Masters of Horror: ImprintDirected by: Takashi Miike(Anchor Bay)Extremely violent Asian films have had a significant impact among many horror fans in the west. Japanese director Takashi Miike (Audition) is practically synonymous with the genre. When Showtime began its Masters of Horror series—an anthology where a different director would be brought in for every episode—it made […]
Film + TV
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Dune: Extended Edition
Dune: Extended EditionDirected by: David Lynch(Universal)David Lynch turned down Return of the Jedi for this adaptation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic. Herbert’s novel proved too dense for two-and-a-half hours, and critics in 1984 were as offended by idiosyncratic commercial films as they are now (note Dune’s film school faux pas of multiple narrators). But the […]
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Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey
Metal: A Headbanger’s JourneyDirected by: Sam Dunn, Scot McFadyen(Warner Home Video)Sam Dunn is a British Columbia anthropologist who’s into Slayer. The film is his cinematic thesis on the most adored and despised music genre, heavy metal, in all its permutations. The interview with sexy rock goblin Ronnie James Dio at his LA mansion full of […]
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The Squid and the Whale
The Squid and the WhaleDirected by: Noah Baumbach(Sony)Writer-director Noah Baumbach mined his childhood on Brooklyn’s Park Slope for this ’80s-set dark comedy about the sons of two writers (Laura Linney, and in a truly great performance, Jeff Daniels) struggling to deal with their parents’ shit through a bad divorce. Hellishly funny.Carsten KnoxCategories: Best of the […]
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Birth
Published December 08, 2005. Birth Directed by: Jonathan Glazer (Alliance) Director Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) pays tribute to both Kubrick and Polanski in this atmospheric drama. The story of a 10-year-old who claims to be the resurrected husband of Nicole Kidman’s widow takes some strange, illogical twists, but will stay with you long past the […]
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The Hammer Horror Series
Published December 08, 2005. The Hammer Horror Series Directed by: Terence Fisher (Universal) The movies from the British studio are all examples of horror films that excel through encroaching atmosphere before shock effects. They’re nicely transferred on disc, but here’s the main selling point: You get eight of them, for the price of a single […]
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Omagh
Published December 08, 2005. Omagh Directed by: Pete Travis (Sundance) A dramatization of the events during and following the August 15th bombing of the Northern Ireland town of Omagh, the story is told largely on the shoulders of one man and his family, a soft-spoken mechanic who gets involved in pursuing the bombers. The authenticity […]
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SherryBaby
SherryBabyDirected by: Laurie Collyer (IFC Films)Partway through SherryBaby, Sherry Swanson stands up at a family dinner and starts belting out “Eternal Flame,” by the Bangles. Her singing’s only moderately good, everyone’s eating and nobody asked her to sing. The moment is awkward, inappropriate and a little pathetic— but also endearing. So is Sherry. The character’s […]
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Come Early Morning
Come Early MorningDirected by: Joey Lauren Adams(Alliance Atlantis)Come Early Morning is the kind of indie movie that makes people hate them—it’s slow-moving with no discernible plot, all character and no action. But that’s life, and most hard-drinkin’, hard-kissin’ small-town women wouldn’t have a problem being portrayed by Ashley Judd. Before Hilary Swank got her career, […]
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The TV Set
The TV SetDirected by: Jake Kasdan20th Century FoxIn The TV Set, writer Mike (a bearded David Duchovny) is one of the poor sods lucky enough to have his pilot produced during pilot season, the turbulent time in TV-Land when network suits set about turning the more promising scripts they’ve received into one-time episodes. For Mike, […]
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Days of Glory
Days of Glory Directed by: Rachid BoucharebIFCA great war movie. Based on a true story, it features four North African men fighting to free France from the Nazis in WWII. Despite their courage and conviction, they suffer discrimination, echoed through the decades. A dark companion-piece to Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, and nearly as powerful.Carsten KnoxCategories: […]
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Apocalypto
ApocalyptoDirected by: Mel GibsonBuena VistaAn historically inaccurate, gratuitously violent movie about the end of Mayan civilization made by a documented racist—all of which led to the rash dismissal and misunderstanding of Apocalypto. But this film is great by virtue that it’s made by a madman. Mel Gibson isn’t aspiring to textbook history, but an abstraction […]