Articles by Alison Frank
123 articles
The conservatism of ‘The King’s Speech’
What an intense cinema moment we seem to be living through. The general public is getting as excited as the critics about movies. Here in the UK, at least, everyone seems to be making the effort to...
Jan 24, 2011 / Alison FrankToo great expectations: ‘Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives’
In last week’s blog I talked about the experience of seeing a film with low expectations, and the potential this has to skew one’s judgement, making a surprisingly good film seem even better than it...
Jan 17, 2011 / Alison FrankLoose Cannons: Small Expectations
Loose Cannons (Mine Vaganti, Ferzan Ozpetek) is an Italian comedy about Tommaso (Riccardo Scamarcio), a young man who returns home planning to announce to his family that he is gay. However, his...
Jan 8, 2011 / Alison FrankThe pharma rep and the conventional comedy: A contextual reading of Little Fockers and Love and Other Drugs
Maybe it’s a sign that healthcare issues have become a prominent part of the general American consciousness: I went to see two quite different Hollywood comedies and each featured a character who was...
Jan 1, 2011 / Alison FrankThe Illusionist: The Obsolescence of the Magician
Sylvain Chomet’s animated film The Illusionist (2010) is based on a script by Jacques Tati, the famous French director and master of live-action physical comedy. The film’s lead character, a...
Dec 15, 2010 / Alison FrankPolanski Triumphs at European Film Awards
The 23rd European Film Awards Photo credit: EFA/René Velli Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer triumphed at this year’s European Film Academy’s 23 rd European Film Awards . The film, which I have...
Dec 6, 2010 / Alison FrankBritish Film Institute 2011: A Programme for a Conservative Era?
To mark the approaching end of the festival, the BFI kindly invited me to a lunch where they presented their programme for 2011. I have to say that there was little there to make me sit up and take...
Oct 29, 2010 / Alison FrankThe 54th London Film Festival in Review
Now that the 54 th London Film Festival has drawn to a close, it’s time to look back at all of the feature films that I reviewed. Here is the list, ordered from best to worst. 1) Dhobi Ghat 2) The...
Oct 29, 2010 / Alison FrankThe Kids Are All Right, and the film is great
Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right is one of those films that’s fun to watch at the cinema, just for the appreciative reactions of the audience. I’m sure I saw a few eyes being wiped during its...
Oct 28, 2010 / Alison Frank‘How I Ended the Summer’: Inexplicably
Like Werner Herzog’s half-satirical, half awestruck documentary Encounters at the End of the World (2007), Aleksei Popogrebsky’s Kak ya provyol etim letom ( How I Ended the Summer ) offers a...
Oct 26, 2010 / Alison FrankWest is West: The Missing Details
Initially, Ayub Khan Din was hesitant to write a sequel to East is East (1999): the film was among the most successful independent British films ever made, and he knew that sequels rarely live up to...
Oct 25, 2010 / Alison Frank‘Cold Weather’ Takes Time to Warm Up
Aaron Katz’s Cold Weather is a nice film that could have been even better. It centres on Doug, a young man who has abandoned his degree in forensics to come home to Portland, Oregon. There, he shares...
Oct 24, 2010 / Alison FrankDhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries): Testing the Bollywood Dream
Kiran Rao has made an excellent debut with Dhobi Ghat (aka Mumbai Diaries ), a film which she wrote and directed, and which had its first UK screening at the London Film Festival last night. During...
Oct 24, 2010 / Alison FrankFreeze Frame: Two Photography Exhibitions in London
Eadweard Muybridge (Tate Britain, 8 September 2010 – 16 January 2011) Wildlife Photographer of the Year (Natural History Museum, 22 October 2010 – 11 March 2011) The place of photography in the...
Oct 24, 2010 / Alison FrankLondon Film Festival 2010: half way through
It’s been an exciting week with lots of premieres and gala screenings in London. Here’s a selection of images from this past week. You can read up on many of the films screened here. So far, I have...
Oct 24, 2010 / Alison FrankRecent Articles
- Review: ‘A War’ explores war’s quiet, forgotten horrors
- TMA FilmCast #33 — Vera Chytilova and the Czech New Wave
- The fantasist: The comic art of Woody Allen
- Tribeca picks up North American rights to ‘Misery Loves Comedy’ at Sundance
- TMA FilmCast #32 — Alison Frank interviews Ana Geislerova
- ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ tops Online Film Critics Awards
- TMA FilmCast #31 — Alison Frank reports from 67th Locarno Film Fest
- 5 ½ hour film dominates awards at Locarno
- Shorts at #Locarno67: meditation vs testing the audience’s patience
- ‘The Fool’: A modern propaganda film
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