Movie Review | 'Seraphim Falls': Once Upon a Time in a Very Familiar West
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Archetypes and symbols solemnly parade through âSeraphim Falls,â a handsome, old-fashioned western of few words and heavy meanings.
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A film about love and art, about passing time and time passing, âAvenue Montaigneâ is a humble pleasure.
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A great symbol of the rugged old West, or at least as it was portrayed by Hollywood, is riding off into the sunset.
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A profound and affecting old play about World War I offers a portrait of men in combat, without polemics
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Genre-bending, time-straddling adaptation has become an exceptionally lively art on Londonâs stages this season.
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Not since Spinal Tap has there been a sharper satire of cinematic mythomania
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Fans of action movies will find much to appreciate in this symphony of flying limbs, breaking bones and elaborately staged chases and confrontations.
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A frenetic remake of a cult classic shows how each film generation finds its own tone and terrors
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This dark British comedy exudes the comfy familiarity of a vintage episode of ÂAlfred Hitchcock PresentsÂ stretched into a feature-length film.
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I met an old friend for coffee in San Francisco yesterday afternoon, and had a few hours to kill before stopping in at the Wired reunion party. I didn't want to drive back to Berkeley because the weather was so crummy, and I was just across teh street from a movie theater and was just in time for the start of a movie that lots of people had been telling me to see. So I went. The movie -- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I had no idea what it was about until the movie started, then I remembered hearing a Fresh Air show about it and finding it too painful to listen to. Now here I was in the theater, not just being asked to listen to it, but being asked to live it. Through some very wonderful film-making, you feel as if what is happening to the main character is happening to you. Or more accurately, probably, you get the slightest hint of what it's like to be this person. My immediate impulse, one which I gave serious consideration to, was to pack up my things and leave. Anything would be better than spending three hours living this guy's life.  Two things happen over time: 1. You get over it. 2. They change perspective, and instead of being inside his body, you move outside it.  I think those two things are the story we all live as we mature and learn to live inside our own bodies, with their limits. You learn to step outside and see the humor in your predicament. The main character says he lives in a diving bell because it's as hard for him to communicate with other people as it would be at the bottom of the ocean inside a diving bell. The movie teaches that it's not much easier for the rest of us, even though we can manipulate symbols better. On the other hand, of course it is. The film develops a relationship between the hero and his father, between the hero and his own children, his ex-wife, his lover.  We strive for deeper understanding of ourselves and each other. But it may be ridiculously easy to find the only meaning that exists, without language, without intellect, by just being. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly should probably be the picture of the year for 2007, it's that good. But like all great art it shows you something truthful about yourself, and you may or may not want to see it.
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Robert Zemeckis' new film has technical wizardry but lacks heart.
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âThings We Lost in the Fireâ bends over backward to prove that serious American movies can hold their own with the best films from overseas.
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âThe 39 Stepsâ is an absurdly enjoyable, gleefully theatrical riff on Alfred Hitchcockâs 1935 film.
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From the silent era through its untimely death in the 1970s, the Western was one of cinema's defining genres
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Geleya may well appeal to the young and the mass audience. In a nutshell the film is high on technical aspects, but low on content -- a clichÃ©d fare with some entertaining moments.
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In a genre most commonly represented by uninspired low-budget titles or odd adventure-action hybrids, Ark: Broken Sword IV is a great delight.
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From its easy-on-the-eyes cast (Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie) to its beautiful backdrop (all the sets and scenery were digitally created), the retro sci-fi adventure is a thing of beauty to behold.