Utama [2022] – ★★★1/2 Everything seems close to extinction in this film: a place, a mode of life, a language (Quechua), and maybe even the film itself, with its slow pace which may now be compared unfavourably with the recent popular trend of fast-paced, genre-bending flicks. Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s debut film Utama follows an elderly…
Category: Short Reviews
Classic Courtroom Dramas: Witness for the Prosecution (1957), & Anatomy of A Murder (1959)
I am continuing the celebration of classic films this month with this double film review post. American legal dramas of the 1950s were in the league of their own, and, apart from the two films I will discuss below, there were also such films as Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men (1957), Edward Dmytryk’s The Caine…
Short Reviews: Dark Waters (2019), & Thank You for Smoking (2005)
Dark Waters [2019] – ★★★1/2 Directed by Todd Haynes (Far from Heaven (2002), Carol (2015)) and based on a magazine article that tells of a true story of one corporate lawyer who challenged a multi-billion chemical empire, Dark Waters focuses on Rob Bilott (Mark Ruffalo) who travels to his home-town in West Virginia to discover evidence…
“Out to Sea”: Kramer’s Ship of Fools (1965), & Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944)
I. Ship of Fools [1965] – ★★★★ “When I think of the things I have seen on this ship. The stupid cruelties. The vanities. We talk about values? There’re no values. The dung we base our lives on…We are the intelligent, civilized people who carry out orders we are given. No matter what they may…
Short Reviews: The Servant (1963), A Kiss Before Dying (1956), & Isle of the Dead (1945)
I. The Servant [1963] – ★★★★1/2 Directed by Joseph Losey, The Servant is considered by some to be one of the finest British films. It tells of Tony (James Fox), a flamboyant member of the upper class, who has just moved in to his central London residence after a period spent in Africa. He immediately…
Short Reviews: Raise the Red Lantern (1991), Quiz Show (1994), & Close-Up (1990)
I. Raise the Red Lantern [1991] – ★★★★★ Chinese director Zhang Yimou tells in this film, based on the novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong, the story of a beautiful nineteen-year-old ex-university student Songlian (Gong Li) who decides to become a concubine in the 1920s China. After her decision, Songlian finds herself in the…
Short Reviews: The Red Shoes (1948), West Side Story (1961), & Black Narcissus (1947)
I. The Red Shoes [1948] – ★★★★1/2 The Red Shoes is about the rise to stardom of a dancer Victoria Page (Moira Shearer) who falls under the strict control of one charismatic, but elusive and mysterious company director Boris Lermontov (Anton Walbrook). Page becomes truly famous after appearing in Lermontov’s ballet “The Red Shoes”, but…
Spotlight on Film 