Movie Review: “The Place Beyond the Pines”

Ryan Gosling. Need I say more? Those two words should be sufficient enough for my review of The Place Beyond the Pines, the latest film to come from director Derek Cianfrance.  Cianfrance’s last film Blue Valentine won over critics and audiences alike for it’s emotional portrayal of a dysfunctional marriage —  hard to watch at times but beautiful nonetheless. In The Place Beyond the Pines, Cianfrance brings that same raw emotion and tension to the surface, described as “a sweeping emotional drama powerfully exploring [...]

Movie Review: “Django Unchained”

Prepare to saddle up; “Django Unchained,” is a two hour and forty five minute Western- and yes, this is the year 2012. And where that simple information alone may stir hesitation in any modern day movie-goer, it is not until the rest of the promotional literature is read that the setup gives relief: “the new film by Quentin Tarantino.” Yes, this serving of slave revenge epic is slung as a passionate Western set up, and although the director’s penchant for [...]

AFI Fest Movie Review: “Amour”

Opening abruptly as police break down the door of an apartment, Amour quickly establishes not only the film’s premise but also the ending to come as the police unseal a room and find an aged woman lying in bed, deceased.  We are then taken back in time to a night in the near past that this woman and her husband attend a performance in a theater, an elderly couple appearing to be rather healthy despite their age.  Throughout the film, [...]

AFI Fest Movie Review: “Holy Motors”

At one point during Holy Motors, two actors in motion capture suits embrace, and we simultaneously watch both their actual actions and the animated sequence.  The scene gives us nothing in the traditional sense of plot, but it’s so fascinating and visually exciting, it doesn’t seem to matter. There’s also a sewer-dwelling imp (a return appearance from the director’s short film in Tokyo) who kidnaps a famous model, a father who treats his teenage daughter as more mature than she [...]

AFI Fest Movie Reviews: “The Last Step” and “Come Out and Play”

The Last Step (Iran – Director: Ali Mosaffa – 88 minutes)

Rating:

In The Last Step, writer/director Ali Mosaffa cast himself and real-life wife Leila Hatami (A Separation) as a married couple, creating an additional meta level to a film that already has a lot to untangle.  Told in a fragmented, non-linear manner that often repeats scenes from different perspectives, The Last Step revolves around the death of the lead/narrator (who announces his own death at the beginning of the film, [...]

AFI Fest Movie Review: “Life of Pi”

For the first 30 minutes or so of Ang Lee’s new adaptation of Life of Pi, the 3D seems almost unnecessary, other than some interesting-but-perhaps gimmicky shots of animals during the opening credits.  It seems to be a fairly standard film where a subject narrates his life story to another person, and there doesn’t seem to be much need for that third dimension.  But then, Pi’s story heads into more exotic territory, and it becomes clear why Lee decided to [...]