The Fog of War (2003) and Standard Operating Procedure (2008). His latest, Tabloid (2010), is a different beast altogether. Absent are the penetrating political insights and sociological commentary in favour of
End of Animal (2010) is the first film of this year’s Festival that I’ve truly detested. As a devoted fan of Korean cinema, it pains me to admit this. But this incomprehensible mess, written and directed by Sung-Hee Jo, is guilty of a crime far worse than sporting a senseless narrative. Beyond the intrigue created
Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation is one of the finest Iranian dramas of all time. On the surface it appears to be little more than a domestic drama but a range complexities emerge from its increasingly detailed narrative in time. Farhadi’s film is a detailed, humanistic portrait of tortured religious convictions, moral debts and the irreducible
Welsh teenage Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts) has a new obsession. Fellow student Jordana Bevan (Yasmin Paige) is the girl he fantasises about being his first true love. At home Oliver is lumbered with his slightly weird parents marine biologist father Lloyd (a deadpanning Noah Taylor) exudes as little charisma as a doorknob and seems distressingly
A simple, innocent deception exponentially grows in significance as the remarkable Tomboy progresses. Moving into a new town, tall, skinny 10 year old Laure (Zoe Heran) ventures into the streets to make new friends. With her cropped hair and startlingly fresh-faced good looks, she refers to herself as ‘Mikael’ when meeting a local girl, Lisa
