Epinions Recent Reviews for trust12345

My Winnipeg: A Stunning Achievement: My Winnipeg (2007)

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:28:45 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - In the universe of Guy Maddin, melodrama -- the histrionic exaggeration of the mundane -- is more real than reality itself. Emotions (envy, desire, sadness) blown out into giant proportions are a better guide to ourselves than some mere chronological...

Werner Herzog at the South Pole: Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:46:45 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - Filmed in 2006, and only now reaching selected theaters (after warm receptions at film festivals), Encounters at the End of the World is Werner Herzog's first documentary since Grizzly Man (2005), the acclaimed portrait of a fanatical man...

Robert Redford is a Cat Burglar in Peter Yates' The Hot Rock (1972)

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:13:35 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - The Hot Rock (1972) is a quirky little comedy from director Peter Yates, he of the beloved bicycle racing, college cutting, offbeat romantic comedy, Breaking Away (1979). Indeed, the only reason I keep TiVo'ing Yates' movies when they come...

Summer Palace: History Through the Eyes of the Anonymous: Summer Palace (2006)

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 02:55:15 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - It is all but impossible to imagine the current censorship board of Chinese film approving the film Yihe Yuan (2006), known in the West as Summer Palace. It has more steamy sex scenes than any art film this side of the porno industry, and a...

Persepolis: A Rebellious Woman in Iran: Persepolis (2007)

Sun, 6 Jan 2008 03:39:52 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - My best creative writing teachers always came back to the same lessons: write what you know, and keep it concrete and specific. They conveyed the idea that, almost paradoxically, the more deeply you penetrate a specific episode or character study, the...

No Country for Old Men: An Existential Shoot 'em Up: No Country For Old Men

Sun, 30 Dec 2007 03:40:52 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - No Country For Old Men (2007), the Coen Brothers' latest venture, is among their finest work, at least in terms of narrative structure, thematic richness, performances, and cinematography. However, it is far darker than anything they've put their...

There Will Be Blood: Paul Thomas Anderson's Bitter Tone Poem: There Will Be Blood

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 03:51:54 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - There Will Be Blood (2007) is a gorgeous and cruel beast of a film, a Hobbesian essay on vicious, all-consuming greed. Based on the 1927 novel, Oil! by Upton Sinclair, and loosely adapted for the screen by the young American auteur, Paul...

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Tim Burton's Theme Park Sweeney Todd

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:57:56 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - When I was nine years old, I attended (four times) the original Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979). It was one of those rare, transcendent, inspiring experiences that can make theater so...

The Savages: Lights Out in Buffalo: The Savages (2007)

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:14:26 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - As I was watching the The Savages (2007) a poignant, funny drama (tragicomedy or comitragedy, depending upon your own disposition) from writer and director Tamara Jenkins, I had a fleeting thought that this could be a movie by Alexander Payne, the...

Vagina-Headed Vampires Vs. Vietnam: Goke: Body Snatcher from Hell (1968)

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 22:32:09 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - Japan's Kyuketsuki Gokemidoro, a.k.a. Goke: Body Snatcher from Hell (1968) is a bizarre mishmash of genres: horror story, adaptation, airplane disaster flick, sci-fi alien, and apocalypse scenario. Incredibly, it fails in each one, mainly...

Somewhere buried in there, a brilliant film: Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (2007)

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:17:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - Se, jie, a.k.a. Lust, Caution, the latest from Taiwanese director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) is a film adaptation of Eileen Chang's short story of the same title, set during the late 30s and early 40s in Japanese-occupied Shanghai...

Shining Some Light on Sven Nykvist: Light Keeps Me Company (2000)

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:17:26 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - Light Keeps Me Company (Ljuset håller mig sällskap) is a serviceable, but underwhelming documentary about one of the world’s most venerated cinematographers, Sven Nykvist (1922-2006). Premiering in 2000, the film was...

Basketball and Ethics: Anthony Perkins and Jane Fonda Rebound in Tall Story (1960)

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:19:13 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - Tall Story (1960) has many promising ingredients: stars Anthony Perkins, in the same year as his career–defining turn in Hitchcock’s Psycho; a sexy Jane Fonda in her very first cinematic appearance (at age 22); writing credits from...

2 Days in Paris: Julie Delpy's 2 Days in Paris (2007). Nothing at all to do with Paris Hilton

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 02:17:45 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - Julie Delpy, the radiant actress who spars with Ethan Hawke in Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise (1995) and B
efore
Sunset (2004) has written, directed, edited, and starred in a movie of her own that has...

Of Orgasms and Organisms: Dušan Makavejev's WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 04:29:30 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - In one of the bonus feature interviews on the superb DVD edition (from Criterion) of WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971), Yugoslavian director Dušan Makavejev speaks of his seminal film as a “floating gestalt”: the film is highly open...

Sweet Movie (1974): One of the Sickest, Weirdest Films You Ever Might See

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 04:48:03 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - Sweet Movie (1974) is one of the most shocking pieces of cinematic agitation to have been committed to film, ever. Made in Canadian exile by the Yugoslavian director Dušan Makavejev (he’d been banned from his own country after the release...

Graphic sex, necrophilia, violent murder and pop music: This is Ingmar Bergman?!

Fri, 3 Aug 2007 01:43:26 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - For much of his artistic life, Ingmar Bergman wrote his plays and screenplays, and directed theater and film in his native Sweden, working again and again with an ensemble of top-rate actors on whom he could depend, and who knew his style:...

Paprika: Glib and Tiresome Anime Ooze: Paprika (2007)

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 22:14:53 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - Paprika (Papurika in the Japanese original) is the latest, infuriatingly busy and empty anime from director Satoshi Kon who loves to blur reality and fantasy in all his projects. His earlier M
illennium
...

Once Upon a Time on the Streets of Dublin: Once (2007)

Fri, 1 Jun 2007 00:43:58 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - The engrossing, simple and completely endearing film Once (2006/07) is part movie musical (not like the ones in the 1940s), part music video; part realist drama of an Irish busker and Czech immigrant in Dublin, part romantic, quixotic fable...

Necrophilia, pedophilia, heroin overdoses, creative embalming, and talking squirrels: Terry Gilliam's disastrous fairytale, Tideland (2005)

Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:13:23 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - Every now and again, a once beloved director will come out with a film so bad, it acts like a giant H-bomb, casting a black cloud over their entire career, exposing their obsessions and idiosyncrasies in a foul light that nearly obliterates what was...

The Host: Toxic Waste-Fed Sea Monster Devours City!! The Host (2006)

Sun, 11 Mar 2007 02:36:51 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - The hit South Korean film Gwoemul (2006), aka The Host, is a mutant monster mash of multiple genres: one part Godzilla b-movie; one part The Incredibles (minus the family’s impressive super-powers); one part gonzo, slapstick comedy,...

An Author in Search of an Original Idea: Stranger Than Fiction

Tue, 6 Mar 2007 16:39:09 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - It’s impressive that the screenplay for the dramatic comedy (dramedy), Stranger Than Fiction (2006), was penned by Zach Helm at the age of 30. It would be a lot more impressive, however, if the story were more original. Concerning an IRS agent...

Pulp With a Good Heart: Black Snake Moan (2006)

Sat, 3 Mar 2007 04:08:03 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - Black Snake Moan (2006), written and directed by Craig Brewer (of the previous year’s hit, Hustle and Flow), joins an elite group of provocative and sensitive films about severely disturbed women whose self esteem has been trashed by...

For Your Consideration: Uh, I Don't Think So

Fri, 2 Mar 2007 21:50:08 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - I was all prepared to write a review of Christopher Guest’s For Your Consideration (2006), but the problem is, I watched it on DVD a full two days ago and it has already almost completely evaporated from memory. That in itself is not a great...

Versaille through an MTV, Gen X Lens: Coppola's Beautiful and Personal Marie Antoinette (2006)

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 18:12:51 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author trust12345 - It’s not often costumes, sets, music and cinematography can launch a film to five (out of five) stars in my book, but with Sofia Coppola’s impressionistic Marie Antoinette (2006), you’ve got my vote. After seeing the film’s...