Andrew Sarris | The New York Observer

More Moreau, Please!

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:39:23 -0400

Séraphine
Running time 125 minutes
Written by Martin Provost and Marc Abdenour
Directed by Martin Provost
Starring Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Wilhelm Uhde

Martin Provost’s Séraphine, from a screenplay (in French with English subtitles) by Mr. Provost and Marc Abdenour, tells the remarkable real-life story of Séraphine de Senlis, a 48-year-old chaste housekeeper whose naïve, brightly colored, still-life paintings were eventually recognized and celebrated by art museums in France and around the world. Her work...

Oh, Brother! Coppola Goes Back to the Family for Indie Treat

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:33:48 -0400

Tetro
Running time 127 minutes
Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring Vincent Gallo, Maribel Verdú, Aiden Ehrenrich

Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro, from his own screenplay (partially in Spanish with English subtitles), conveys a sense of his own life and career convulsing wildly between fulfillment and tragedy, triumph and debacle. Now 70, Mr. Coppola can look back on an existence drenched with family feelings and vague guilt complexes. These he has expanded and wildly...

Art Stars

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:39:57 -0400

Herb & Dorothy
Running Time 89 minutes
Directed by Megumi Sasaki
Starring Herb and Dorthy Vogel

Megumi Sasaki’s Herb & Dorothy describes and amply illustrates the extraordinary saga of the Vogels—Herbert, a postal clerk, and Dorothy, a librarian—who double-handedly built one of the most important collections of Minimalist and Conceptual Art in history with their very modest salaries, beginning in the early ’60s and continuing to this day. By mutual agreement, Herb’s salary was devoted...

The Academy Awards Got It Right With Departures!

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:32:37 -0400

Departures
Running Time 131 minutes
Written by Kundo Koyama
Directed by Yojiro Takita
Starring Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosue, Kazuko Yoshiyuki

Yojiro Takita’s Departures (Okuribito), from the screenplay (in Japanese with English subtitles) by Kundo Kuyama, won last year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in an upset victory in this category over the co-favorites, the Israeli-made Waltz With Bashir and the French-made The Class. In fact, the director was so surprised by...

It's Back to the Future! Terminator Salvation's Time Warp Left Me Dizzy

Tue, 19 May 2009 14:44:23 -0400

Terminator Salvation
Running time 115 minutes
Written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris
Directed by McG
Starring Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Helena Bonham Carter

McG’s Terminator Salvation, from a story and screenplay by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, stipulates a post-nuclearized, post-apocalyptic America in the year 2018. Yes, 2018! That’s only nine years from now! I may actually live that long. And for what? As the elliptically named director McG, tells us in the movie’s ...

He Loves New York

Tue, 19 May 2009 14:33:11 -0400

Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight
Running time 90 minutes
Directed by Wendy Keys

Wendy Keys’ Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight unfolds as a labor of love and mutual respect between Ms. Keys and Mr. Glaser, onetime colleagues in the early ’70s on the Board of Directors of the International Design Conference in Aspen. Ms. Keys, a longtime program director at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, arranged film series for the Aspen conference,...

Motel Chronicles

Tue, 12 May 2009 14:42:24 -0400

Management
Running time 93 minutes
Written and Directed by Stephen Belber
Starring Jennifer Aniston, Steve Zahn, Woody Harrelson

Stephen Belber’s Management, from his own screenplay, is based on a one-act play he wrote as part of a projected series that took place in motel rooms. The series idea was abandoned, but the one-acter was eventually directed onstage by Mr. Belber’s wife, Lucie Tiberghien. Now, the play’s two central characters, Sue and Mike, have become the...

French Connections: Binoche Is Boss in Assayas Family

Tue, 12 May 2009 14:38:13 -0400

Summer Hours
Running time 103 minutes
Written and directed by Olivier Assayas
Starring Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling, Jérémie Renier

Olivier Assayas’ Summer Hours (L’Heure d’Été), from his own screenplay (in French with English subtitles), is curiously described by the 54-year-old writer-director of a dozen or more feature films as his “most Taiwanese film.” Mr. Assayas goes on to elaborate on his admiration for contemporary Chinese filmmakers: “It’s my own personal schizophrenia, but I’ve always felt...

Late Life

Tue, 05 May 2009 12:19:17 -0400

The Window
Running time 85 minutes
Written by Carlos Sorín and Pedro Maizal
Directed by Carlos Sorín
Starring Antonio Larreta

Carlos Sorín’s The Window (La Ventana), from a screenplay (in Spanish with English subtitles) by Mr. Sorín, in collaboration with Pedro Maizal, turns out to be a far more realistic and austere film than the work Mr. Sorín asserts inspired him, Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries (1957). As Mr. Sorín explains in his Director’s Statement: “At...

Split Atom: New Egoyan Film Is Good, Not Great

Tue, 05 May 2009 12:16:13 -0400

Adoration
Running time 100 minutes
Written and directed by Atom Egoyan
Starring Scott Speedman, Arsinée Khanjian, Devon Bostick, Rachel Blanchard

Atom Egoyan’s Adoration, from his own screenplay, is the 48-year-old, Cairo-born, Armenian-Canadian writer-director’s 12th feature film in a 32-year career that has spanned several media and art forms, and many countries, and for which he has received worldwide honors. I first became aware of his enormous talent with 1994’s Exotica, and have been following his...

Big Band

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:31:05 -0400

Jazz in the Diamond District
Running time 84 minutes
Written by Lindsey Christian and Sia Barnes
Directed by Lindsey Christian
Starring Monique Cameron, Erica Chamblee, Wood Harris

Lindsey Christian’s Jazz in the Diamond District, from a screenplay by Lindsey Christian and Sia Barnes, is based on a story by Erica Chamblee, with revisions by Erica Chamblee and Andre Strong. The collectivistic complexity of this film’s credits amply reflect a project as experimental, innovative...

What a Tease! Burlesque Movie Fails to Titillate

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:28:16 -0400

A Wink and a Smile
Running time 91 minutes
Directed by Deirdre Timmons

Deirdre Timmons’ A Wink and a Smile purports to take us behind the velvet curtain of Seattle’s Academy of Burlesque to show us 10 “ordinary” women who take a six-week course in the art of burlesque dancing and strip-tease. Coming in all ages, shapes and sizes, the group includes a homemaker, a reporter, a doctor, an opera singer, a taxidermist and...

Don't Miss: Bunuel at Film Forum

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:50:04 -0400

Luis Buñuel’s Viridiana (1961), with Sylvia Pinal, Fernando Rey, Francisco Rabal and Margarita Lozano, will be shown at Film Forum from Friday, April 24, through Thursday, April 30, with show times daily at 1, 2:50, 4:40, 6:30, 8:20 and 10:10. I first saw Viridiana on the last morning and evening of the 1961 Cannes Film Festival, and wrote one of its first rave reviews in the British film magazine Movie. Through this review I...

Love Triangle

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:41:08 -0400

Revanche
Running time 121 minutes
Written and directed by Götz Spielmann
Starring Johannes Krisch, Irina Potapenko, Andreas Lust, Ursula Strauss

Götz Spielmann’s Revanche, from his own screenplay (in German with English subtitles), was the Austrian selection for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Academy Awards. The picture begins on a very sordid and sensual note in Vienna’s red-light district, where Alex (Johannes Krisch) works as a lowly errand boy for a pimp known as...

Play It Again, Jamie! Foxx Soars as Schizo Virtuoso

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:34:07 -0400

The Soloist
Running Time 109 minutes
Written by Susannah Grant
Directed by Joe Wright
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Jamie Foxx, Catherine Keener, Lisagay Hamilton

Joe Wright’s The Soloist, from the screenplay by Susannah Grant, is based on the book The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music, by Steve Lopez. The subtitle of the book says virtually everything about this film, about a Los Angeles Times columnist, Steve Lopez,...

The Underappreciated Giant of the French New Wave

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:00:38 -0400

Jean-Pierre Melville’s (1933-1973) Léon Morin, Prêtre (Léon Morin, priest) (1961), from his own screenplay, based on Béatrix’ Beck’s (1914-2008) autobiographical novel, will be revived at Film Forum from April 17 to April 23. Both the book and the film are constructed as a dialectical confrontation between a skeptical communist woman and an intellectual Catholic priest, with Emmanuelle Riva as the woman, and Jean-Paul Belmondo as the priest. Riva had just created a sensation in...

Into the Grove

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:57:10 -0400

Lemon Tree
Running Time 106 minutes
Written By Suha Arraf and Eran Riklis
Directed by Eran Riklis
Starring Hiam Abbass and Rona Lipaz-Michael

Eran Riklis’ Lemon Tree, from a screenplay by Suha Arraf and Mr. Riklis, attempts to humanize the 60-year-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians by making a Palestinian widow, Salma Zidane (Hiam Abbass), the main protagonist, in her quixotic attempt to preserve her lemon grove against the perceived...

The Crowe Flies! Russell Rules as Rusty, Truth-Seeking Journo

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:51:55 -0400

State of Play
Running time 127 minutes
Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy and Billy Ray
Directed by Kevin MacDonald
Starring Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman

Kevin MacDonald’s State of Play, from a screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy and Billy Ray, is based on the six-hour BBC miniseries created by Paul Abbott. The action has been shifted from London to Washington, D.C., which lends itself rather too easily to...

Taxi Driver

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:50:36 -0400

Goodbye Solo
Running time 91 minutes
Written by Bahareh Azimi and Ramin Bahrani
Directed by Ramin Bahrani
Starring Souléymane Sy Savané and Red West

Ramin Bahrani’s Goodbye Solo, from a screenplay by Bahareh Azimi and Mr. Bahrani, is the Iranian-American’s third feature film; Man Push Cart (2005) and Chop Shop (2007) are the others. Yet, whereas Cart was shot mainly in Manhattan and Chop in the Willets Point section of Queens, Solo is set in...

Dysfunction Junction: Baldwin, Culkin Boys Make Great Screwed-Up Family

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:45:15 -0400

Lymelife
Running time 95 minutes
Written by Derick Martini and Steven Martini
Directed by Derick Martini
Starring Alec Baldwin, Kieran Culkin, Jill Hennessy, Rory Culkin

Derick Martini’s Lymelife, from a screenplay by Derick and Steven Martini, was filmed over 22 days on location in New Jersey (standing in for Long Island). The subject is late-’70s suburban sprawl into Long Island out of Queens and the rest of New York City, and how the transition affects...

Big Love

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:09:00 -0400

Gigantic
Running time 98 minutes
Written by Matt Aselton and Adam Nagata
Directed by Matt Aselton
Starring Paul Dano, Zooey Deschanel

Matt Aselton’s Gigantic, from a screenplay by Mr. Aselton and Adam Nagata, is burdened with a fanciful narrative that ranges from the ridiculous to the surreal. For starters, I have no idea what the title means. Paul Dano, so memorable in There Will Be Blood, heads an ultra-competent cast as 26-year-old Brian Weathersby,...

Make Out Club

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:06:02 -0400

Shall We Kiss?

Running time 96 minutes
Written and DIRECTED BY Emmanuel Mouret
Starring Julie Gayet, Michaël Cohen, Virginie Ledoyen, Emmanuel Mouret

Emmanuel Mouret’s Shall We Kiss? (Un Baiser S’il Vous Plaît), from his own screenplay, revolves around two couples and two more or less innocent bystanders as it ponders the profundities of a kiss in endlessly explicatory dialogue. If Eric Rohmer comes immediately to mind, Mr. Mouret freely acknowledges the debt...

Fight Club! John Ritter’s Kid Throws Punches While Squid and the Whale Boy Watches

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 16:03:13 -0400

The Education of
Charlie Banks

Running Time 100 minutes
Written by Peter Elkoff
Directed by Fred Durst
Starring Jesse Eisenberg,
Jason Ritter, Eva Amurri

Fred Durst’s The Education of Charlie Banks, from a screenplay by Peter Elkoff, marks Mr. Durst’s feature film directorial debut after a successful career in the music business as an executive, and as the frontman for the platinum selling group Limp Bizkit, which has...

Last Meal

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:15:13 -0400

Hunger
Running time 96 minutes
Written by Enda Walsh and Steve McQueen
Directed by Steve McQueen
Starring Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham

Steve McQueen’s Hunger, from a screenplay by Enda Walsh and Mr. McQueen, provides a harrowing yet lyrical account of the fatal hunger strike of Irish Republican Army prisoner Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender) in the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland, in 1981. Sands was the first of ten...

Duplicity Duped Me!

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:13:33 -0400

Duplicity
Running time 125 minutes
Written and directed by Tony Gilroy
Starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti

Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity, from his own screenplay, strikes me, at least, as an unmitigated and premeditated disaster. I say premeditated because in a recent New Yorker profile of him by D. T. Max, Mr. Gilroy described his modus operandi in great detail, and I found it somewhat condescending to contemporary...

Dancing and Devoted

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:23:51 -0400

Carmen & Geoffrey
Running time 80 minutes
Directed by Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob
Starring Carmen de Lavallade, Geoffrey Holder

Linda Atkinson and Nick Doob’s Carmen & Geoffrey is one of the most revelatory dance films I have ever seen, if only because I know so little about the subject. My ignorance is particularly profound with respect to the stunning contributions of such renowned dancers and choreographers...

Working Family

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:22:36 -0400

Tokyo Sonata
Running time 119 minutes
Written by Max Mannix, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Sachiko Tanaka
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoko Koizumi

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata, from a screenplay by Max Mannix, Mr. Kurosawa and Sachiko Tanaka, reminds me of a French film I saw a few years ago, Laurent Cantet’s Time Out, about a suddenly unemployed married man who keeps going off each...

Let the Sunshine In! Twisted Sisters Adams and Blunt Redefine Dysfunctional in Sundance Favorite

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:21:11 -0400

Sunshine Cleaning
Running time 102 minutes
Written by Megan Holley
Directed by Christine Jeffs
Starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin

Christine Jeffs’ Sunshine Cleaning, from a screenplay by Megan Holley, focuses on the relationship of two somewhat underprivileged sisters in Albuquerque, N.M., who hit upon a joint career in the bizarre and outlandish, but surprisingly lucrative, business of cleaning up violent crime scenes after the...

Sing to Me

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:17:53 -0500

Fados
Running time 85 minutes
Written by Ivan Dias and Carlos Saura
Directed by Carlos Saura

Carlos Saura’s Fados, from an original idea by Ivan Dias (in Portuguese with English subtitles), casts a wondrous spell as the third installment of the Spanish director’s musical trilogy, which also includes Flamenco (1995) and Tango (1998). A fado is sung by a woman, or a man, playing alone with eyes closed, accompanied by...

Yale Club

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:16:52 -0500

Reunion
Running time 90 minutes
Written and directed by Alan Hruska
Starring Brett Cullen, Christopher McDonald, Cynthia Stevenson, Zoe McLellan, Jamey Sheridan

Alan Hruska’s Reunion, from his own screenplay, is singularly ill-timed in its efforts to make us believe in the reunion of the members of an elitist Yale society 10 years after the death of one of its most beloved members, Janie Burns, wife of Jake Burns (Brett Cullen),...

Road to Nowhere

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:15:39 -0500

Sherman’s Way
Running time 97 minutes
Written by Tom Nance
Directed by Craig Saavedra
Starring James Le Gros, Michael Shulman, Lacey Chabert

Craig Saavedra’s Sherman’s Way, from a screenplay by Tom Nance, manages to be a road movie that never gets very far because it keeps going around in circles. It is also that rare movie in which the top-billed actor does not play the title character, which is...

Tokyo Calling

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:14:03 -0500

Tokyo!
Running time 112 minutes
Written and directed By Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-Ho
Starring Ayako Fujitani, Ryo Kase, Teruyuki Kagawa, Ayumi Ito

Tokyo! (in Japanese with English subtitles) consists of three short films: Michel Gondry’s Interior Design, Leos Carax’s Merde and Bong Joon-Ho’s Shaking Tokyo. All three pieces contain surreal elements that convey the endless tumult and impermanence of a metropolis that, unlike the other great cities...

Picture This

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:41:42 -0500

Everlasting Moments
Running time 131 minutes
Written and directed by Jan Troell
Starring Maria Heiskanen, Mikael Persbrandt

Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments, from a screenplay by Niklas Rådström (in Swedish with English subtitles), is based on the true story of Maria (Maria Heiskanen) and Sigfrid Larsson (Mikael Persbrandt), who were married in 1907 and eventually bore seven children, the last two of which were the products of marital...

Twelve Angry Russians and an Unsung Swedish Heroine: A remake of Sidney Lumet’s Oscar Nominee Takes Certain Liberties, but Reveals Other Truths About Russia.

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:39:08 -0500

12
Running time 159 minutes
Directed by Nikita Mikhalkov
Written by Nikita Mikhalkov, Vladimir Moiseyenko, Alexander Novototsky
Starring Nikita Mikhalkov, Sergei Makovetsky, Valentin Gaft

Nikita Mikhalkov’s 12, from a screenplay (in Russian and Chechen, with English subtitles) by Mr. Mikhalkov, Alexander Novototsky and Vladimir Moiseyenko, turns out to be an updated, restructured and relocated remake of Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men. Mr. Lumet’s film was from...

Memories of a Marriage

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:56:32 -0500

Must Read After My Death
Running time 73 minutes
Written and directed by Morgan Dews

Morgan Dews’ Must Read After My Death has been compared to a confessional real-life classic like Capturing the Friedmans (2003), though there is not in Must Read the spicy suspicion of child molestation that made the movie about the Friedmans such a sensational nonfiction success. Mr. Dews is the grandson of a twice-married woman named Allis,...

Brutal Art-House Drama Describes Stalin's Atrocities

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:54:29 -0500

Katyn
Running time 118 minutes
Written by Andrzej Wajda, Wladyslaw Pasikowski, Andrzej Mularczyk, Przemyslaw Nowakowski
Directed by Andrzej Wajda
Starring Artur Zmijewski, Maja Ostaszewska, Maja Komorowska, Wladyslaw Kowalski

Andrzej Wajda’s Katyń, from a screenplay by Mr. Wajda, Wladyslaw Pasikowski, Andrzej Mularczyk and Przemyslaw Nowakowski (in Polish with English subtitles), is based on Mr. Mularczyk’s novel Post Mortem. Katyń re-creates the horror of the World War II massacre of...

Films of Wrath

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:46:38 -0500

Film Forum’s series of Depression movies, Breadlines & Champagne, resumes on Saturday, Feb. 14, on an especially high note, with Gregory La Cava’s My Man Godfrey (1936), starring William Powell, Carole Lombard, Gail Patrick, Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette, Alan Mowbray, Mischa Auer and Franklin Pangborn, at 1, 4:35 and 8:20; and Mitchell Leisen’s Easy Living (1937), from a Preston Sturges screenplay, with Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Ray Milland, Franklin Pangborn, William Demarest, Mary Nash...

Joaquin In the Sand

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:45:05 -0500

Two Lovers
Running time 110 minutes
Written by James Gray and Richard Menello
Directed by James Gray
Starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joaquin Phoenix

James Gray’s Two Lovers, from a screenplay by Mr. Gray and Richard Menello, manages to immerse itself in the community of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, to such an extent that the 30-something male protagonist’s eventual decision to abandon it, along with all his ties...

Fantasy Isla! Baron Cohen's Babe Breaks Out in Shopaholic

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:42:56 -0500

Confessions of a Shopaholic
Running Time 100 minutes
Written by Tracey Jackson, Tim Firth and Kayla Alpert
Directed by P. J. Hogan
Starring Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy, John Goodman, Joan Cusack

P. J. Hogan’s Confessions of a Shopaholic, from a screenplay by Tracey Jackson, Tim Firth and Kayla Alpert, is based on the books Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan by Sophie Kinsella. Ms....

No Depression

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:40:15 -0500

Bruce Goldstein’s splendid Depression series, Breadlines and Champagne, continues at Film Forum on Monday, Feb. 9, with King Vidor’s Our Daily Bread (1934), starring Karen Morley, Tom Keene, John Qualen, Barbara Pepper, Addison Richards and Harry Holman, at 7:30 only; and Hamilton MacFadden’s Stand Up and Cheer (1934,) with Warner Baxter, Madge Evans, James Dunn, Sylvia Froos, John Boles, Shirley Temple, Ralph Morgan, Aunt Jemima, Mitchell & Durant, Nick (Dick) Foran, Nigel Bruce and...

Thanks for Nuttin', Benjamin Button

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:38:48 -0500

Some people may consider it too early to handicap the 2009 Oscars for the films and performers of 2008, but experience has taught me that I am not much wiser on the day before the ceremony than I am right now, so here are my final words on this year’s Oscars. With the year’s Best Picture category, the top contender seems to be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, slightly over Slumdog Millionaire and...

Gomorrah peeks into today’s criminal empire—and finds a lot of blood.

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:37:16 -0500

Gomorrah
Running time 137 minutes
Written by Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni Di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, Roberto Saviano
Directed by Matteo Garrone
Starring Salvatore Abruzzese, Simone Sacchettina, Gianfelice Imparato, Salvatore Cantalupo, Toni Servillo, Marco Macor, Ciro Petrone

Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, from a screenplay by Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni Di Gregorio, Mr. Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso and Roberto Saviano (in Italian with English subtitles),...

Great, Depression Movies!

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:55:19 -0500

Bruce Goldstein of Film Forum has come up with a very timely reminder of the Great Depression of the ’30s with a festival of 50 Depression movies running from Feb. 6 to March 5. The series will include vintage shorts, cartoons and newsreels, and a Tuesday BANK NITE! As a post–Inauguration Day special, opening-day admissions will be 35 cents (25 cents for Film Forum members)—the price of the average movie ticket in 1933. Onscreen...

Remembering Roud

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:54:01 -0500

I happily salute Jim Hoberman for his article in the Jan. 20th Village Voice, a warm tribute to the late longtime (from 1963 to 1987) director of the New York Film Festival, Richard Roud, who died 20 years ago. I worked for and with Roud when I was a member of the festival’s selection committee for a few years. I can never forget that it was Roud who introduced me to the writing of...

Minority Report

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:52:26 -0500

Medicine for Melancholy
Running time 88 minutes
Written and directed by Barry Jenkins
Starring Tracey Heggins, Wyatt Cenac

Barry Jenkins’ Medicine for Melancholy, from his own screenplay, is his first feature film, and his IFC Film Program Notes attest to the movie’s limited budget and African-American working crew. The film is a one-night-stand romance set in San Francisco, where Micah (Wyatt Cenac) works as a supplier of...

Boo! In Shadows, a Man Finds Life in the Dead

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:50:14 -0500

Shadows (Senki)
Running time 120 minutes
Written and directed by Milcho Manchevski
Starring Borce Nacev, Sabina Ajrula-Tozija, Vesna Stanojevska

Milcho Manchevski’s Shadows (Senki), from his own screenplay (in Macedonian with English subtitles), addresses the cinema’s eternal obsession with death and ghosts with a more somber treatment than was applied to David Koepp’s much underrated and lightly comic Ghost Town earlier this year. Still, the underlying narrative...

Endnote

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:40:02 -0500

In my year-end roundup of best performers of 2008, I inadvertently left out Téa Leoni in Ghost Town, Kim Basinger in While She Was Out, Lena Olin in The Reader, Javier Bardem in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and, most of all, Emma Thompson in Last Chance Harvey. My apologies to these performers go without saying, but I’ll say them anyway.

asarris@observer.com

...

Bank on It

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:38:49 -0500

It strikes me that it is only a matter of time before the current financial crisis produces crusading screenplays attacking the Madoff-like malefactors of great wealth in our midst. The nonfiction filmmakers like Michael Moore have already joined in the fray. Still, in this lull before the cinematic storm, I was bemused by two recent journalistic pieces, one by Adam Gopnik in The New Yorker, and the other by Wendell Jamieson in the Arts...

Peace, Love and Understanding

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:36:39 -0500

California Dreamin’
Running time 155 minutes
Written by Cristian Nemescu, Catherin Linstrum and Tudor Voican
Directed by Cristian Nemescu
Starring Armand Assante, Razvan Vasilescu, Jamie Elman, Maria Dinulescu

Cristian Nemescu’s California Dreamin’, from a screenplay by Tudor Voican and Cristian Nemescu, and additional dialogue by Catherine Linstrum (in Romanian, English, Spanish and Italian with English subtitles), sadly happens to be the first and...

Wanderlust in Translation: A German-Japanese Hybrid Blooms

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:34:32 -0500

Cherry Blossoms
Running time 127 minutes
Written and directed by Doris Dörrie
Starring Elmar Wepper, Hannalore Elsner, Aya Irizuki, Maximilian Brückner

Doris Dörrie’s Cherry Blossoms, from her own screenplay (in German and Japanese with English subtitles and a smattering of heavily accented English dialogue by German and Japanese characters), is freely acknowledged by its writer-director to have been inspired by Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story...