Huston’s gritty slice of American underbelly is the anti-Rocky, a hard-edged portrait of disillusionment set in the blue-collar fringes of post-’60s California. Contrasting two boxers—one who had a chance and blew it and one whoContinue reading
Author: James Kendrick
Revanche (Götz Spielmann, 2008)
While this is Spielmann’s fifth feature film, it was the first to receive significant distribution in the U.S., so European viewers will have to forgive Americans who are treating it like a major new discovery.Continue reading
The Wolfman (Joe Johnston, 2010)
At this point Johnston’s ambitious remake of the 1941 horror classic is best known for its many delays and rumored re-edits, which makes it naturally ripe for critical scorn. And, while the film does haveContinue reading
Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
In collaborating with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard and blues musician Ry Cooder, whose soulful, improvised steel guitar licks so perfectly reflect the images on screen, Wenders is able to seamlessly transplant the deep introspectionContinue reading
American Violet (Tim Disney, 2009)
A film that should have gotten much more attention than it did, Tim Disney’s fictionalized account of the real-life prosecution of innocent people in the name of numbers is a damning portrait of the collateralContinue reading
From Paris With Love (Pierre Morel, 2010)
The first half is genuinely lousy, even by the admittedly low standards to which it is aspiring. Its swaggering cartoonishness is more grating than amusing, and the fast-paced nature of the plot doesn’t so muchContinue reading
Germany Year Zero (Roberto Rossellini, 1948)
A fitting conclusion to Rossellini’s neorealist War Trilogy that shifts away from a recent past-tense focus on the war itself and instead depicts the immediate present-tense aftermath of the war, both physically in terms ofContinue reading
Paisan (Roberto Rossellini, 1946)
Rossellini’s follow-up to his neorealist masterpiece Rome Open City works much of the same terrain while also extending and elaborating his aesthetic preoccupations on a much grander narrative scale. While the previous film was firmlyContinue reading
Edge of Darkness (Martin Campbell, 2010)
Campbell’s reworking of his much-praised 1985 BBC mini-series of the same title marks Mel Gibson’s return to a starring role after an eight-year absence. The narrative is not surprisingly streamlined and simplified, shifting away fromContinue reading
The Girlfriend Experience (Steven Soderbergh, 2009)
Another of the small-budget “experimental” films Soderbergh likes to squeeze in between his prestige Hollywood efforts. While there is much to commend in a filmmaker of his stature still desiring to work on the edges,Continue reading