CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER: That’s Entertainment
The only thing more tiresome than Marvel’s latest Shakespeare tragedy is the postmodern elevation of trash/pop/camp—a useful experiment, like shaving your head— so I won’t say Joe Johnston’s CAPTAIN AMERICA: WORLD-FRIENDLY SUBTITLE is a good film.
THE EAGLE: Love, Honor, and Obey
You could blame the monumental waste of Kevin Macdonald’s THE EAGLE on CENTURION‘s release last year, which preemptively renders its successor both outclassed and unnecessary, if the bulk of its ineptitude didn’t reside in the script. Yes, Jamie Bell heroically tries to balance an ensemble led by a statue and filled out with Donald Sutherland’s paycheck [...]
CARLOS: Almost Legal
Is there a better symbol for our historical moment than a tabloid terrorist? I don’t mean trash-mag doodler Perez Hilton; I mean a bona fide violent terrorist whose persona is more celebrity than revolutionary, whose exploits and impact are approached with bemused spectatorship in place of active engagement. Pop history has had years to streamline [...]
Bowie Knife
The first scene of Nagisa Oshima’s ‘Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence’ (new on DVD and Blu-Ray from Criterion) is occupied with the horror of a soldier being forced to cut his intestines open as a punishment for being in love with another man. The last image of the film is the smiling face of a soldier [...]
Rossellini's War Trilogy: Saved by Grace
I’m not going to add anything to the scholarship on Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy, but holy moly are these films breathtaking. I’d seen Rome, Open City previously, but, no, I really hadn’t. A good print, as characterizes the new Criterion transfers, is indescribably immersive. Post-war Europe comes alive.
Restrepo: No exit
Covering the war in Afghanistan from the frontlines, Restrepo (2010) is an eye-opening piece of journalism that makes CNN’s Persian Gulf coverage look like a puff piece. Directors Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger deliver verite naturalism as they embed with the US Army for fifteen months in the most dangerous region of Afghanistan, the Korengal [...]
TFT 126 – KICK-ASS / VINCERE
TFT 126 – KICK-ASS / VINCERE – – – DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE: KICK-ASS / VINCERE / VINCERE AT THE BELCOURT, NASHVILLE
The Movie of the Year 2009: Overtures
[Read the first part of this post here] OVERTURES Three opening sequences have embedded themselves in my mind this year: Youssou N’Dour’s anthemic call, at the beginning of Elizabeth Chai Versalihis’ ‘I Bring What I Love’ to the young people of Africa, tears streaming down his face, asking his people to be guided by their [...]
TFT 92 – The New York Film Festival – Lebanon / Inferno / Room and a Half
In this week’s episode: In association with our friends at the Film Society of Lincoln Center we delve into the 2009 New York Film Festival – Lebanon / Inferno / Room and a Half Get TFT delivered weekly via iTunes Subscribe to our podcast Subscribe to our blog Follow us on Twitter
The Film Talk – Part 86 – Inglourious Basterds / Taking Woodstock
This Episode: Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds / Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock / A preview of Those Crank Guys’ Gamer / Click Here to mail us your entry in our Taking Woodstock Competition Get TFT delivered weekly via iTunes Subscribe to our podcast Subscribe to our blog Follow us on Twitter
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Is ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’ the greatest film ever made? No, just the most entertaining one. It’s a wonderful depiction of the truism that life is just one damn thing after another. This picaresque adventure of three competing men, zipping and zapping back and forth through a surrealistic Western war zone in [...]
The Film Talk – Part 81 – The Hurt Locker / Funny People
This Episode: Kathryn Bigelow’s ‘The Hurt Locker’, Judd Apatow’s ‘Funny People’ and a preview of ‘G.I. Joe – The Rise of Cobra’ Get TFT delivered weekly via iTunes Subscribe to our podcast Subscribe to our blog Follow us on Twitter
'The Hurt Locker' – The Myth of Chaos Into Order Through Violence
Let’s get one thing straight: I have no idea what war is really like. I’ve seen ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘The Thin Red Line’, and I grew up in a place colonised by a long-running civil conflict, and I’ve been to Jerusalem and Bethlehem and all kinds of other places where people inhabit the false [...]
Delightful
There’s a fellow on Myspace who lists his favourite films as ‘Champion’, ‘Paths of Glory’, ‘Spartacus’ and ‘Lonely are the Brave’. These are all pretty strong movies, let’s face it. It’s clearly a fellow who likes Kirk Douglas. Turns out that it is Kirk Douglas. Kirk Douglas is one of those guys who exudes the [...]
'In the Loop': The Best Political Satire since 'Dr Strangelove'?
I may just have seen the film of the year. A contemporary satire that deserves comparison with Jonathan Swift and Mark Twain, which starts hilarious, gets funnier, and more real, and even more uncomfortable until the laughs are intellectual but don’t become audible, because the truth of what is happening on screen can only evoke [...]
'Watchmen' Re-visited
Regular listeners will already know that my genial co-host and I didn’t much care for ‘Watchmen’. Jett, as a long term fan of costumed avengers felt it missed the point, to say the least; I wasn’t sure. I saw it again the other night in the hope that my thoughts might clarify themselves. So, for [...]
Why Kung Fu Panda is Not Better than Wall-E
A few weeks ago my genial co-host Mr Jett Loe acclaimed Dreamworks’ gorgeous, fun and sassy animated astonishment ‘Kung Fu Panda’ in the wake of its upset victory over ‘Wall-E’ at the Annie Awards. He included some rather delightful screen caps to bolster his case. I got around to watching last week, delayed by other [...]
Fixed Bayonets!
Fixed Bayonets! / Featuring Richard Basehart Gene Evans / Directed by Samuel Fuller Was all set to write a review this evening of the taught, yet stagy, Korean-war character study that is ‘Fixed Bayonets!’ But in preparing I happened to stumble across Critical Culture. Realising that their analysis say everything I would have, I have [...]
