Out to own today:
Spotlight
 | “Go be curious somewhere else,” Steve Kurkjian (Gene Amoroso) Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of cinema ignominy, director Tom McCarthy has left behind last year’s dire Adam Sandler team-up, THE COBBLER, and delivered an awards contender. Like the police equivalent, a journalistic procedural can be just as satisfying if attention is paid to detail and pace. From ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN to ZODIAC, there is pedigree, and SPOTLIGHT can hold its head up. The title comes from the name given to the investigative team, at The Boston Globe newspaper, charged with in-depth analysis of current affairs. The film’s concern is the based on actual events examination into child molestation, by the Catholic Church in the city, and the wide-ranging cover up. [To read more, click here.] |
Dirty Grandpa
 | “’Injunctive relief’, that tickled my funny bone,” David Kelly (Dermot Mulroney) The first supposed gags involve a knowing nod to unfunny gags, a shame then that the movie itself is so unaware of its own lack of humour. DIRTY GRANDPA trawls the gutter to find a laugh, and comes up short. Button-pushing comedy is welcome when allied to intelligent swipes, from BAD SANTA to BORAT, shining a light where most do not know how to tread. Challenging societal niceties, assumptions and values is meant to hold up a mirror to prejudices (and of course be uncomfortably hilarious, see for example IN THE LOOP); but what happens when the movie is so brainless as to make you question its prejudices? [To read more, click here.] |
Victoria
 | “He’s just angry because he has no wife,” Sonne (Frederick Lau) Emotional equivalence of a fizzy soft drink bottle being shaken and suddenly opened is the euphoria felt as the closing credits scrawled. Director Sebastian Schipper and cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen have fashioned a work that, as Darren Aronofsky stated when handing the latter a Silver Bear for artistic achievement, "Rocked our world." For two hours 14 minutes the camera never stops. A single take. No edits. BIRDMAN's digital trickery almost seems pedestrian in comparison. Almost. Such endeavours have previously been confined to a building - museum, hotel, theatre; VICTORIA crosses a metropolis. Has Berlin ever looked so cool on the silver screen? German cinema has had a staggering shot of adrenaline to the arm. [To read more, click here.] |
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