Brokeback MountainDirected by: Directed by Ang Lee(Focus Features)The peak of Brokeback Mountain-mania came back in January, and the slow backlash that followed probably accounted for it not winning Best Picture at the Oscars in March. In a season where so many films with socio-political edge made an impact, Crash will be remembered as the most […]
Carsten Knox
Posted inArts + Music
Match Point
Match PointDirected by: Woody Allen(Dreamworks Video)Hailed as Woody Allen’s return to form—an overblown claim given Melinda & Melinda wasn’t exactly chopped liver—what distinguishes Match Point from the annual Woodster offerings is the genre (white-knuckle suspense) and locale (high falutin’ London). And love her or hate her, Scarlett Johanssen undeniably brings the bombshell.Carsten KnoxCategories: Best of […]
Posted inArts + Music
My Summer of Love
Published December 08, 2005. My Summer of Love Directed by: Pawel Pawlikowski (Alliance) Two Yorkshire girls become friends and then lovers under the sun-dappled trees of the eternal summer afternoon. It’s not all pastoral bliss: teenaged boredom, betrayal and innocence are served up and cut down. The commentary by director Pawel Pawlikowski is essential. Carsten […]
Posted inArts + Music
Hustle and Flow
Hustle and FlowDirected by: Craig Brewer (MTV FIlms)Terrence Howard had what they call in professional sports a “career year.” After a long stretch in the character-actor trenches, he shone in Crash, Four Brothers and Get Rich or Die Tryin’, but no more so than as DJay, the Memphis pimp who wants to change his life […]
Posted inArts + Music
Body Heat: Deluxe Edition
Body Heat: Deluxe EditionDirected by: Lawrence Kasdan(Warner Home Video)A slippery entry in modern noir, this 1981 loose remake of Double Indemnity made a sex symbol of Kathleen Turner. As Matty Walker, Turner tempts Florida lawyer Ned Racine (William Hurt) to kill her husband for love and money. Check out the killer cameo from Mickey Rourke […]
Posted inArts + Music
United 93
United 93Directed by: Paul Greengrass(Universal Pictures)Whatever the motivations for making a film about what happened on the doomed 9/11 flight, there’s no denying Paul Greengrass’s thriller is suspense filmmaking of the first order, his docudrama style a real-time recreation of both midair and on-the-ground events in grim, startlingly realized detail.Carsten KnoxCategories: Best of the year […]
Posted inArts + Music
Children of Men
Children of MenDirected by: Alfonso CuarónUniversalUnfairly ignored at Oscar time, Alfonso Cuarón’s (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) dystopic future vision evokes the post-apocalyptic classics of ’70s American cinema, depicting a frighteningly plausible plague-ridden society. Virtuoso camerawork demands a bigger screen than most TVs, but it’s essential hard sci-fi.Carsten KnoxCategories: Best of the year […]
Posted inArts + Music
A Dirty Shame
A Dirty ShameDirected by: John Waters (Fine Line Features)Do you like the word “cooter?” Do you wish there was more feltching or sploshing in movies? Have you been searching for the ideal euphemism for cunnilingus? How about “sneezing in the cabbage?” A Dirty Shame will satisfy. With this movie, American B-movie legend Waters locates his […]
Posted inArts + Music
Lost Girls
Lost GirlsAlan MooreTop ShelfYears in the making, here is another Alan Moore-penned, shelf-splintering hardcover volume that every self-respecting (and self-disrespecting) comic fan must own. With the soft, colourful and ornate drawings of Melinda Gebbie, Moore takes recognizable fictional characters—as he did in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen—Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Wendy from Peter Pan […]
Posted inArts + Music
Dear Frankie
Published December 08, 2005. Dear Frankie Directed by: Shona Auerbach (Alliance) The feel-good British provincial romance of the year, it tells the story of a young mother trying to protect her son from the truth of his father’s absence by forging letters from him. Though the set-up is contrived, everything else is right on, particularly […]
Posted inArts + Music
Paris, je t’aime
Paris, je t’aimeDirected by: MultipleVictoires InternationalA sterling collection of short films with the loose theme of life in Paris, it draws great work from a spectacular stable of international directors, including Alfonso Cuarón, Alexander Payne, Walter Salles, Gus Van Sant and Tom Tykwer. My favourite: the Coen Brothers assault Steve Buscemi in the Metro. Carsten […]
Posted inLifestyle
Plenty of pa rum pum pum pums
Two-thousand of anything is a pretty healthy number: dollars, pairs of mittens, shrunken heads…. But 2,000 Christmas albums is especially impressive. Who knew there were that many out there? “People grow up with these albums—it’s the soundtrack to their childhood Christmas,” says Sean Passmore, referencing his mammoth, 24-year-old assemblage of holiday tunage— and counting. “People […]
