Although replete with gorgeous mise-en-scene characteristics of his later works, The Man from London falls frustratingly short to Tarr’s previous works. Tarr’s usual late bag of tricks — richly-textured, gorgeous long takes, Mihaly Vig’s cyclic music (which is rather annoying this time compared to his previous transcendental scores), along with the dance-in-a-bar, unblinking, silent characters …
Review: Lumumba
Lumumba directed by Raoul Peck, 2002 “This film is not an ‘adaptation,’ it aims to be a true story. I want to extract the cinematic narrative from reality by remaining as true to the facts as possible,” so said Raoul Peck. Using archival images of official history (many of film’s pivotal scenes are moving recreations …
Review: Yi Yi, and Shunji Iwai
Yi Yi (Taiwan/Japan, 2000) directed by David Yang George Wu wrote an elaborate review on Yi Yi at Senses of Cinema, so go and read his. (Michael Jackson from the gayer-than-gay pub downstairs is messing with my brain, sorry.) The movie is almost three-hour long, but there’s something about its lack of dramas and every …
Review: Bus 174
Bus 174 Ônibus 174 (2002, Brazil) José Padilha This has been oh-so-often compared to aforementioned City of God, but I like this much better. On June 12, 2000, Sandro di Nascimento hijacked a bus, and for four and a half hours it was broadcasted live all across the country. This incident would be known as …
Review: City of God
City of God Cidade de Deus (2002, Brazil) Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund You’ve heard the hype: the focus of the story is on ‘Cidade de Deus’ (‘City Of God’), a housing project constructed by the Brazilian government in the 1960s to isolate the poor from Rio de Janeiro’s city centre. It chronicles of the …
Review: Motorcycle Diaries
Motorcylce Diaries Diarios de Motocicleta (2004) Walter Salles As a work of fiction, it was enjoyable. If the movie wasn’t based on such a popular figure whose face is on every T-shirts and posters, I’d have enjoyed it more and forget my usual nit-picking on the cult of Che and have less reason to feel …
Review: Mysterious Skin
Mysterious Skin (US, 2005) directed by Gregg Araki Two boys. One can’t remember. The other can’t forget. It’s based on a novel by Scott Heim, about two boys subjected to sexual abuse in their childhood, and their different coping mechanism: Brian has nightmares and blackouts accompanied with nosebleeds of five hours he lost—couldn’t remember—when he …
Review: Nobody Knows
誰も知らない Nobody Knows (2004) Hirokazu Kore-eda (Buy the DVD at Amazon.com) Out of all movies I’ve watched recently, this is by far a favourite (much love and thanks to a friend who sent me the DVD). Apparently it is based on a real 1988 event known as the “Affair of the Four Abandoned Children of …
Review: Irréversible
You’ve heard it: most disturbing, brutal, most walked out, most hated, most feted of 2002, et cetera et cetera, almost banned in Australia (but was aired sometime ago anyway in WorldMovies, where I taped it from). “Memento”-style (oh it’s a style on its own?), as in the plot moving backwards (with the credits at its …