Archive for March, 2009
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Released 27th March 2009
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Award-winning British director Michael Winterbottom (Welcome to Sarajevo and A Mighty Heart) has pulled some volatile films out of the production hat in his career, presenting them in his characteristic, drama-filled documentary style. With his new film, Genova, Winterbottom has taken a detour (back into Europe) and shows a subtlety not seen in his previous projects. In contrast to his spate of Middle East productions the latest addition - Genova - pushes drama aside, making it an understudy to the emotional trek of a grieving family. Teamed with his trusted director of photography - Marcel Zyskind - and armed with a hand-held camera, the pair shot the film as if they were making a home video. To think of The Blair Witch Project, would be wrong. Genova can be better compared to Premonition or Jonathan Glazer’s Birth. This unusual filming technique is noticeable from the opening of Genova as it makes the film so much more tangible.
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Released 20th March 2009
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It is fair to say you are not to expect a serious or epic vampire film here. This is very much a slapstick take-off of the cult classic style films made back in the 1970s or before. But, when you have a film starring two up-and-coming comedians, Mathew Horne and James Corden, known for their rude, crude humour, and it has the words ‘Lesbian Vampire Killers’ as the title, then what more can you expect? The film-makers are under no illusion and use every cliché under the sun, but is that really a bad thing? You just cannot analyse this film. It is what it is. You will either love it, or hate it.
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Released 20th March 2009
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On-screen eye candy in sexy Julia Roberts and Clive Owen aside, this is one of those flicks with an über-clever, bordering on confusing plot that will either thrill or agitate you immensely. There is no middle ground. As one fellow film critic who napped half-way through, and woke up when things started to get interesting, remarked at the end: “That was a great film”! Yes, if you do, indeed, have a snooze mid-way through to avoid the often annoying to-and-fro-ing through flashbacks of the couple’s dysfunctional and fragile personal relationship, and begin at the point when things begin to get interesting and unravel in industrial espionage terms, then it’s a bloomin’ fantastic film!
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Released 20th March 2009
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Ok, admittedly, it’s a story about the birth of the intermittent car windscreen wiper and its less-than-charismatic inventor, Professor Bob Kearns - hardly a subject matter to make the average Joe rush out to buy a cinema ticket for… But that’s where the over-simplified description ends because this film is so much, much more. It’s an utterly compelling ‘David verses Goliath’ tale about one man’s principles and his life-long fight against big corporation. Man against the machine. And its magical appeal that makes you want to watch until the very end is almost certainly due to the ever-impressive acting talents of its star, Greg Kinnear, in his first leading-man role in a understated but captivating, awards-worthy performance.
