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Melissa Leo Talks 'Francine,' The "Sacred Territory" Of Acting & What She's Looking At Next

  • By Jessica Kiang
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  • February 21, 2012 11:55 AM
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  • 0 Comments
Festivals
Having experienced something of a mid-career breakout with her Oscar-winning supporting role in "The Fighter," Melissa Leo's name has fast become something of a hallmark of quality. Recently she has lent her talents for startlingly authentic portrayals to the likes of "Treme," "Mildred Pierce" and Kevin Smith's "Red State," but in the Berlin Film Festival favorite "Francine" (our review is here) she lands a rare leading role in a feature, albeit a small, narrowly focused one.
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More: Berlin International Film Festival, Interview, Francine, Melissa Leo

Billy Bob Thornton On 'Jayne Mansfield's Car': The Major Change He Made In The Edit, '60s Muscle Cars And More

  • By Jessica Kiang
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  • February 21, 2012 9:57 AM
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  • 3 Comments
Festivals
Contrary to his fearsomely eccentric reputation, we are happy to report that in person, writer/director/actor Billy Bob Thornton is a charmer. Attending The Berlin Film Festival for the premiere of his first directorial outing in over a decade "Jayne Mansfield's Car" (you can read our review here), he won over press left and right with his mixture of soft-spoken Southern gentlemanliness, and frank rebuttals of some of the more outre rumours that have dogged him throughout his career.
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More: Berlin International Film Festival, Interview, Billy Bob Thornton, Jayne Mansfield's Car

Berlinale 2012 Review: 'Comes A Bright Day' A Warm, Enjoyable, Romance When It Stops Trying To Be A Thriller

  • By Jessica Kiang
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  • February 20, 2012 3:03 PM
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  • 0 Comments
Reviews
Commercials director Simon Aboud takes to feature writing/directing with this London-set film detailing a young man's meet cute with the girl of his dreams, and the violent armed robbery that subsequently throws them together. If that description sounds a little schizophrenic, it's a quality that proves the film's making and its undoing; as a heightened situation that forces our leads to interact, pressure-cooker style, the robbery is an inspired setting, but when the thriller elements are foregrounded, the tonal contortions often prove too much, and the legs go from under it. However Craig Roberts, in his first lead since his breakout role in Richard Ayoade's "Submarine," heads up a totally huggable cast in Imogen Poots and Timothy Spall, with Kevin McKidd and Josef Altin (a now familiar face for "Game of Thrones" fans) on bad guy duties.
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More: Review, Comes A Bright Day, Berlin International Film Festival

Berlinale 2012 Review: 'Electrick Children' An Offbeat Indie With A Trio Of Charming Young Leads

  • By Jessica Kiang
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  • February 20, 2012 2:01 PM
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  • 1 Comment
Reviews
Opening the Generation section of the 2012 Berlinale, which is designed to promote films for, by and/or about young people, we honestly weren't sure what to expect from "Electrick Children," the debut film from writer/director Rebecca Thomas. Colour us pleasantly surprised then to discover that the film is a genuinely enjoyable coming of age tale that compensates, and then some, for its narrative shortcomings with the winningness of the three central performances, from Rory Culkin, Liam Aiken and a luminous Julia Garner. It's really Garner's movie, and young though she is, she imbues a role that could easily have come across as prissy or doltish with a perfect combination of sweetness, naivete and stubbornness that sells even the less convincing nooks and crannies of the story.
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More: Berlin International Film Festival, Review, Electrick Children

'Submarine' Star Craig Roberts Talks Berlin Pic 'Comes A Bright Day' & New Projects With Derick Martini & Cillian Murphy

  • By Jessica Kiang
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  • February 20, 2012 9:56 AM
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  • 2 Comments
Features
One of the more impressive screen debuts of last year came from 21-year-old Welsh actor Craig Roberts. A British children's TV veteran (he was the star of "The Story Of Tracy Beaker" and "Young Dracula" among others), Roberts broke out as the pretentious, deluded hero of Richard Ayoade's charming "Submarine," coming across as equal parts Dustin Hoffman, Bud Cort and John Gordon Sinclair (from "Gregory's Girl"), and it seemed to mark the birth of a star.
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More: Craig Roberts, Comes A Bright Day, Berlin International Film Festival, Interviews, Derick Martini, Red Lights, The First Time

'The Descendants' & 'Midnight In Paris' Win Top Prizes At WGA Awards, 'Caesar Must Die' Takes Golden Bear At Berlin

  • By Oliver Lyttelton
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  • February 20, 2012 9:02 AM
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  • 0 Comments
Awards
A week from now, the Oscars will be done and dusted for another year, and the movie conversation will drift away from prestige pictures to the "John Carter" and "Wrath of the Titans" of the world. And as of this weekend, the last of the major precursor awards have wrapped up. Did we see, as has been the overwhelming trend of the season, more success for the juggernaut that is "The Artist?"
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More: The Descendants, Midnight In Paris, Woody Allen, Alexander Payne, WGA, Berlin International Film Festival, Awards

Berlinale 2012 Review: Kirsten Sheridan's 'Dollhouse' Is A Dynamic, Delirious But Ultimately Downbeat Social Allegory

  • By Jessica Kiang
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  • February 19, 2012 9:51 AM
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  • 5 Comments
Reviews
As we all are with films set in cities we know well, this writer is particularly critical of films set, partially or wholly, in Dublin. So it's no mean praise when we state that Kirsten Sheridan's third feature, "Dollhouse," by turns riotous and menacing, is as accurate a portrait of the interactions, language and attitudes of a particular segment of Irish youth as we have seen on screen, probably ever. Set in a single location over the course of a single night's bacchanalian partying, the improvisational approach brings real authenticity to the proceedings, even as the film nods to "Lord of the Flies" and "A Clockwork Orange."
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More: Review, Berlin International Film Festival

Berlinale 2012 Review: 'Anton Corbijn Inside Out' Presents An Impressionist Portrait Of The Artist As A Solitary Man

  • By Jessica Kiang
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  • February 18, 2012 3:06 PM
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  • 4 Comments
Festivals
Wisely not attempting to go the standard-issue bio doc route with a subject who is clearly anything but standard-issue "Anton Corbijn Inside Out," as the title suggests, instead takes a more impressionistic, intimate approach to the celebrated photographer and filmmaker, and in the process creates a thoughtful film that is as much a homage to the creative process as it is a tribute to a man.
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More: Anton Corbijn, Berlin International Film Festival, Review, The American

Brillante Mendoza Discusses Working With Isabelle Huppert On 'Captive' & His Smaller-Scale, Manila-Set Next Project

  • By Jessica Kiang
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  • February 17, 2012 1:34 PM
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  • 1 Comment
Features
Brillante Mendoza has a killer work ethic: the Filipino director made nine films between 2005's "Masahista" and 2009's "Lola," the latter of which, along with Cannes in-competition entry "Kinatay" the same year, really launched him into the major leagues of international helmers. He's taken an uncharacteristic two-and-a-half year break, but returned this week at the Berlin Film Festival with "Captive," a gripping, Herzogian drama that should see him reach his widest audience yet, thanks to the presence of international star Isabelle Huppert.
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More: Brillante Mendoza, Captive, Captured, Isabelle Huppert, Berlin International Film Festival, Interviews

Berlinale 2012 Review: Melissa Leo Shines In Minutely Observed, Minimalist 'Francine'

  • By Jessica Kiang
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  • February 17, 2012 1:05 PM
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  • 0 Comments
Reviews
Evoking films like "Winter's Bone" and "Wendy and Lucy" in presenting a sparse, narrowly focused portrait of a lone female protagonist in adverse, not to say desperate circumstances, "Francine" is the kind of small film made for the festival circuit, and for which the festival circuit was made. It is no less reliant on a powerhouse central performance than its aforementioned forebears, if anything more so, as here extraneous detail is pared back almost to the point of nonexistence, leaving Melissa Leo front and center of every scene. It is a testament to her absolutely definitive portrayal that one simply cannot imagine what the film might have looked like with anyone else in the role. Some elegant framing and photography aside, the film lives and dies on her performance, and this being Leo, at her most vanity-less and instinctive, it mostly lives.
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More: Melissa Leo, Berlin International Film Festival, Review, Francine

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