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A History of Violence (2005): B+
As its term paper-ish title implies, David Cronenberg’s neo-noir A History of Violence is more than simply a classy B-movie; probing the pervasive influence of violence on modern existence is its real ambition. More formally and narratively conventional than 2002’s Spider (or anything in the Canadian auteur’s oeuvre, for that matter), but nonetheless similarly preoccupied…
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Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005): B+
Nick Park’s cheese-munching inventor Wallace and his mute pooch sidekick Gromit finally get the feature-length treatment in Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, a cheeky homage to classic Universal monster movies in which the claymation, stop-motion-animated heroes are forced to stop a mutant vege-eating bunny. Having found success with their “Anti-Pesto” pest control…
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Tale of Cinema (2005): B+
Hong Sangsoo’s Tale of Cinema is the year’s second feature (after Apichatpong Weerasethakul Tropical Malady) to abruptly shift narrative paths mid-course, beginning as the story of a morose boy named Sangwon (Lee Kiwoo) who convinces his girlfriend Yongsil (Uhm Jiwon) to join him in suicidal death, and ending as the tale of an aspiring filmmaker…
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Intimacy (2001): B+
A blistering look at amorous alienation in which scenes of graphic sex underscore the differences between physical and emotional intimacy, Patrice Chéreau’s Intimacy pulsates with desperate, miserable passion. Having up and left his wife and kids, Jay (a magnificent Mark Rylance) spends his nights working as chief bartender at a trendy club and his days…
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Manderlay (2005): C+
Lars von Trier returns to Dogville’s chalk-outlined stage with Manderlay, the second act of his “America” trilogy in which martyr-turned-righteous avenger Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard, somewhat more soft and childish than predecessor Nicole Kidman) discovers that slavery still exists, 70 years after its abolition, on the titular 1933 Alabama plantation. Well-intentioned but wholly ignorant of…
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L’Enfant (2005): A
As with Rosetta and The Son (the latter of which has grown on me tremendously since my original, somewhat critical, review), Belgian auteurs Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s L’Enfant (aka The Child) is another rigorously austere masterpiece infused with intense humanism. The Dardennes’ documentary-influenced stylistic trademarks (watchful hand-held cinematography positioned behind characters, drab on-location sets, no…
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Oliver Twist (2005): B
There’s not much to say about Roman Polanski’s Oliver Twist other than that it faithfully reproduces Charles Dickens’ novel without markedly improving upon David Lean’s lush 1948 version. Beginning with a woodcut opening credit sequence transforming into a live-action scene, Polanski’s film captures the grimy, unforgiving nastiness of a Victorian London in which maltreated young…
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Breakfast on Pluto (2005): B-
Fantabulous transvestite Patrick “Kitten” Brady (Cillian Murphy) haphazardly drifts through the ‘60s and ‘70s in Neil Jordan’s magic surrealism-tinged fable Breakfast on Pluto, a peculiar concoction made up of The Crying Game’s gender-bending and The Butcher Boy’s period realism. Kitten’s escapades serve as a filter for Jordan’s examination of the era’s political and social upheaval,…
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Bubble (2005): B-
The first of six upcoming hi-def movies from Steven Soderbergh (all of which will be simultaneously released by HDNet films in theaters, on TV, and on DVD), Bubble is a far cry from Full Frontal, the director’s previous (awful) collaboration with screenwriter Coleman Hough. Set in small town Ohio and populated by a cast of…
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The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005): A-
Chronicling the nightlong odyssey of ulcerous alcoholic Lazarescu (Ion Fiscuteanu) during which he journeys back and forth between Bucharest hospitals hoping to be cured of various fatal ailments, Cristi Puiu’s stunning The Death of Mr. Lazarescu is a prolonged, uncomfortable experience akin to sitting in a foreboding doctor’s office waiting room with a group of…
