Rock the Kasbah is an intermittently funny, frequently tedious slog burdened with a mediocre script that leaves some heavy lifting to a stellar cast and a first-rate director. Without Barry Levinson at the helm and Bill Murray at its center, it would have collapsed due to its lazy, haphazard plotting and annoying “this is my […]
There are very few actors with the charisma and sex appeal of Idris Elba, as witnessed five years ago at the Tribeca Film Festival. He made an appearance there to support his starring role in a British indie, Legacy. At the box office, filmgoers, most of them women, bought a ticket for a film whose […]
As the son of Turkish immigrants to Germany, writer/director Fatih Akin specifically cites Istanbul-born Elia Kazan’s America America (1963), with its bitter scenes of the Turks’ oppressive treatment of minorities during the end of Ottoman control, as inspiring him to more fully portray the devastation of the Armenian people during World War I. The Cut […]
“Why do you come like you want a war?” protagonist Augusta (indie-darling Brit Marling) asks her Union soldier attacker. He states that, after all the fighting he has done, it is impossible to stop. Set during the last days of the Civil War, The Keeping Room presents a distinctly revisionist Western, taking a feminist approach […]
Written and Directed by Hubert Sauper Produced by Sauper and Gabriele Kranzelbinder Released by BBC Worldwide North America English, French, Chinese, Arabic, Dinka, Nuer, Bari, and Zande with English subtitles France/Austria. 110 min. Not rated Austrian filmmaker Hubert Sauper has spent years exploring the heart of darkness: colonialism’s impact on Africa. We Come as Friends […]
Directed by John Pirozzi Produced by Mr. Pirozzi and Andrew Pope DVD released by Virgil Films English, Cambodian and French with English subtitles USA/Cambodia/France. 105 min. Not rated Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll lives up to its title. It provides a primer of Cambodian rock ’n’ roll from the 1950s to […]
Written and Directed by Zaza Urushadze Produced by Urushadze and Ivo Felt DVD released by First Run Features Estonian and Russian with English subtitles Estonia/Republic of Georgia. 89 min. Not rated. With Lembit Ulfsak, Mikheil Meskhi, Giorgi Nakhashidze, Elmo Nüganen, and Raivo Trass In 1992, during the war between Georgia and the breakaway region of […]
The classy thriller Maryland singlehandedly jolted me from encroaching jet lag during my first full day at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. (The not-as-elegant English title is the blunter Disorder.) The screening was in the early afternoon after lunch, making it particularly sleep inducing. The movie’s initial slow pace and the often dreamy, bordering on […]
Directed by James Kent Written by Juliette Towhidi, based on the memoir by Vera Brittain Produced by David Heyman and Rosie Alison Released by Sony Pictures Classics UK. 129 min. Rated PG-13 With Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Taron Egerton, Emily Watson, Hayley Atwell, Colin Morgan, Joanna Scanlan, Dominic West and Miranda Richardson World War One […]