Film-Forward

Foreign

Declaration of War

Directed by Valérie Donzelli Produced by Edouard Weil Written by Donzelli & Jérémie Elkaïm Released by Sundance Selects. French with English subtitles. France. 100 min. Not rated With Valérie Donzelli, Jérémie Elkaïm, César Desseix, Brigitte Sy, Elina Lowensohn, Michèle Moretti & Philippe Laudenbach Whatever direction Valérie Donzelli takes in her second feature film, she goes […]

The Front Line

Directed by Hun Jang Written by Park Sang-yeon Produced by Robert Lee & Kim Hyun-chol Released by Well Go USA Entertainment South Korea. 133 min. Not rated With Shin Ha-kyun, Ko Soo, Lee Je-hun, Lee David, Ko Chang-seok & Ryu Seung-soo War is hell. Yes, yes, we know, we’ve seen it in movies so many […]

The 2012 New York Jewish Film Festival

The lives of creative Jews—actors, singers, dancers, and more—are the insightful highlights of the program’s 21st edition, presented by the Jewish Museum and the Film Society of Lincoln Center (January 11 – 26). The most unusual selection is Mary Lou, a moving four-episode TV musical miniseries that exuberantly uses the songs of 1970s Israeli pop […]

Domain

Written & Directed by Patric Chiha Produced by Charlotte Vincent & Aurora Films Released by Strand Releasing French with English subtitles. France/Austria. 110 min. Not rated. With Béatrice Dalle, Isaïe Sultan, Alaine Libolt, Raphaël Bouvet, Sylvia Rohrer, Manuel Marmier & Udo Samel A suggestive relationship between Pierre (Isaïe Sultan), a handsome teenage boy, and Nadia […]

Lula, Son of Brazil

Directed by Fábio Barreto Produced by Luiz Carlos Barreto & Paula Barreto Written by Daniel Tendler, Denise Paraná & Fernando Bonassi, based on the book by Paraná Released by New Yorker Films Portuguese with English subtitles Brazil. 128 min. Not rated With Rui Ricardo Diaz, Felipe Falanga, Guilherme Tortolio, Glória Pires, Cléo Pires, Juliana Baroni, […]

Norwegian Wood

Written & Directed by Tran Anh Hung, based on the novel by Haruki Murakami Produced by Shinji Ogawa Released by Soda Pictures/Red Flag Releasing Japanese, with English subtitles. Japan. 133 min. Not rated With Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, Kiko Mizuhara, Reika Kirishima, Kengo Kora, Eriko Hatsune & Tetsuji Tamayama (Nagasawa) Eighteen years ago, Tran Anh […]

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan Produced by Zeynep Ozbatur Atakan Written by Ercan Kesal, Ebru Ceylan & Nuri Bilge Ceylan Released by Cinema Guild Turkey. 157 min. Not Rated Turkish with English subtitles With Muhammet Uzuner, Yilmaz Erdogan, Taner Birsel, Firat Tanis, Ahmet Mumtaz Taylan, Ercan Kesal, Burhan Yildiz & Gulnaz Toprak Over a long […]

A Separation

Written, Produced & Directed by Asghar Farhadi Released by Sony Pictures Classics Iran. 123 min. Rated PG-13 Farsi with English subtitles With Leila Hatami, Peyman Moadi, Sarina Farhadi, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, Sareh Bayat, & Shahab Hosseini A Separation opens with a marriage in crisis. Testifying testily, the wife explains to a judge that she wants to […]

Notable Genre DVDs and Blu-Rays of 2011

We all know that countless titles are released for the home video market every year—in the genre category alone there’s too much for any individual to track, including me. Or should I say “especially me” as I tend to focus my energies on theatrical releases. So just in case you’re like me, here are some […]