What with the whole skin transplant element of Almodóvar’s latest, it was no great surprise that in his capacity as Guest Artistic Director of this year’s AFI Festival, he should pick as one of his personal screening choices, the wonderful medical horror film Eyes Without A Face. It is a most unusual film, in […]
2011
AFI FEST 2011 Film Review: Hanaan (Dir. Ruslan Pak, 2011, S.Korea/Uzbekistan)
The main draw of Hanaan is its ethnic exoticism: a Korean cop in the urban/industrial wasteland of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which is certainly not something you see every day (Stalin forcibly relocated thousands of Koreans to populate the USSR’s Asian republics). The story feels well-worn, however – like something from an American movie, as one character […]
AFI FEST 2011 Film Review: Butter (Dir. Jim Field Smith, USA, 2011)
Greed, blackmail, sex, and…butter. These are the four components that make-up Director Jim Field Smith’s quirky movie aptly titled Butter. Set in the oh-so-americana State of Iowa, where State Fairs do indeed still exist, there is the royal family of butter carvers, the Picklers. Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell) has been the Iowa State champion of […]
AFI FEST 2011 Film Review: Jeff, Who Lives At Home (Dir. Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass USA 2011)
Every year at AFI FEST there are films placed in the Special Screenings section of the program. They are films with distribution in place, and will become available for the general public to see in the coming weeks or months. Jeff, Who Lives At Home was a part of this special screening section and will […]
AFI FEST 2011 Film Review: Almayer’s Folly (Dir. Chantal Akerman 2011 Belgium/France)
It boded so well. The credits play over a serene beam of moonlight on the water, while an excerpt of Tristan and Isolde tinkles gently; then we’re thrown into a noisy neon Malayan karaoke club/shack, where an unexpected, very public murder is followed by an even more unexpected, somnambulant Ave Maria. But Chantal Akerman, taking […]