After more than a week seeing 41 movies (in addition to the 21 seen earlier), I found few obvious outstanding discoveries at the Toronto International Film Festival compared with last year, whose standouts included the beautifully made Ida, the raucous We Are the Best!, and a stronger sampling of art films. Overall, the best selections […]
Written and Directed by Nadav Schirman, based on the memoir Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef Produced by Schirman, John Battsek and Simon Chinn Released by Music Box Films Germany/Israel/UK. 101 min. Rated PG-13 This summer’s front page photographs from Gaza of masked Hamas gunmen executing accused collaborators with Israel gives The Green Prince […]
Produced and Directed by Rory Kennedy Written by Mark Bailey and Keven McAlester Released by American Experience Films USA. 98 min. Not rated The first-person accounts in Last Days in Vietnam put the audience into a gripping you-are-there Saigon in April 1975, when the United States ingloriously exited from 20 years of involvement while the […]
Directed by Janos Szasz Produced by Sandor Soth and Pal Sandor Written by Andras Szeker, Szasz and Agota Kristof, based on the book Le Grand Cahier by Kristof Released by Sony Pictures Classics Hungarian with English subtitles Hungary/Germany/Austria/France. 112 min. Rated R With Laszlo Gyemant, Andras Gyemant, Piroska Molnar, Ulrich Thomsen, Ulrich Matthes, Gyongyver Bognar […]
Directed by Dan Krauss Produced by Krauss and Linda Davis Written by Kruass, Lawrence Lerew and Davis Released by Oscilloscope Laboratories USA. 79 min. Not rated As a result of the violence they witness, soldiers often walk a fine line between morality and sanity, a demarcation that’s been well fictionalized in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of […]
Brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne were definitely overlooked, if not slighted, by the awards jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, coming away empty handed, perhaps because the directing team has previously won so many awards there and they don’t break thematic or narrative ground in the new Two Days, One Night. The long takes […]
Directed by Jan Troell Produced by Francy Suntinger Written by Klaus Rifbjerg and Troell, based on Kenne Fant’s biography Torgny Segerstedt: En levnadsskildring Released by Music Box Films Swedish with English subtitles Sweden/Norway. 126 min. Not rated With Jesper Christensen, Ulla Skoog, Pernilla August, Björn Granath, Birte Hibertson, Johanna Troell, and Hanna Holmqvist Octogenarian director […]
Directed and Written by Aaron Yeger Produced by Tom Rasky, Marc Swenker, Yeger, and Stephen C. Whitehead Released by First Run Features Canada. 99 min. Not rated A solitary figure walks slowly down a long wooded path. In voice-over we hear him all but whisper in a tone that hints of defeatism, that he wants […]
Directed by Georg Maas Produced by Dieter Zeppenfeld, Axel Helgeland and Rudi Teichmann Written by Maas, Christoph Tölle, Stale Stein Berg & Judith Kaufmann, based on a novel by Hannelore Hippe Released by Sundance Selects Germany/Norway. 99 min. Not rated German and Norwegian with English subtitles With Juliane Köhlern, Ken Duke, Sven Nordin, Julia Bache-Wiig, […]