Film Reviews
219 articles
The 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 FrankBlack Swan (2010)
© 2010 Fox Searchlight Pictures Teetering on the edge between melodrama and high art, “Black Swan” is a gripping, spooky, exultant picture that is as beautiful as it is ugly. Sure to divide...
Dec 2, 2010 / Eric M. Armstrong127 Hours (2010)
Anyone who has ever worked in a corporate setting or been trained in some unique job or activity has had to sit through an outdated, ineffectual instructional video. When I worked as a data operator...
Nov 29, 2010 / Eric M. ArmstrongSomewhere (2010)
“The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium” [Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray ]. Stephen...
Nov 25, 2010 / Eric M. ArmstrongTMA’s 100 Greatest Movies of All Time
You will not like something about this list. In your mind, undeserving inclusions and unthinkable omissions probably abound. That is as it should be. Film, for all the scholarship, expertise and...
Nov 13, 2010 / Eric M. ArmstrongAna’s Playground (2009)
Children are cinema’s simultaneously fetishized commodity and artless liability. You can’t harm them, yet you can have them perpetrate terrible acts of inhumanity. “Ana’s Playground” cuts through the...
Nov 5, 2010 / Eric M. Armstrong‘The Bible Code’ to be Cracked by Relativity
Relativity Media has picked up the rights to Michael Drosnin’s book of supernatural prophecy, “The Bible Code.” In the book, which spawned sequels, Drosnin writes about an elaborate code that can...
Nov 4, 2010 / Eric M. ArmstrongLet Me In (2010)
I scarcely remember grinning as much during a film as I did while watching “Let Me In.” Grinning during a horror movie, you ask? Allow me to explain. It was an all-encompassing smile of pleasure,...
Oct 30, 2010 / Vanessa GranielloThe 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 FrankCatfish (2010)
“Catfish” is one of those films that will have as many interpretations as it has viewers. The middle-aged hipster-loathing intellectual will see it as nothing more than an outlet for the filmmakers...
Oct 25, 2010 / Eric M. ArmstrongWest 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 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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