Released: September 26th
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Trailer: Click here

The Film - At the edge of the continent and on the margins of society is a region of California known to some as “The Lost Coast.” It is there, in Humboldt County,that Peter Hadley (Jeremy Strong) - a promising yet disillusioned medical student failed by his professor (Peter Bogdanovich) - stumbles upon a remote community of counterculture marijuana farmers and a warmly embracing, yet eccentric family played by Frances Conroy, Fairuza Balk, Chris Messina, Brad Dourif, and newcomer Madison Davenport. From directors Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs, who also co-wrote the screenplay, Humboldt County is a story of the human soul in search of happiness, and the unexpected places we can sometimes call home.

The Verdict - I, for one, am really looking forward to the release of this film. Humboldt County seems to tick all the boxes when it comes to the type of movie that i feel my souls been seeking for a very long time, ever since i finished watching Garden State. I told myself that i'd keep this review short because i know that there are about a million good things i could ramble and waffle on about to do with Humboldt County and the reason's why i can't see myself paying to see any other movie this year. Jeremy Strong;who may have just become my new favorite actor,embodies the character of Peter with a grade A performance,one that could've saved a shambolic The Happening (yes, i know, i can't believe it either, but he was in that!). Had anyone else of been cast in this role, i can't say i'd be so sure of the outcome. The hotness of Fairuza Balk is also a addded plus. But what i really like about the trailer, is that unlike conventional trailers where you find all the juicy innards of a film's best bits left laying in your lap, Humboldt County is at least trying to hold a little bit back from its audience, allowing them to enjoy the film when it's released without having the plot spoiled. I take my hat off to you Humboldt County!

- A

This wonderful film is not available in the UK (and wasn't released in UK cinemas as far as I'm aware – a fate it shares with the equally wonderful Actress/Centre Stage). This is a terrible state of affairs since this is one of the best performances by the iconic star of Chinese cinema, Maggie Cheung Man Yuk. Leon Lai is equally good and it's a tribute to the film that I still think this even after struggling to watch it on a Hong Kong VCD. (I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but Hong Kong films on VCD have both Cantonese and Mandarin soundtracks and I have found it quite difficult to disable one of the two tracks on my MacBook – I finally worked it out when I set the audio on the computer all the way to right or left and then played the film using Quicktime.)

The story could only be set in Hong Kong before 1997. It begins in 1986 with the arrival of Li Xiao Jun (Leon Lai) from the Mainland in the hope of making enough money to pay for his marriage to his girlfriend, still back in Tianjin (in North Eastern China). Searching for jobs he meets Maggie Cheung (as Li Qiao) who is working behind the counter at McDonalds. She decides to help a fellow Mainlander (she comes from Guangzhou – on the mainland, but close to Hong Kong), but gives the impression that she has been in Hong Kong for a long time. She has several jobs and many schemes to make money (her aim is to be rich and buy her mother a house) and she is soon humouring Xiao Jun, treating him as a country bumpkin. Despite their differences they eventually fall in love. They make an interesting couple and we get to see what happens to them over a 10 year period leading up to the eve of the handover. This isn't an art film but a a thoughtful entertainment film complete with a narrative twist in its resolution.

It is distinctively a Hong Kong film with a theme of migration and memory – the most important theme in Hong Kong cinema up to 1997 as far as I can see. The soundtrack carries the songs of Taiwanese pop star Teresa Teng throughout the film and they also figure directly in the narrative. Western audiences will recognise some of the nostalgia (and the yearning for migration) from the films of Wong Kar-wai and this film would make a fascinating double bill with In the Mood for Love.

The genre of the film is the romance melodrama with its mixture of nostalgia, hardship and lucky coincidences and its narrative conventions of weddings, break-ups and reconciliations. It works so well that you fear that Hollywood will want to remake it. I don't think that it could be done. Although the US too is a nation built on migration, I haven't seen an American film with this feel – except perhaps in the glimpses of Little Italy in the early 20th century in Godfather II. Most of all, I just can't see a Hollywood star who could do what Maggie Cheung does. I realise that this may again be a function of watching a narrative from a different culture and not following the spoken language – I get used to just watching the faces and Maggie Cheung does so much with her beautiful face.

I was surprised to see a user comment on IMDB that begins with an assertion that this film isn't 'political' (and this from a Chinese or Hong Kong user, I think). It was clear to me that the central characters have quite different attitudes to making money and 'getting on'. Li Qiao buys in completely to the capitalist dream and she makes her money in various ways, including dabbling on the stock exchange and recruiting students for an English language class. Her whole approach is based on an embrace of the service industry ethos of late capitalism and a recurring image views her subjectively from the perspective of an ATM machine which charts the rise (and fall) of her savings. Xiao Jun, by contrast, establishes himself through family connections and eventually takes jobs associated with the restaurant business in a traditional family-based approach. I found the chapter on the film by Rey Chow in her book Sentimental Fabulations, Contemporary Chinese Films (2007) very useful and I hope to review the whole book at a later date. At this point, I'd like to pick up just a few of the points she makes.

One of the striking points about Comrades is that it offers a series of romances/relationships, each of which in some way comments on the central relationship. Two of these involve Chinese women and Western men and both of them involve the impact of globalisation. The first involves Xiao Jun's aunt, who years ago as a young woman supposedly spent a day in a hotel with the Hollywood actor William Holden when he was filming Love Is a Many Splendoured Thing (US 1955) in Hong Kong. (Chow points out that the aunt is played by Irene Tsu who had an uncredited role in Holden's other Hong Kong movie, The World of Suzie Wong (UK 1960)). This kind of intertextuality also extends to the other romance – between an English teacher and a Thai prostitute called Cabbage. The teacher is played by Christopher Doyle, then Hong Kong resident and cinematographer to Wong Kar-wai. These two romances, one past (and possibly a fantasy?) and one uncertain, are complemted by Li Qiao's own 'arrangement' with an older gangster figure (played by Eric Tsang). The scenes between these two are sometimes very affecting and add to the emotional impact of Li Qiao's attachment to Xiao Jun. All the men involved in the relationships seem caring and understanding (Bill Holden is, of course, 'absent') and the narrative seems to me to be sympathetic to the woman's position.

Chow is as interested in the ideological discourse associated with Li Qiao's embrace of Hong Kong capitalism as she is in the the discourse of migration and identity and she offers several important observations. One, I liked about the visual symbols of movement and commercial energy concerns the enfless flow of people through rapid transit systems, airport security, etc. against the images of Xiao Jun on his bicycle seemingly cycling without effort against the flow. All this and Teresea Teng on the soundtrack – I'm sure there is more going on than I can fathom. I'd say more about the ending of the film, but I don't want to spoil it if you get the chance to see the film. Unavailable at the moment, distribution seems to be in the hands of Warner Home Video – perhaps they have plans to re-release it?

As usual, there’s a very complicated plot, and, as usual, it involves a band of geezers; invincible Russian he-men; sexy dames; a snarling crime boss and lots of camera tricks. Suffice to say: Tom Wilkinson plays a thug who wants to be Bob Hoskins in The Long Good Friday. His lieutenant, Mark Strong, is a dead-ringer for Andy Garcia in The Godfather Part III, and both men want back a stolen painting, which has been stolen by Wilkinson’s son (Toby Kebbell), who acts like Pete Doherty. Into the mix Ritchie adds a trio of loveable rogues known as The Wild Bunch (Gerard Butler, Idris Elba and Tom Hardy) and a Russian mob boss (Karel Roden). What follows is a bit like Alfie if Alfie had been addicted to crack.

Ritchie is strongest when he’s having fun, and it seems, after two movies spent trying to shoehorn Madonna’s world into Ritchie-land, he’s ready to have fun again with RocknRolla. Where Revolver was like watching a teenager explain something deep to you (“duality… like, woah!”), RocknRolla plays like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels had never ended. The movie is shameless in riffing on Ritchie’s past conceits; it doesn’t care that you’ve seen this all before… because you haven’t seen this with Gerard Butler and the guy who played Stringer Bell in The Wire! And this time one of the geezers is gay! And Tom Wilkinson wears a bald-cap! Somehow – although this should make you want to hit Ritchie – you want Lock, Stock back. Maybe Revolver had to be as bad as it was just to show you how good those Mockney gangster movies were, in comparison.

There are a clutch of great scenes, but I’d call the best a two-way split between sex and violence. The reduction of Gerard Butler and Thandie Newton’s coupling to a razor-edit series of oohs and ahs is priceless, but it’s easily matched by a robbery-gone-wrong in which the Russian guards of the loot simply Will Not Die. Gerard Butler shines in both these scenes as a hard man with a wicked sense of humour, and he makes you realise how much of his talents were squandered in 300, where he played a male stripper with a sword.

Thandie Newton, who is, quite clearly, living proof there is a God – is pretty good here as a bad girl who struts and grins and comes on all Eartha Kitt-y. She’s been the new Eartha Kitt ever since she arrived in Hollywood, except that no-one’s stepped forward to be her Orson Welles (I’m thinking of that great Orson anecdote where he bit Kitt on the lip – while kissing her – because he “got excited”). Newton doesn’t have a great deal to do in RocknRolla, other than dance with Butler and get him in the sack, but her looks are active.

RocknRolla finds Guy Ritchie prepping for divorce (with any luck). He’s paid his dues on the Madonna production line, made one movie for her to act in and another to espouse her religious views. Now, you get the feeling, he’s fished his balls out of the jar Mrs. Ritchie put them in, put the kibosh on kabbalah and written his new script down at the local pub. The swagger that Britain (and Brad Pitt) loved in Lock, Stock is back, and it's beautiful.  RocknRolla is Britain as if Tony Scott ran the country and London was the setting for True Romance. It’s a robber’s movie, and it thrills you like cash.

Length: 122min

Taglines:
What if someone you love...just disappeared?

Précis: Powerful, scathing drama about the USA's illegal programme to relocate and torture terrorism suspects.  

Review by Matt:

Mental note. Do not get on the wrong side of the USA. Rendition, a terrifying political drama from director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi), offers a powerful reminder that the heart of the world's superpower is a piece of cold steel. It also reminds us of the distressing fact that in the dirty, covert 'war on terror', innocence is not necessarily enough to keep you on the right side of the USA.

Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally), an Egyptian-born American, flies home to Washington, but never makes it out of the airport. American authorities suspect him of being connected to a terrorist group, so the CIA sweeps him off the map, and into its 'extraordinary rendition' programme. Anwar is covertly flown to a foreign hellhole, for interrogation at the hands of clinical torture master, Abasi (Igal Naor). Overseeing is a conflicted American CIA operative, Douglass Freeman (Jake Gyllenhaal). Meanwhile, back in the US, Anwar's anxious wife (Reese Witherspoon) desperately searches for answers, the poor everyday citizen stuck at the edge of the Government's national security black hole.

The roundly good acting intensifies the drama, with Omar Metwally's remarkable performance as Anwar making a traumatic centerpiece. Meryl Streep personifies the frosty Government neo-con with typical excellence. Peter Sarsgaard also stands out as a political advisor caught between the personal and political worlds. In lesser hands the characters could have seemed like black and white chess pieces in the film's bigger political agenda.

Rendition slices through a complex and topical issue with great intelligence, weaving the personal and political threads into a coherent and principled picture. Considering the rage one might feel about the USA's practice of disappearing and torturing people, Rendition remains relatively calm. Its messages emerge with a quiet intensity, realistically showing that the use of torture by a cold and compromised administration only perpetuates the cycle of violence.

Viewers might balk at the stressful subject matter, or at the film's unhurried style, which pushes the running time past two hours. But the film deserves a wide audience. It's smart, moving and it takes a stand. Some have complained, but in my opinion, Rendition is not unfairly favorable to one side of the ‘extraordinary rendition' debate. We're pitched the administration's reasoning for its methods daily, and the film repeats them as well. But it reminds us why those reasons are wrong - and it does it with restraint. The film also fulfills an essential role of art. It provokes us to question and criticize. It uses drama to pierce the veil of secrecy that powerful forces use to shroud this abusive practice, and it restores its human face. For George Bush, Anwar's face would just be another to cross off his scorecard of suspects, after a job well done. (*)

(*) Note, the Washington Post has reported that George Bush does in fact keep this scorecard.

Review : I saw this in the cinema, and enjoyed it from start to end. The acting and most of the plot was strong.The first part of the film is constantly strong i.e. acting and plot, though the last part for me didn't feel as strong as the first...maybe it was rushed? This film is full of good actors, some that only second time round you go "oh thats...from..".

I would recommend this film, to any thriller and action fan.

DIRECTOR: Guy Ritchie

STARRING: Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Idris Elba

As you may know, RocknRolla was released in the UK on the 5^th of September (yesterday) and sure as our names our Vicky and Dre we saw it on the day. What can we say, it’s a typical Guy Ritchie movie – dodgy dealings, funny encounters and plenty of one-liners. It’s hard to describe the actual storyline of the movie but it was really entertaining,   although quite long.

The film was very funny, we actually laughed OUT LOUD (shock horror!) But we found that Idris Elba was severely under-used and the storyline was quite hard to follow in parts. Go see it though if you’ve got some cash and some time- it’s worth it.

What did we learn from this movie? If you behave like Pete Doherty you can be immortalised in film. And that if Roman Abramovich were an actor, his name would be Karel Roden (the resemblance is uncanny!!)

THIS MOVIE GETS:♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

7/10

South African cinema has been circling the drain for a while now, with a surge of pathetic teenage comedies in the vein of “American Pie” and politically correct melodramas that focus on the Apartheid struggle of the past and its repercussions in the present with as much insight as a badly made television movie clogging up screens nationwide – with the possible exception of Gavin Hood’s “Tsotsi.” Out of the blue, Ralph Ziman’s pulse-racing gangster film “Jerusalema,” based on real events, consciously goes against the tide, offering a uniquely clarifying look at the festering malevolence that plagues what has been called "the crime capital of the world," Hillbrow. Audaciously poised in its impartial assessment of the contemporary landscape which most South Africans hear about but rarely see, “Jerusalema” is a first rate thriller, bursting at the seams with energy. Its vivid ambition is unlike anything I have seen come out of South Africa in ages.

The scope of Ziman’s film is wide, perhaps too wide, but at its centre lies a definitive character study that is engrossing enough to allow for entertainment when the clichés and contrarieties come into play. Lucky Kunene (played by Jafta Mamabolo as a child and Rapulana Seiphemo as an adult) is a young, ambitious Soweto resident living in a time when Apartheid had just been overthrown. Lucky, along with countless other previously disadvantaged members of the black community, thinks the world is his for the taking, offering opportunities most had never dreamt of before like being accepted into an urban university, but their impoverished footing continue to cripple their futures.

Together with the help of his long time friend Zakes (Ronnie Nyakale), Lucky sets out to make an honest living so that he can afford to pay for his own tuition. They don’t make much, but they do so legitimately. Until a guardian angel of sorts steps onto the scene in the form of the hardened, Russian-trained gangster Nazareth (Jeffrey Sekele), similar to Lucky's heroes Karl Marx, Al Capone and Dale Carnegie, who offers the boys a quicker way of getting to where they want to be – stealing cars, in a simplistic way that would only ever work in the movies.

After one too many narrow escapes and one bloody heist gone horribly wrong, the boys flee for the city and start up a measly taxi company. Living in the slums, rubbing shoulders with the scum of the earth; prostitutes, Nigerian drug dealers and junkies, it’s just a matter of time before Lucky joins the gangsters in playing their own game. He intelligently forms an association that collects the rent from tenants living in their rundown apartment block and withholds it from the landlord until such a time that they fix the place up. Call it white-collar crime if you will, because the newly suited, executive look-alike Lucky never resorts to violence for the sake of it – he’s simply the Robin Hood of Hillbrow. It’s only when he gets so ambitious in his expansions that the racist police and greedy crime lords take notice that things get really dangerous – and the ride gets criminally intense.

Ziman obviously did his homework, patching together a series of seemingly authentic ideas without resorting to atypical stereotyping or simplistic statements on the state of our nation. His stance remains neutral as his camera painstakingly creates a palpable image of Hillbrow in all its dingy, repelling glory. As unattractive as the city may be, Nic Hofemeyer’s camerawork doesn’t try to grunge it up more than it already is. Sumptuous time-lapse shots and often noir-like aesthetics capture the spirit of the place better than ever before because it doesn’t show it as anything other than what it is. It actually looks beautiful at times, who would have thought.

We are given a multi-sided, multi-cultural group of individuals, some better fleshed out than others, which make up members of an environment so feared and misunderstood that we never hear of the people that reside there. Real human beings, with their hopes and dreams, and the fact that all they are trying to do is survive. It’s about time someone divulged into the true essence of what it truly means to live life on the wrong side of the tracks with this much insight. All we ever hear about are the hoodlums that are single-handedly allowing what was once the epicentre of Johannesburg to fall victim to irreversible decay.

On another axis all together, Ziman allows for themes of religion to wash over the story, similar to this year’s “Son of Man,” but here the racial connotations are far less overused. Acquiring its title from the hymn “Jerusalema” in which Johannesburg is compared to Jerusalem, the Promised Land, of which the same illusive image that is accentuated by the glistening quality of hope, so visually enticing and ostensibly attainable, is anything but a heaven on earth. In truth, this image is a mirage and once we penetrate the alluring glow of possibility, the stench of forgotten dreams and fallow chances eliminates whatever optimism one might have had before.

Top-notch acting goes a long way and while no one in the film is awful, there are more than a few moments of cringe worthy acting particularly that of Robert Hobbs. The white actors stick out like sore thumbs, all of them, and they seem completely out of place and strange. Perhaps that was by choice, it certainly makes sense. What it doesn't make is nuanced, even acting. At one point, Shelly Meskin's character Leah says that the wealthy, rich white folks think that poverty is glamorous and attractive. I understand, to a certain point, what she was trying to say but it comes across as blatantly thoughtless and unnecessary. Ignoring that, Rapulana Seiphemo plays Lucky with a certain air of assurance even though he is obviously a complex individual whose clinging to his childish hopes offers him more trouble than satisfaction.

The film is strikingly similar to “American Gangster” in many ways. It’s too long at times, it drags here and there, it’s gritty, real and ambiguous, but the most startling and surprising similarity is that the best performances of both films come from the women who play the gangster’s respective mothers. Here, Lucky’s religious mother knows that his sudden financial elevation comes from crime and she refuses to be a part of it. However, she does allow for the money that comes from Lucky’s dubious activities to benefit the rest of their family. She observes his rise and fall, silently, observing the product of her own actions too and gives, with a limited amount of screen time, a tremendously affecting performance that is the highlight of the film.

“Jerusalema” proves that while crime doesn’t pay, it certainly makes for gripping entertainment in this, a modern tent pole for South African cinema. For once, we are not offered a moving message of hope and possibility. We are given the truth, plain and simple. It’s not even that good of a film, it’s not as slick as gangster thrillers of the past or present like “Mean Streets” or “The Departed” and it is certainly too flawed to recommend with no reservations. What it is though is a fast-paced, euphemistic take on commonplace formulae infused with the vibrancy of Afro-cinema and its unyielding ignorance of patriotism means that absolutely anyone can enjoy for exactly what it is. Nothing more and nothing less.

Fatac Rating: ***

Jerusalema. Written and Directed by Ralph Ziman. Cinematography by Nic Hofemeyer. Editing by David Helfand. Music by Alan Ari Lazar. Starring: Rapulama Seiphemo, Ronnie Nyakale, Jeffery Zekele, Robert Hobbs, Shelley Meskin, Kenneth Nkosi, Jafta Mamabola and Motlatsi Mohloko. Running Time: 120 minutes. Age Restriction: 16SLNV. Year: 2008. Rating: 3 out of 3 stars. [C]

"Jerusalema" will not be submitted for Oscar consideration this year as it does not meet the language requirements, just like "The Band's Visit." The film's procuder Tendeka Matatu also told me that they are planning to release the film internationally soon, hopefully outside of only showing it at festivals like Berlin. It does deserve to be seen.

Adam:

Length: 92min

Taglines:
There are heroes. There are superheroes. And then there's...
Bad Behaviour. Bad Attitude. Real Hero.
Meet the superhero everybody loves to hate.
He is saving the world whether we like it or not.

Review by Adam:

I wanted this movie to be good. I don't know why really. Maybe I'm just sucker for hype, and apparently the Fresh Prince is now one of the most bankable and successful (in terms of ticket sales) stars around. That, and I love a good story of redemption.

Hancock (Will Smith) is an alcoholic super hero who spends his time being jaded, getting wasted, and seemingly only responding when people call him an asshole. He's despised by the local population for his reckless acts of kindness, that is, smashing everything in his way to stop criminals. As the only one of his kind, he's built some pretty distant people skills, which haven't been helped by the vicious serves he receives from the general population. Eventually Hancock saves a struggling PR man (Jason Bateman) who offers to help him change his "public interfacing". Thus a story of redemption starts...

The characters in this movie are as shallow as anything we would have seen on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. The plot is about the same depth, save for one nicely unexpected twist. Smith manages to crack some good jokes, but it all gets swallowed up by the weak storyline. By trying to get a balance between action hit and comedy hit, the filmmakers managed to avoid them both. Even the 'baddies' are pathetic in this film (and everyone also knows it's the PR people that are pure evil, not the Hispanic gangsters!).

Before I saw Hancock I wondered what would be the evil counterbalance to Smith's superhero. This is the film's problem. There's no great rivalry. No Superman and Lex Luther. No Spiderman and the Green Goblin Family. No Keanu Reeves and Anthony Kiedis from Point Break. There's only a weak love story that moves this film forward, and even then it doesn't move it very far.

We can only pray that there is no sequel.

Commnets from me:

1. Absurd but very thoughtful, it is about how people should do his/her inner deepest passions
2. Amazing! It was made in 1971, but the ideas are exactly right in year 200os perspective
3. Bravo! For creative director. Who ever think that contact lenses had already thought to be mass consumer products in 1971?
4. Althought the scenes are 80% X-rated (Nudity, sexual, etc), but it's about humanity.. believe me!

Fortunately, the makers (especially directors) are OK in cinematography. Only one (from four) of them need to improve the directing technical. From four stories I like "Happiness" the most. Directed by Youngyooth Thongkonthun. It tells using pictures and sounds, do dialogue if we agree dialogue is communication orals between two parties. The only communication was using text of mobile and e-mails. But we can feel as they are talking as if using voices.

And for the other three stories... It's a "so-so" boys..!

வெங்கட் பிரபுவின் படங்கள் இதிலே இரண்டாவது ரகம்.

சரோஜா.

வெங்கட் பிரபுவின் முதல் வெற்றி தற்செயலானது அல்ல என்பதை இப்படம் அழுத்தமாக நிரூபித்திருக்கிறது.

ஒரிசாவில் இருந்து சரக்கேற்றிக் கொண்டு கிளம்பும் மித்தல் கெமிக்கல்ஸ்ஸின் டேங்கர் லாரி, ஹைவே யில் விபத்துக்குள்ளாக, அதனால், அந்த வழியாக இந்தியா பாகிஸ்தான் கிரிக்கெட் மாட்ச் பார்க்க, ஹைதராபாத் செல்லும் நாலு பேர் கொண்ட நண்பர் குழு, மாற்று பாதை மூலமாக ஹைதராபாத் செல்ல முயலும் போது, கோடீசுவரர் பிரகாஷ்ராஜின் மகளைக் கடத்தி வைத்துப் பணம் பறிக்க முயலும் கும்பலிடம் சிக்கிக் கொள்கிறார்கள்.

தமிழ்ச் சினிமா பார்க்கும் வழக்கம் கொண்டவர்கள், இறுதியிலே என்ன நடந்தது என்பதை ஊகித்துக் கொள்வார்கள்.

வினோதமான சைன்ஸ் பிராஜெக்ட்டுகளை மகளுக்குச் செய்து தரும் ஜெகபதிபாபு ( எஸ்.பி.சரண்) தான் குழுவிலேயே சீனியர். அவரது தம்பி காதல் தியாகி ராம்பாபு (வைபவ்), சீரியல் ஆர்ட்டிஸ்ட் அஜய்ராஜ் ( மிர்ச்சி ஷிவா), சமயசந்தர்ப்பமில்லாமல் சதா ஜோக்கடிக்கும் கணேஷ் ( பிரேம்ஜி)ஆகிய நால்வர் கூட்டணி படம் முழுக்க செய்யும் செய்யும் அட்டகாசங்கள், அரங்கை அதிர வைக்கின்றன.

இந்த நண்பர்கள், பாலியகாலத்தில் கமர்க்கட்டை காக்காகடி கடித்து, செபியா டோனில், 'அறியாத வயசு... புரியாத மனசு' என்று தொண்டை அடைக்கப் பாடிய நண்பர்கள் அல்ல. பிற்காலத்தில், தொழில் நிமித்தம் சந்தித்து , ஒன்றாக டென்னிஸ் விளையாடி, பியர் குடித்த நண்பர்களாக இருக்ககூடும். ஒருத்தரை ஒருத்தர் சார் என்று (தான்) விளிக்கும் நட்பு. எக்கச்சக்கமான சந்தர்ப்பங்களில் மட்டும் 'டேய்'.

பிற படங்களில் சொதப்பும் பிரேம்ஜி, தமையன் கைகளில் ஜொலிக்கிறார். ' இக்கட்டான சூழ்நிலையில், மனைவியின் புகைப்படத்தைப் பார்த்து செண்டிமெண்டாக புலம்பும் சரணிடம், ' யாரு சார் இந்த ஃபிகர்?" என்று கேட்கும் இடம் 10000 வாலா சரம். படத்தில், எல்லாரையும் தூக்கிச் சாப்பிடுபவர், எஸ்.பி.சரண். சும்மா சொல்லக்கூடாது. பின்னுகிறார். நாலுபேரும் மானாவாரியாகக் கலாய்க்கிறார்கள், தங்களையும், பாரதிராஜாவையும் :-) அரங்கில் சதா சிரிப்பலை.

சாதா கதை, சாமர்த்தியமான திரைக்கதை. விறுவிறுப்பான எடிட்டிங். பத்திக்கிற மாதிரி ஒளிப்பதிவு. இந்தப்பக்கம் யுவன் ஷங்கர் ராஜாவின் இசை. அந்தப்பக்கம் நிதிதாவில் கலக்கலான டான்ஸ். எந்தவிதமான இண்டலெக்சுவல் பாவனையும் கிடையாது. இதுதான் சரோஜாவின் ஃபார்முலா.

நிச்சயமா பார்க்கலாம்.

Released: October 3rd
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Rating: 15
Trailer: Click here

The Film - It's been three weeks, 2 days, and 23 hours since Tris broke up with Nick. And now here she is at his gig, with a new guy. How could she have moved on so fast? Nick, in a desperate attempt to show her he's moved on too, turns to the girl next to him and asks her to be his 5 minute girlfriend. This begins the night of Nick, Norah and Manhattan. The night of stripping nuns, hotel ice rooms, Russian food, psychotically jewish ex boyfriends and lovingly trashy ex girlfriends. It's the night of Julio and Salvatore. The night of holding hands and writing songs and singing in the rain. It's a night they'll never forget.

The Verdict - As if you, or anyone else for that matter could have ever grown tired of Juno! Well, Michael Cera is back; minus Ellen Page (unfortunately), in the rather Juno-esque - Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, based on the novel written by David Levithan and Rachel Chohn. You might be mistaken for actually thinking this is the trailer for Juno, everything seems to mirror it exactly - from the scenery and location, right down to Michael Cera's room. But what sets this aside from Juno is the sense that everything seems a lot more "grown up". I'm not sure why, maybe its the fact that my mind is rest assured in knowing neither Nick nor Nora will have fallen pregnant by the end.Or maybe I'm wrong?Perhaps you could even say that this film is an untitled Juno sequel, but undyingly no matter which way you care to look at it, this is still an overly American teen collage flick. A fresh new supporting cast is held together well by Cera's doughy whit and Kate Dennings' wonderful smile. Fair enough, the same old story might have been re-heated again for all of us suckers to buy into, but there's something obviously addictive about these films lately; they're just so easy to enjoy! Kate Dennings will definitely be up for break out artist of the year after this. The soundtrack also looks very convincing, with Band Of Horses, The Shout Out Louds and We Are Scienetists all featuring.

Look out for a full review on Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist here on The405, when its released!

- A

Dit is een prachtige film, met schitterend decoor en costuums. De choreografie van de gevechten is fantastisch mooi. Het is wel een geweldadige en bloederige film, maar het wordt allemaal op zo'n artistieke manier weergegeven dat ik niet anders kan zeggen dat de cinematograaf (Zhang Li) van deze film een kunstwerk heeft gemaakt.

Matt:
Adam:

Length: 120min

Taglines:
Saving the world is a hell of a job.
Good never looked so bad.
Believe it or not - he's the good guy.
From the visionary director of Pan's Labyrinth.

Précis: Lighthearted action fantasy about a grumpy hellspawn and his mutant friends, battling to save humanity from a magical evil threat.

Review by Matt:

There's a big red demon, a looming threat to humanity, and scary gun-toting freaks all around. Is it the 2008 Republican Convention? No, it's Hellboy 2, the new film written and directed by much-admired Mexican filmmaker, Guillermo Del Toro. He's dropped the nightmarish atmosphere that characterised his recent films. Hellboy 2 is a fluffy action/fantasy flick about FBI-employed mutants saving the world from a mythological army of death robots.

Ron Perlman is Hellboy, a macho, half-human hellspawn who is a bit like a bigger, redder Han Solo. He's out to save humanity from the villainous Elf Prince Nuada (played by Luke Goss, who has already endangered humanity once, as part of the awesomely rubbish 80's band, Bros). Hellboy is helped by key team mates: his pyro-kinetic girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), and a psychic creature called Abe (Doug Jones), who has an uncanny resemblance to C3PO in a fish suit. Further assistance comes from a German ectoplasmic spirit called Krauss (voiced by Seth McFarlane, emulating Klaus from American Dad) and the beleaguered human minder of the group, Agent Manning (Jeffrey Tambour, who is wasted in this excisable role).

Robots, monsters, Bros. It might sound great to you. But be clear about what you're getting here, because Hellboy 2 won't be for everyone. There are things to enjoy. Most noticeably, the film has a hammy likeability, unselfconsciously displayed in Arnie-like one liners and other silly, sometimes funny, dialogue. It also sports an impressive visual style; Del Toro has a talent for composition, and a rich imagination. You get a sometimes crazy mesh of towering monsters and flashy fights, and even a liberal promotion of interspecies marriage (there goes the Republican Convention comparison). You have to admit that in some respects, this is a film that has got it going on.

But the film's bad side soon engulfs the positives. Hellboy 2 just lacks the qualities to make us invest in its story. The plot is recycled, rushed and disjointed. In some places it is jarringly sloppy. Behind the characters' striking appearances, they are truly shallow, and most of the acting is accordingly stilted. The romances and conflicts are annoyingly clichéd, and may as well have been left out. The more it goes on, the more it feels over-busy and self-indulgent, as if Del Toro was obsessed only with his scattered ideas and ingenious style.

When even Guillermo Del Toro's fantastical style starts to appear decidedly undazzling, you know there is something missing. I am an enthusiast of monsters, robots and other curiousities. But Hellboy 2 is a reminder that you've got to put them in the right vehicle before you have a winning film.

Review by Adam:

I didn't even know this movie was coming out until I saw it previewed at The Dark Knight. My company immediately complained about how lame it looked. From that moment I was convinced that this would be awesome, and it kinda is. I was hanging to see this movie and at the end of a busy weekend. I even ended up dodging a dinner invitation with a visiting foreign celebrity so that I could see it with an old flatmate.

So the story doesn't really pick up from the first movie. There is no reference to the previous happenings, or to the fate of the previous human agent assigned to Hellboy. Maybe he just died of an obscure disease.

The plot happens all very quickly and you're guaranteed to think that it went from the first instance of slaughter to the final battle with very few events in between. The beauty of the film is in the characters, or better put, the creatures. If you've seen Pan's Labyrinth you'll know the beautifully creative mind of Guillermo Del Toro. This film gives him plenty of opportunities to showcase that. Kind of like that Tatooine bar scene in Star Wars Episode 4 (you know, the one where that dude tells Luke what all of us are thinking - "I don't like you" - and then Obi Wan sabres him). It's also nice to see that not everything these days is computer generated and some nice work has gone into the costumes.

Despite the supernatural realms and the whole threat of total destruction of humanity, this film is pretty light on. It never seems to take itself too seriously, and that's a strength. The love stories are hammed up in all the right places (including one unforgettable sing-a-long) and only at a few moments are a bit over the top. The theme to the love story is that the destruction of the earth is fine, just as long as you are with the one you love. Easy to say if you have super-awesome mutant powers I guess...

Basically, go and see Hellboy 2 if you want something light. Don't expect much and you'll be delighted with a film that is entertaining, funny, sometimes beautiful, and has guns and big red dudes. Apparently there is another one planned - I can't wait.

Things started off well this evening with the Bulgarian flic, Zift.

Released: August 22nd
Genre: Documentary
Rating: 15
Trailer: Click here

The Film - Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, this astonishingly powerful documentary is at once horrifying and exhilarating. Directed and produced by Fahrenheit 9/11and Bowling for Columbine producers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, Trouble the Watertakes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. The film opens the day before the storm makes landfall—just blocks away from the French Quarter but far from the New Orleans that most tourists knew. Kimberly Rivers Roberts, an aspiring rap artist, is turning her new video camera on herself and her 9th Ward neighbors trapped in the city. “It’s going to be a day to remember,” Kim declares. As the hurricane begins to rage and the floodwaters fill their world and the screen, Kim and her husband Scott continue to film their retreat to higher ground and the dramatic rescues of friends and neighbors. The filmmakers document the couple’s return to New Orleans, the devastation of their neighborhood and the appalling repeated failures of government. Weaving an insider’s view of Katrina with a mix of verité and in- your-face filmmaking, Trouble the Wateris a redemptive tale of self-described street hustlers who become heroes—two unforgettable people who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning.

The Verdict - As far as disaster movies go, Trouble The Water is as real as they come. There are no trained actors here. There is no star gazing Hollywood plot nor team written script. Just a unexpected harrowing turn of events that left hundreds stranded and homeless or even worse - left for dead. All filmed by two brave souls, failed and neglected by their country, on a single camcorder. The raw footage that depicts their struggle not only as a couple, but as a society, as they fight to rebuild whats left of their town without aid or support, amongst complete chaos is truly hard-hitting .Trouble The Water is by the far one of the most eye opening, unforgiving and opinion altering documentaries of the year.

- A

Leave us a comment below! Then check us out at our Myspace/Facebook/Our Forums!

Click here to subscribe to us!

It’s the lost ones that always seem to find each other, star crossed or not, planned or accidental. To them, life is an exploration made more manageable by like associations, similar philosophies, and a belief in liberation as both a blessing and a curse. Sex is also a catalyst, binding indifference to affection and making both as addictive as smack. And when reality comes calling, when the truth of the 9 to 5, dollars and cents social structure demands some ritualistic sacrifice, these inseparables manage to dodge the bullets and keep on running. Baby Shoes and Alex are such a couple. She sells her underwear to perverts on the Internet. He plays protector, and when the time is right, green-eyed zelophile. Together they form a union more perfect than that of classical paramours. It’s also clear that they’re barely hanging on.

In his absolutely stunning and undeniably brilliant short film Alex and Her Arse Truck, UK filmmaker Sean Conway creates the kind of character sketch that has you sitting back, slack jawed, in satisfied contemplation. It’s a movie that sticks with you long after the final image has faded away. Similar in style to Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting, but far more fierce in its unconventional flair, this is a book come bounding to life, a novel’s worth of detail and depth in 15 far too brief minutes. The main narrative is easy to understand - Alex is planning on taking a bath, and her man plans on watching. Along the way we meet a geek burglar, a well-endowed swimmer, two larded drug dealing lesbians, and a pub filled with reprobate raffling off our heroine’s soiled knickers. While there are hints of other stories in all these recognizable references Conway’s work has the overall effect of being wholly original and wildly inventive.

Conway is interested in life the way it’s really lived - not the sugar coated, candy colored version of existence fed to us via television and advertising. There is a razor sharp authenticity here, an eccentricity meshed with the undeniable truth that easily takes one’s breath away. His actors really help sell the situation. As Baby Shoes, Danny Young is dynamic, looking like a slightly less smug Colin Farrell. He brings a real warmth to his jealousy-torn role, and his voice over narration is loaded with story enhancing emotion. Similarly, Gina Blondell’s Alex is the flawless personification of everything Conway wants to convey. She’s sexy, stupid, alluring, ambiguous, and ever so slightly out of reach. Even her walk screams something significant. In a setup that mandates a ying to a partner’s yan, Young and Blondell make a wonderful - and better yet, believable - pair.

Conway is also a true star here, a future filmmaking giant just waiting to have his rock solid aesthetic appreciated by the masses. Thanks to the director’s attention to detail, we find ourselves lost in this carnival like collection of fringe dwellers. Conway also has a satisfying habit of being overly aggressive with his cues. At any given moment, the movie feels like it’s getting away from us, ready to rush forward faster than we are willing to accept. Many times, a scooter riding Young will simply take off out of frame, leaving us behind to contemplate what the emergency is. Clearly, like everything else in this manchild’s frame of reference, the day’s too short to simply sit back and appreciate the details. If you don’t hurry, conservatives and conformity will catch up with you.

There are other layers to Alex and her Arse Truck that help make this 15 minute masterwork feel far more fleshed out and realized. Race becomes a subversive sexual subject, as does overweight lesbian congress. We get surreal, enigmatic images of a swimming man covered in Band-Aids and a cheerleading group practicing in a darkened parking lot. The musical score does a great job of supplementing the circumstances, amplifying the out of control atmosphere and accenting the characters. As unheralded auteurs go, Sean Conway will definitely be a name to watch in the future. If there is any justice in an artform landscape littered with lame journeyman hacks, his will be a creative spark recognized and revered. Alex and her Arse Truck is all the proof anyone needs.

- A

Leave us a comment below! Then check us out at our Myspace/Facebook/Our Forums!

Click here to subscribe to us!

Earlier in the year we wrote six-word memoirs and I thought that you might like to see some more mini-lit in the form of four-word film reviews. I have put a few examples below but there is a catch - you have to guess the titles. The first correct answers posted will win a prize. And yes the picture is a clue.

1. Icy dead people.
2. Schindler's Lizst.
3. Room With A Spew.
4. A month of sundaes.
5. Said he'd be back.
6. Who's eating? Gilbert's mom!
7. Ded Zeppelin.
8. Brother gets own bedroom.
9. High-sea dead people.
10. Resistance is feudal.

... So much for making a comment - the answers were given to me verbally by Year 12 and the prizes won so I have added the film names below for those of you who are interested.

1. Titanic
2. The Pianist
3. The Exorcist
4. Supersize Me
5. Terminator 2
6. What's Eating Gilbert Grape
7. The Hindenberg
8. Saving Private Ryan
9. Pirates of the Caribbean 2
10. Braveheart

I was surprised at how quickly you got them - we have some real film buffs amongst us!

In 1950 Billy Wilder was riding high. Fresh off the enormously successful Sunset Boulevard, the German-born Wilder decided to make a very different film; one somewhat critical of the society of his new home, the United States. That film was called Ace in the Hole.

The movie concerns Kirk Douglas as a down-on-his-luck reporter who has been fired from just about every major newspaper in the country. Starting with New York, he's gone from large market to small, and now has ended up in Alberquerque. He's a self-described $250 a week reporter, but settles for $60 a week, and makes it clear at one point he'd be willing to take even less.

But his character, Chuck Tatum, has dreams. Yes, he does. He dreams that one day, the Great Story will drop into his lap. A story that will let him write his way out of the situation he's in, one that will let him write his own ticket and get back to New York.

That Great Story drops into his lap one day when, while on the way to cover a rattlesnake hunt, he stops at a gas station and finds out there's a man trapped in a nearby cave. He boldly goes into the gave, meets Leo Mimosa (Richard Benedict), the man trapped inside, and smells a story.

Immediately he begins to sabotage the rescue efforts. When the engineer in charge of getting Mimosa out explains that it might take most of a day to get him out safely, Tatum conconcts a much more convulted rescue plan, one that will certainly take days. Days during which he can write a great story about this poor man trapped in a mountin. A story that will finally take him back to New York.

Along the way he meets the slightly corrupt sheriff (Ray Teal), who is more-than-willing to help him, figuring the attention boosts his chances of getting relected. Also present is Mimosa's wife, Lorraine (Jan Sterling), who can't stand her husband and wants to leave. Tatum practically forces her to remain, saying the story works so much better if there's a grieving wife at home for him to focus on.

As the days roll past, people begin to show up. First just a family on their way to a nice vaction, who end up settling in for the long haul. Before you know it, the entire area is filled with cars, as people come from miles around to witness this great story. Eventually a large carnvial builds up around the site (in fact the movie was, at one point, called The Big Carnival). Access to the cave area, once free, goes from 25 cents a car to 50 cents, and then to a dollar. The gas station is making money hand over fist. Tatum is being courted by New York. Everyone is benefiting. Everyone but Leo.

Things begin to change in the life of everyone involved, including Tatum, when Leo starts to get sicker and sicker. Tatum quickly realizes the story doesn't work if the man in the cave doesn't make it out alive, and starts to try and change his tactics, only to find out that it might be too late.

The story is based to a great extent on real-life events in 1925, when a man named Floyd Collins became trapped in a mine. It also put me in mind of those stories back in the late 80's and early 90's, where it seemed like every week some kid was getting trapped in a well. If nothing else, this movie shows well that the media circus that errupted around those wells was little different from what has gone before.

When the movie was released, it was largely panned. Many people seemed to think it was overly-cynical and presented an image of America as it wasn't. The film also failed miserably at the box office. It did get an Oscar nomination, for the screenplay, but lost. Most people today have never even heard of the film, and that's a tragedy.

The movie was recently released on DVD by the Criterion Collection and turns up on Turner Classic Movies from time-to-time. It's an exceptional film, with stunning cinematography, great performances and a wonderful screenplay. It feels amazingly modern despite being 57 years old.

Roger Ebert said of this movie:

Wilder, true to this vision and ahead of his time, made a movie in which the only good men are the victim and his doctor. Instead of blaming the journalist who masterminds a media circus, he is equally hard on sightseers who pay 25 cents admission. Nobody gets off the hook here.

He's exactly correct. The public that eats up these stories is every bit as culpable as the journalists who create them. If we ignore these stories, they'll go away. Instead the public lavishes attention onto them, encouraging the worst in journalism. On the plus side, at least in this case, it makes for a wonderful, if sometimes hard to watch, film.

Moolaadé stands as a fitting tribute to the career of the first great African director. Sembène was approaching 80 when he set out on this final production and after forty years of struggle to make films – and see them distributed in Africa – it is satisfying to report that Moolaadé includes many of the themes of the earlier work and that it is beautifully made. It will also have pleased Sembène that so many African countries contributed to the production (based in an ‘historic' rural community in Burkina Faso that Sembène said represented ‘green Africa').

In one sense, Moolaadé offers another ‘timeless' African story and bears some comparison with Sembène's masterpiece Ceddo (1977). As in the earlier film, the village is a microcosm of West African society and the central character is a woman who has the fate of the village pushed upon her. In both cases she takes action which brings her into conflict with the men of the village – both the village elders and the religious authorities. Ceddo is more clearly constructed to explore historical issues, but Sembène argued that they are still relevant ‘now'. In Moolaadé the central issues are more clearly contemporary, but the presentation suggests the ‘timeless'.

The microcosm idea is furthered by having actors (and non-actors) drawn from Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, all speaking forms of Bambara – a language spoken in all three countries. This sense of African communities that ignore boundaries drawn up by colonial and post-colonial administrations goes back to Sembène's first great novel, God's Little Bits of Wood (1960), about a railway strike along the line from Bamako to Dakar. It also refers to the ‘Pan-Africanism' of the 1950s and 1960s, which informed the work of many of the early African filmmakers including Sembène, whose novels had also been influenced in this way. Sembène himself was certainly more concerned to see his films dubbed into other African languages than to succeed as an art film director in Europe and America.

The language issue also has an impact on how scenes unfold in Moolaadé. Sembène explains that in the villages formal modes of address require the repetition of names and greetings during exchanges. He tried to rehearse local actors and non-professionals in more ‘film-friendly' styles of conversation without losing the sense of spontaneity. However, much of it remains and audiences may find that it slows down the film (but possibly makes it easier to follow the exchanges via the subtitles).

The central narrative strand of Moolaadé concerns the practice of ‘female genital mutilation' (FGM) or ‘cutting' (FGC) – the concept of female ‘circumcision' being no longer acceptable for what is a seriously dangerous as well as morally reprehensible practice. (See Wikipedia: <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation>) Burkina Faso is one of the countries which still has a high incidence of one or more forms of FGM/C. The practice is found across much of Sub-Saharan Africa and also from Egypt down through East Africa to Tanzania. It is essentially a cultural practice which predates both Islam and Christianity, although it has been ‘accepted' by both Islamic and Christian communities in Africa. One of the arguments made on the Wikipedia entry is that British attempts to outlaw the practice during their colonial administration in Kenya had the opposite effect in that identification of prohibition as associated with the coloniser increased the use of FMG/C amongst communities wanting independence.

Sembène was a political filmmaker. He wanted his films to be seen by popular audiences and he wanted the audiences to learn from the films and take action. It is therefore quite possible that more entertainment orientated audiences will find his films, especially Moolaadé, to be either overly didactic or idealistic in the optimism of their resolutions. This has certainly been said of Moolaadé. What is important for Sembène is that strong characters emerge to challenge tradition and to build an alliance for change. Often these characters are women, certainly in Ceddo and Moolaadé and in the novel God's Little Bits of Wood.

The resistance to ‘purification' comes from Collie who has endured the pain of ‘cutting' herself and who wishes to protect her daughter. She is determined to protect the four young girls who flee from the purification ceremony and sets up a moolaadé. This traditional form of sanctuary is represented by a powerful social ritual and can only be broken by Collie herself announcing that it is over – the woman whose public utterances are usually deferential has the ultimate power.

Collie receives support from her husband's first wife, her ‘elder', even if she is suspicious of her motives. The solidarity of the wives is evidence of tradition. The support of Mercenaire, one of the two characters with knowledge of the ‘outside world' is important and so is the (limited) support of the second outsider Ibrahima. ‘Outside' is also symbolised in terms of modernity – television and radio. These alien cultural agencies are seen to be so progressive that their use must be proscribed for the women (yet the men can use them to listen to broadcasts of the Koran). The complex ways in which Sembène appears to endorse both traditional and modern ideas in his attempt to foster change is what gives the film its strength – alongside the vibrant photography and outstanding performances.

The two outsiders are important in several ways. Sembène argued that Moolaadé was his ‘most African' film – not only in its production but also in its list of characters. There are no European characters in the film, so these two African characters become the carriers of European ideas (and discussions about wealth and globalisation). Mercenaire is a version of the familiar Sembène character of the soldier who fought for France and is not honoured in his own country (e.g. the wagon driver of Borom Sarret). Ibrahima is another recurring character combining the experience of the soldiers in Camp de Thiaroye and the young woman in Black Girl, who experience rather different effects of travelling to France. A similar character is also at the centre of Guelwaar.

The press pack for the US release of the film includes an interview with Sembène (by Samba Gadjigo) in which he gives the context of the film's production and his overall idea:

I can tell you that, based on its content, the film is the second in a trilogy that, for me, embodies the Heroism in daily life. One finds that nowadays war is rampant in Africa, especially South of the Sahara. There's also our life; life continues, after all, with our daily actions that are forgotten by the masses. The people don't retain them. They want to convince us that we 'vegetate'. But yet, this underground struggle, this struggle of the people, similar to the struggles of all other peoples, that's what I call Heroism in daily life. These are the heroes to whom no country, no nation gives any medals . . . They never get a statue built. That, for me, is the symbolism of this trilogy. I have already made two, Faat-Kine, this one now Moolaadé, and I am preparing for the third.

Gadjigo: From the time you wrote your first novel, The Black Docker (1956), in which the first chapter was called ‘The Mother', you have a given a very particular emphasis to women, to the Heroism of the African woman. Why does this heroism recur, as a leitmotif, throughout your work?

Sembène: I think that Africa is maternal. The African male is very maternal; he loves his mother; he swears on his mother. When someone insults his father the man can take it; but once his mother's honour has been hurt, the man feels he's not worthy of life if he doesn't defend his mother. According to our traditions, a man has no intrinsic value, he receives his value from his mother. This concept goes back to before Islam: the good wife, the good mother, the submissive mother who knows how to look after her husband and family. The mother embodies our society . . . I continue to think that African society is very maternal. Maybe we have inherited from our pre-Islamic matriarchy. That said, to me, every man loves a woman. We love them. Besides, more than 50% of the African population are women. More than half of the 800,000,000 that we are. This is a force that we must be able to mobilise for our own development. There's no one that works as hard as the rural woman.

(The title of the proposed film that would complete the trilogy and which dealt with government officials was meant to be ‘The Brotherhood of Rats' – Sembène remained politically committed to the end.)

Reference
<www.newyorkerfilms.com/nyf/t_elements/moolaade/moolaade_pk.pdf>

The Artificial Eye DVD carries an interview with Sembène, a ‘making of' documentary and a campaign piece about FGC by ‘Forward' (www.forwarduk.org.uk).

Length: 152min

Taglines:
Why So Serious?
I Believe In Harvey Dent.
Welcome to a world without rules.

Review by Adam:

Ever since I saw the previews for this movie I knew I was going to see it on the opening night. When the night came, I managed to drag along my flatmates on the promise that this was ‘arguably' the best Batman ever. I told everyone that they weren't excited enough. The level they needed to be at was "oh my god, I HAVE to have the giant Batman cup." Thankfully common sense prevailed and no one paid a ridiculous price for such plastic crap.

The movie itself is pretty awesome, thanks largely to Australia's latest deceased movie star, Heath Ledger. Basically his Joker character is an extension of the troubled Aussie kid, Patrick, he played in 10 Things I Hate About You. You know that scene where he is playing with the bunsen burner? Well, the Joker is what would have happened if Patrick had ended up with a broken heart (and had needed major facial surgery from an accident). Heathy plays the Joker so well it makes you squirm in your seat. He manages to adopt all the mannerisms and expressions you would expect from some maniacal, super villain. He captures the chaotic logic that is central to the Joker, and it's that unpredictability that makes you uneasy. Without doubt, if it wasn't for Heath, this movie would only be average.

The Dark Knight has quite a complex plot that always leaves you guessing as to exactly what is happening and if it is being deliberately planned. The only down side to this is that the film tries to cram a bit too much in. Two villians in one movie - doesn't that undermine the principles of a movie franchise?

Christian Bale may be the greatest Batman yet. He carries the worries of the metropolis like only a billionaire playboy could, with lots of brooding looks and a special voice for when he's in his Batgear. What makes him great (like Michael Keaton) is that he exists in a grim time. From this, the story becomes one about redemption and the attempt to make things right. From heroes that is all we can ask.

The extras in this movie are also fantastic. Gary Oldman, as the police commissioner, is probably my favourite character in the whole movie. There's just something so wonderfully incorruptible about him. Maybe it's the moustache.

The movie deals with issues of uncontrolled power, fear, and what it is that drives us as humans (it's not bat-mobiles). I thought the ending was mostly good, except for the moralising about society needing leaders/good examples. To hell with that! The Dark Knight shows us that the most respectable characters are in fact those society is willing to lock up.

4.5 Batmasks.

One was pleasantly surprised and even happy to see some good work done - one can always find points of criticism - but overall, I found it a good watch and a good hear.

Rock music has its own appeal as compared to other genres and when it is played live, the atmosphere and ambience works together with the band's own energy. All the songs in the film were picturised as live performances - which meant a lot of "choreography" in terms of the band's movements on stage, the crowd, the sound, the ambience, etc. The output that I saw, IMHO, was very good.

The specifics of the songs, the lyrics, etc., one can debate about it but that is for a more detailed and deep discussion. The plot itself is nothing new. The personas of the different bands, the ego clashes, the relationships have been seen before. But the freshness came from the cast (everyone playing their role, not overshadowing anyone else), a lot of clean photography and some efficient editing.

My personal recommendation is to see it without any comparision to any other movie of this kind. Also, if you are not a rock music lover, you may miss out on many things during the some of the live show scenes

FROZEN RIVER is a revelation for two specific reasons. It's a notable directorial debut from a seriously talented female writer/filmmaker - COURTNEY HUNT - and it also features an astonishingly authentic performance from MELISSA LEO.

Ms. Leo portrays RAY EDDY. Immediately after the initial credits roll, we are treated to a lingering close up of Ray's face. She sits smoking while enormous tears fall from her eyes.

This is a woman who would have been a striking head turner ten or fifteen years before. She is still lithe and lean, possessed of fine features and acres of Titian hair. But the grim, demoralizing life that she's been living has eroded almost every bit of sensuality and loveliness from her visage.

Ray has been so close to the edge for so long that she copes on auto pilot. It's just days of never ending worry. She lives in Massena, New York, which is close to the Quebec border. A Mohawk reservation forms part of the local community.

Ray is married to a gambling addict. She has two sons (T.J., 15 and Ricky, 5). The family can barely make ends meet. Ray works part time at a dollar store, where she dreams of becoming a manager and providing a better life for her children. The sad irony is that any kind of a promotion at that particular establishment ultimately wouldn't make much of a difference to the crushing level of poverty that they're living under.

Several days before Christmas, Ray's husband skips town with the money that they had been saving for a new trailer. She tracks his car down to the parking lot of a bingo hall. But he is nowhere to be found.

When she sees a young Native American woman get behind the wheel and drive it to her home, Ray gets in her car and follows her there. The woman is LILA LITTLEWOLF (MISTY UPHAM). Openly defiant, she lies to Ray, telling her that the keys were in the car and she found it. Now that it's on Indian land she's not giving it up. Different rules apply there.

But Ray has no intention of backing down. She wants the car back. She and Lila argue. She ends up driving Lila to a place where several people get in Ray's trunk. Lila is a widow with a year old boy being cared for by her mother in law. Desperate and unable to hold down a proper job, she is being paid large sums of money to smuggle illegal immigrants across the frozen St. Lawrence River and into Quebec.

Ray wants absolutely no part of this. She has a gun. But Lila wrestles it away, points it at Ray and tells her to drive. After the job is finished and the ordeal is over, Ray turns the tables on Lila and takes back her vehicle.

But time is growing short. The lack of any realistic choices is making Ray consider options that she would never have thought possible.

Ray's boss won't allow her to take on any extra hours and she has no hope of finding any other job. She feeds her children popcorn and Tang. She has no money for Christmas gifts. They're going to lose the deposit on the trailer because she can't come up with any more cash. The big screen TV will be repossessed shortly.

T.J. wants to work. She will not allow it. The only way he can ever escape this life is if he stays in school. No one knows that better than Ray.

So Ray and Lila become reluctant allies in the smuggling business, driving people into Quebec for profit. It's fraught with peril. The police are constantly on the lookout. The enormous icy body of water is unsafe and there are no other viable routes.

However, Ray is a survivor if nothing else. She's competent and she knows how to get things done. After several close calls, she'd like to quit. But she's still several hundred dollars short of her dream. She needs that brand new trailer. Badly. She and Lila decide to head out on another run.

But each time could effectively be their last.

FROZEN RIVER is a long way from perfection. It was made on a shoestring and it shows. The narrative is choppy. There are moments where not much happens and then there are several big jolting dramatic developments that arrive almost like signposts.

Some of Misty Upham's line readings are flat and rather stilted. She makes up for that somewhat with a certain amount of natural likability that she instills in Lila. She is an easy person to empathize with.

But most of the cast is exceptional. Particularly good are CHARLIE McDERMOTT as T.J. and JAMES REILLY as Ricky. MICHAEL O'KEEFE is solid as a state trooper who becomes interested in Ray's difficulties. He is one of the only recognizable actors.

This is a promising debut from COURTNEY HUNT. What raises this from a two star film to a three star proposition is the ending. The resolution (such as it is) is realistic and moving without being ridiculous.

Ms. Hunt has an interesting take on relationships, the connections between people and a great comprehension of what people will do (and what they're capable of) when their backs are up against a wall. She understands the deep mysteries of the human heart.

I'll be keenly interested in any future projects that she undertakes.

MELISSA LEO is awe inspiring. There is not one false moment in her monumental performance. She's playing a woman who has had almost nothing that she ever wanted happen the way she needed it to. Her one real triumph is that she's come this far without folding.

This is one of the most compelling portraits of emotional strength, humanity and decency in the face of complete and utter despair that I have ever witnessed. MELISSA LEO is fantastic. She deserves any award that she may be considered for.

FROZEN RIVER is like a journey into the vast recesses of a cold barren wasteland. But when you see the glittering expanses of that great white way, it's almost beautiful in its bleakness. It seems to stretch on forever.

But there is light at the very edge of the darkness. You just have to keep going until you find your way home.

On the story front there are no surprises. It’s predictable throughout. But inspite of that the film manages to strike the emotional chord of the audience.

Don’t go with an expectation of watching a crazy wild rock-based movie. It’s more of a drama that revolves around four friends who dream of forming a rock band.

The story is realistic and practical in every sense. There are no hyped emotions, no hard to believe incidents. Four people who gave up on their dream reunite to relive it one more time. That’s it. The movie doesn’t show them making a rock band at the age of 40 nor does it show them winning the contest in the end. It’s was definitely not talking about worldly success. Rather it talks about personal achievement.

On the acting front, I can’t imagine anyone else playing Farhan’s character. It seemed tailor-made for him. Arjun Rampal has yet again delivered his best. Purab, Luke, Prachi, Shahana were equally good. The characters manage to loop you into their lives such that you feel connected with their emotions.

For films like these, music is the most crucial element. It can make or break the film. Fortunately, the film doesn’t disappoint on this front either. Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy have delivered a true to the name rock composition.

Above all, worth appreciation is Abhishek Kapoor direction. He has proven his mettle with this movie.

To sum it up – it’s a simple story beautifully told.

Watch it! It’s worth every penny you’ll spend and more!