Ugly and beautiful, alluring and repulsive, fluid and convulsive all at once, Winding’s latest exercise in ambivalence is as polarizing as the views it garnered though not without retaining a signature style. Combining a neon rich palette and bankrupt morals, featuring viscera for the sake of showcase, and a dreamyContinue Reading
Far from the tour de force treatments of similar subject matter often aspire to, La Haine is no less a poetic coup de maitre of filmmaking. Inspired by the mid 80s Paris demonstrations, footage of which is used to open the film, it required a little creative license of KassovitzContinue Reading
The notion of the global village gets a stirring screen treatment in what came across to some as contrived coincidence in Babel. But detach yourself a little from the forced probabilities — the story really is a perversion of the six degrees of separation theory — and you’ll unearth a beautifully crafted humanistContinue Reading
Unbeknownst to me when I decided to watch Eden Lake right after Ils (Them) are the similarities between the two. Sure, one is a pure home invasion flick, the latter. But consider the Prime Minister’s speech debated early on talk radio about troubled youth, who make up the antagonists inContinue Reading
Ils is the 2006 French horror film starring Olivia Bonamy & Michaël Cohen. Written and directed by David Moreau & Xavier Palud. Given how “based on” films are often the telltale signifiers of the dearth of original material to glean a full feature from, Ils is far from the usualContinue Reading
When it comes to revenge, no other topic inspires the level of hackneyed simplification as regards how two quintessential quotes get misused. “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” Or its preferred variation among the highbrow intelligentsia, “Revenge is a dish people of class eat cold.” Confucian’s more misunderstood quoteContinue Reading
Read or viewed, horror is a purely escapist diversion, and a passive experience at that. Especially with films. Seldom is the intellectual effort a book requires is demanded by horror movies, and I don’t think we necessarily watch them to be scared or for the vicarious fear. This makes theContinue Reading
The two times I sat in parts of it, I don’t remember Brotherhood of the Wolf being the sloppy, hodgepodge I finally saw in totality last night. Pouty SaudiSometimes rowdy, sometimes pouty.Continue Reading
Dodgy game action sequences aside, Oliver Stone’s ode to sports drama and hedonism is an editing tour de force, there’s no denying. But does it deserve to be praised as genre defining, is the question. In a film that covers possibly all the dynamics and forces exerted on a modernContinue Reading
