Several years ago, I recall finding the title and Criterion DVD cover art for Cleo From 5 to 7 subtly provocative. But it wasn’t until now, the film’s storyline having taken on more personal relevance, that I got around to watching the film. Cleo was my introduction to Belgian-born French New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda. [...]
Entries from June 2007
Cleo From 5 to 7 (1961)
June 26th, 2007 · No Comments
Tags: Drama · Foreign Language · Review · Romance
Vagabond (1985)
June 26th, 2007 · No Comments
Twenty-four years after Cleo From 5 to 7, with many films in between, Agnès Varda created another feminine profile, Vagabond. The films could not be more different stylistically, and after 46 years, Cleo holds up much better than Vagabond after only 22. Perhaps the 80’s (here in full force from dress to hairstyles to music) [...]
Tags: Capsule · Drama · Foreign Language
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
June 8th, 2007 · No Comments
The third (and last?) of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, At World’s End, is exactly what it is supposed to be: mindless popcorn entertainment, full of outlandish explosions and impressive special effects. The film’s dour opening sequence suggests that some weightier ideas might lurk beneath the watery surface, but fear not, such aspirations are [...]
Tags: Action/Adventure · Capsule · Popcorn
The Lost City (2005)
June 5th, 2007 · No Comments
Director/composer/actor Andy Garcia has achieved a phenomenal feat in metaphorical art. Through an attempt to tell a story about a place in a desperate crisis of identity, purpose, and coherence (1950’s Cuba), he has created a movie which suffers the very same fate. The story is that of a cabaret owner, his extended family, the [...]
The Good German (2006)
June 3rd, 2007 · No Comments
Despite his perhaps being the victim of the one-too-many curse of Hollywood’s obsession with franchise (in the recently-released Ocean’s 13), director Steven Soderbergh (The Limey, Solaris, Bubble) has shown, through the more personal projects he makes between studio paychecks, that his only recognizable formula is to continuously create new challenges for himself and his audience. [...]
Tags: Crime/Noir · Director · Review · War
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
