Lana and Andy Wachowski have definitely got a “real is not really what you think real is” thing going. With the enormous success of their Matrix trilogy and then the follow-up successes with films such as V for Vendetta, they have established themselves as a powerful force in that world between worlds narrative. Tom Tykwer […]
Tag Archives: oscars
February
23
Cloud Atlas – The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer make the most expensive independant film of all time. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
February
20
Beautiful Creatures – Richard LaGravenese and the love of a good script. (film reviews)
posted by lisathatcher
Richard LaGravenese seems to be an odd choice as the director for the first of the series post-Twilight fantasy series Beautiful Creatures, mostly because he’s a screen writer and not a director. Yet, in a way this odd twist has worked out well for the film because it has a fantastic script based on the […]
February
16
Hiroshima Mon Amour – Resnais and Duras and the tragedy of memory. (Film review)
posted by lisathatcher
How does one speak about a project that both Marguerite Duras and Alain Resnais called ‘impossible’? I’ve been thinking for days how to talk about Hiroshima Mon Amour and I still can’t think about what to say. It was intended originally as another documentary like Night and Fog, only this time about the horrors of […]
January
31
The Silver Linings Playbook – David O. Russell gives us a rom-com for the severely depressed. (film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
I wasn’t’ sure if I would like The Silver Linings Playbook when I went in to see this film, and now that I am out I’m still not sure if I like it or not. There are some really great things about it: A different take on the rom-com, Jennifer Lawrence, Jackie Weaver, Bradley Cooper […]
January
28
Le Gai Savoir – Godard teaches while we experience the Joy of Learning. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
And not of the fear of dying – I have always been reconciled to that – but of this expanse in front of me, on all sides, like a forgotten path. Terrified to find myself in front of a mirror without any images. To feel the shadow on an absent being detached from me. Engaged […]
January
24
Zero Dark Thirty – Katherine Bigelow takes out Osama bin Laden. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
A film maker as talented as Katherine Bigelow is absolutely aware that when you weave a fiction in film you work from point of view, and to give the role of torturer to the hero in the film with whom we don’t just sympathize, but either want to “be” or “fuck” is going to cause […]
January
21
Hitchcock – A Wikipedia guide to Psycho from Sasha Gervasi. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
What an odd film! I’m not sure which side of the fence to fall on after watching Hitchcock. For a film I thought would be terrible, I had a rather good time. I was compelled to go home directly and watch Psycho, currently shown for free all over the net – something I think is […]
January
18
Time of the Wolf – Haneke and the start of all things at the end of the World. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
If you ever catch yourself wondering how the first full realized (as we know it today) human creatures “decided” to bring religion and politics into their lives, Time of the Wolf is the film for you. A truly underrated Haneke masterpiece, Time of the Wolf is a typically complicated tale of desperation in human beings […]
January
15
Django Unchained – Tarantino and the Spaghetti Western (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
“Ever with grief and all too long Are men and women born in the world; But yet we shall live our lives together, Sigurth and I. Sink down, Giantess!” Helreið Brynhildar (Broom-Hilda’s ride to Hell) Exploitation films have this wonderful retro look now that we’re all PC’d-past and grown our brains to incorporate awareness. In […]
Killing them Softly – Andrew Dominik reveals America is a business.
posted by lisathatcher
When I saw Killing Them Softly on the line up at the Sydney Film Festival I confess I did a wide berth. I was like “oh god – ANOTHER one?” about this film. I know there is nothing fresh in cinema (supposedly) and I know Lars von Triers Melancholia is about the death and drudgery […]
Lisa Thatcher 