Angelina Jolie, star extraordinaire, deserves an A for effort in directing In the Land of Blood and Honey. Not only does she care about the war-torn ex-Yugoslavia she shows but she throws herself fully into the making of the film. Red carpet photo-op and possible awards don’t seem part of the equation. This is a serious story told in as professional and honest a manner as possible. But the end result? A “C plus”--maybe . It may not be Jolie’s fault, pro-

There’s plenty superfluous commentary in Detachment, most of it delivered via the protagonist’s narrated monologues. We get a classroom lecture on the virtues of reading and the perils of an image-obsessed culture (which makes the image-obsessed Tony Kaye something of a hypocrite); we get cobweb-ridden life lessons such as “the world is a confusing place” and “everyone has chaos.” And in case we can’t tell that the entire

21 Jump Street isn’t just another forgettable adaptation of a television program, the disappearance of which noone laments. Mais non! The only interesting thing about this one is how it inadvertently ended up on the red carpet to greet the arrival of Hollywood’s unexpected leading men. Channing Tatum looks the part. The Hollywood heartthrob of a million female fantasies, he has anchored a string of overperforming rom-coms (Step Up, Dear

In the early 2000s, Genesis P-Orridge embarked on the latest major phase of an art career which is as erratic as they come. P-Orridge and his lover Lady Jaye undertook a “pandrogyny” project, in which they would eschew the bodies they were born with by going through a series of plastic surgeries with the goal of resembling each other as closely as possible. In effect, the aim was to meld their beings into each other’s, in spirit and body. This is the

It is scarcely conceivable that a teenager happening to watch Goodbye First Love, the third feature-length film by Mia Hansen-Løve, would recognize her or himself in the lead character of Camille (Lola Creton) or in her boyfriend Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky). That is, unless said teenager was one of the precious few to have weathered the dicey plunge into adolescent romance without the trepidations, fumbles, and emotional

Cyril (Thomas Doret) is an unruly twelve-year old who moves into an orphanage after being abandoned by his father (Jérémie Rénier). The kid is obsessed with finding a father who's gone missing and who also sold the boy’s beloved bike. His path crosses Samantha’s (Cécile de France), a hairdresser who will eventually become his surrogate family and accept to take the boy in on weekends. She buys back his bike, helps him find his father

American cinema has always been prominent in the Cannes Festival’s programming, thanks to Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux, president and programming director respectively, both of whom give our cinema ample screen time (the festival will take place May 11-May 22. Italy’s Nanni Moretti will be president of the jury). Last year, Cannes was the launchpad for two American productions, The Artist, which went on to win the Oscar, and Tree