Okay, this Halloween’s vampire movie, Let Me In, is very well made. Much better than anything I would expect from the director of Cloverfield. Cinematic, patient, thoughtful, well-acted.
But that doesn’t excuse it. … (more…)
The prolific French director Patrice Leconte made a wonderful movie called Man on the Train several years ago about a professor and a bank robber who trade lives for a day.
A Canadian remake is now underway starring Donald Sutherland and…
wait…
really? (more…)
So, the filmmaker Olivier Assayas makes a beautiful, poetic film called Summer Hours, which ends up among the handful of movies most celebrated by critics in 2009.
It’s hard to find any fault with it. It explores a broad array of subjects – art history, nostalgia, globalism, family ties – and it does so because of its particularity. It is grounded in the experience of a specific family, deeply rooted in French history and tradition, and considers the influence of the European Union (EU) on trends in art and culture. And it does all of this with the help of a cast of some of the world’s finest screen actors, sumptuous cinematography, and poetic composition.
So, then what happens? (more…)