(BY ALI NADERZAD) When the Oscar nominations are announced this Tuesday, two of this year's favorites will be missing: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis and Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Where did they go? Both films have been garnering raves ever since their triumphant screening at the Cannes Festival (Mungiu's film got the Palme D'Or and Persepolis got the ... more >
Archives for January 2008
ARCHIVES
Cassandra’s Dream
Family is family. Blood is blood.
Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell and Tom Wilkinson
Directed by Woody Allen
In Cassandra's Dream, Ian (Ewan McGregor) takes his girlfriend Angela (newcomer Hayley Atwell) for drives in vintage Mercedes cars through the English countryside and treats her parents for lunch at Claridge's. It’s an idyllic life but sadly, it's all an illusion. The exotic cars belong to a garage where his brother (Colin Farrell) works, and Ian’s regular occupation is helping in his father’s ... more >
There will be blood
Eli Sunday lives
Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
In There Will Be Blood Paul Thomas Anderson lifts up the veil that has been covering a sordid chapter of American history: oil prospecting at the turn of the century. As in the original story by Upton Sinclair on which this film is based (Oil!), people died, properties passed on through generations were lost and men walked about with greed on their mind and in their heart. Daniel Plainview ... more >
SEAN PENN NAMED JURY PRESIDENT AT CANNES
(BY ALI NADERZAD) Perhaps in a nod to its political past the Cannes Festival has named Sean Penn jury president of the next Cannes Film Festival, which will take place on May 14-25. Penn is one of the film establishment's more outspoken critics of the administration. He most recently directed Into the Wild. In accepting the invitation, 47-year-old Penn said: "The Cannes Film Festival has long ... more >
Atonement
When lies torment and destroy us.
Saoirse Ronan, Brenda Blethyn and Kiera Knightley
Directed by Joe Wright
Film critics are a notoriously grumpy lot, maybe because, unlike the general public, they sometimes have to see films they wouldn’t choose to. Thus, jaded and difficult to please, a number of them have called Atonement a Merchant-Ivory type production—albeit with more soul—made with an eye on Academy awards. Where some have praised it, others have found it as flawed as all screen adaptations of ... more >
Charlie Wilson’s War
Based on a true story--you thought they made this stuff up?
Tom Hanks, Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman
Directed by Mike Nichols
Aaron Sorkin has written the screenplay and Mike Nichols has shot it and the results are in: Charlie Wilson's War is a winner! The film, which is not only entertaining but engrossing, is about a period of American history which is still very relevant today (the Christianity versus Islam conflict in the 1980s) and more specifically about a politician (Congressman Charlie Wilson, played by a ... more >