There’s an expectancy that any reasonable movie about 9/11 must represent political complexities. But Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center sidesteps global conflict and the director’s own reputation for a return to September 11’s initial helplessness. The day isn’t approached as a dramatic end in itself by Stone, it becomes a basis for his treatise on […]
Film + TV
Posted inArts + Music
The X-films
It isn’t a wild generalization to say that most people who get into filmmaking want to make a living doing it. It’s the result of a pervasive and populist medium of entertainment. This means understanding how to tell a story in projected light, but there are those who are able to look at unique elements […]
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The Descent
The nature-survival film gets rehauled as straight horror in The Descent, a UK item that’s well-versed in scare tactics. The documentary quality of the shot setups and observational tone recalls Wolf Creek, but The Descent’s primal terror—clautrophobics might have a rough time with it—hits harder, with more innovation and skill. The location of the horror […]
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Toni! Toni! Toni!
It’s typical of the shallower pools in Hollywood when almost every Toni Collette biography comes with an implied asterisk next to the critical kudos, remarking on the fact she doesn’t share the razor cheekbones of Australian leading ladies who’ve worked in American film, such as Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts. Well, screw the […]
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Miami Vice
Michael Mann’s stylish film version of his trend-setting ’80s TV drama Miami Vice is a weird take on a cop thriller. Mann’s non-conformist approach to tough guy mystique is more defiant than inspired—interesting for what it isn’t, rather than what it is. By resisting cliche, Mann makes exactly the movie that his detractors frequently accuse […]
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A brief history of gloss
If the thought of Colin Farrell tying his stringy hair back into some goopy ponytail as narcotics cop Sonny Crockett in the new Miami Vice movie gets you down, remember for a second that Don Johnson originated the role in the 1984 TV series and did it sock-less, in white loafers. See if you don’t […]
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Clerks II
Clerks was about the person Kevin Smith was, and its sequel is about who he could have been. Picking up on the 20-somethings of 1994’s Clerks 12 years later, Smith views dissatisfaction in life as something that’s socially imposed. The fear of growing up is for many a fear of losing one’s identity. It’s conversely […]
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Monster House
Monster House is a throwback to a mostly deceased subgenre: the scary movie for kids. Spooky stuff in the new Pirates of the Caribbean is just part of its corporate mindset. That film aims to pacify everyone, but kids can embrace Monster House as their own. Even in its opening stages, the characters display a […]
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Into the Outback
Guy Pearce’s favourite scene in The Proposition, in which he stars, is when Emily Watson’s Martha realizes the deal her husband has made with the devil in order to, in his words, “civilize” the land. “I cry every time I see it,” he says. “One of the things I think the film is about is […]
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Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest
“Two hours and 20 minutes is a wearying time to spend on a movie that’s really about nothing,” I wrote of 2003’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Not wanting to offend me the same way twice, Gore Verbinski’s follow-up to the Disneyland ride adaptation is just as innocuous, but runs […]
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The right Fitz
The perfect fit. We’re all seeking it—for our jobs, our jeans, our lovers and our leaders. But perfection usually proves elusive and we end up settling for pretty good or make-do solutions. Once in a while, though, fate throws us a bone. Like, for example, Thom Fitzgerald hooking up with Halifax Pride to curate and […]
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Turn down the hype
There’s a great moment in Superman Returns, a variation of an effect that opens Robert Zemeckis’ Contact, that’s an unintended summary of the present blockbuster season. The Man of Steel looks down on Earth from outer space, and is inundated by a cacophony of the planet’s sound waves. So many movies emit so much loud […]
