Film Topics

'Kiseki no Ringo (Miracle Apples)'

Jun 14, 2013

'Kiseki no Ringo (Miracle Apples)'

by Mark Schilling

Raised on a small farm in Southern Ohio, my grandfather hunted and grew much of the food we ate at the enormous Sunday dinners my grandmother prepared, from tasty quail and rabbit to fresh sweet corn and tomatoes. The piece de resistance was often ...

'The Impossible'

Jun 14, 2013

'The Impossible'

by Giovanni Fazio

Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter” had the misfortune of having opened in local cinemas just before March 11, 2011. After the trauma of a real-life tsunami hitting Japan, few were in the mood to see a Hollywood special-effects version of the same. It’s been over two ...

'In Another Country'

Jun 14, 2013

'In Another Country'

Imagine Jean-Luc Godard four decades ago, when he was still in the thrall of his leading actresses, like a 10-year-old boy in love with his teacher. Then imagine him as a Korean director, and what you get is Hong Sang Soo and his latest ...

'The Great Gatsby'

Jun 14, 2013

'The Great Gatsby'

by Kaori Shoji

Baz Luhrmann does justice to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most intriguing creation: Jay Gatsby, the man referred to in the book title as “The Great.” As far as adaptations go, Luhrmann’s version beats the 1974 version that starred Robert Redford and Mia Farrow hands down. ...

'Spring Breakers'

Jun 14, 2013

'Spring Breakers'

Harmony Korine started his career back in 1995 by writing the screenplay for youths-behaving-badly movie “Kids,” and some two decades later he’s still playing the same card. “Spring Breakers” is set amid the annual college-student migration to Florida during spring vacation, where drunken public ...

'To Rome With Love'

Jun 7, 2013

'To Rome With Love'

by Kaori Shoji

Woody Allen rarely laughs, least of all at his own jokes. But in his latest, “To Rome With Love,” in which he acts as well as directs, he breaks down from time to time to suppress a giggle and the movie gets an almost ...

'Hakoiri Musuko no Koi (Blindly in Love)'

Jun 7, 2013

'Hakoiri Musuko no Koi (Blindly in Love)'

by Mark Schilling

In a recent interview, Steven Soderbergh complained that critics are “too easily fooled.” “Their reading of filmmaking is too superficial,” he added. While I am as much a fan of deep insight as the next guy, I am also perfectly happy to be fooled. ...

'Olympus Has Fallen'

Jun 7, 2013

'Olympus Has Fallen'

by Giovanni Fazio

This latest bit of Hollywood “propatainment,” “Olympus Has Fallen,” is basically “Die Hard” in the White House, with Gerard Butler’s disgraced former Secret Service agent trying to save the president (Aaron Eckhart) from a team of crack North Korean commandos who plan to pry ...

'Tous Cobayes?'

Jun 7, 2013

'Tous Cobayes?'

Adocumentary that will chill you to the bone, “Tous Cobayes?” by French filmmaker Jean-Paul Jaud addresses the enormous risks posed by GMO food, much of which is manufactured and distributed by the kingpin of the franken-food industry: Monsanto. In the last decade, GMO has ...

'Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir'

Jun 7, 2013

'Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir'

Laurent Bouzereau’s documentary on one of cinema’s greats is pretty simple in structure: Producer Andrew Braunsberg, an old friend of director Roman Polanski (“Chinatown,” “Tess”) visits him for a long conversation about his life and career. The subtext is that this takes place in ...

'Stoker'

May 31, 2013

'Stoker'

by Kaori Shoji

Meet the Stoker family: wealthy, well-bred and seemingly isolated from the world. Mom Evie (Nicole Kidman) seems to have nothing more to do than weave elegantly around the house with a drink in her hand, looking fabulous. Dad Richard (Dermot Mulroney) is an architect ...