Indiewire Browse the indiewire network

The Playlist

The obsessives' guide to contemporary cinema via film discussion, news, reviews, features, nostalgia, movie music, soundtracks, DVDs and more.

Interviews

Actors

Directors

Archives

The Playlist

Berlinale 2012 Review: 'Bel Ami' Starring Robert Pattinson Fails To Seduce

  • By Jessica Kiang
  • |
  • February 17, 2012 11:00 AM
  • |
  • 21 Comments
Reviews
From behind, we watch a man in ragged clothes look longingly through the window of a fancy Belle Epoque Parisian restaurant. Inside, richly attired women whisper secrets over brimful glasses of champagne and decadent platters laden with food. Later, the hungry man in his mean garret relives the moment, jealousy and bitterness at the injustice of his situation playing across his face, before the memory of such opulence actually makes him cry. It's a convincing, well-observed moment that sets up a lot of what we need to know about the man's character. Oh wait, did we mention the man is played by Robert Pattinson?
Read More »
More: Bel Ami, Berlin International Film Festival, Review, Robert Pattinson, Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman

Guy Maddin On The "Sweet Sadness" Of 'Keyhole' & His Love For 'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol'

  • By Jessica Kiang
  • |
  • February 17, 2012 10:57 AM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
Features
You could forgive Guy Maddin for feeling a little put out at the moment. The Canadian filmmaker has, for nearly 25 years, been faithfully paying homage to the early days of cinema with films like "Archangel," "Twilight of the Ice Nymphs" and "The Saddest Music In The World" to little commercial success, only to see "The Artist" become an awards-laden phenomenon this year. But actually (as we'll see) Maddin hasn't been paying much attention. Instead, he's been focused on his latest film, the gangster memory tale, "Keyhole," with Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini and Udo Kier, among others.
Read More »
More: Berlin International Film Festival, Guy Maddin, Keyhole, Interviews

Berlinale 2012 Review: 'A Royal Affair' Is A Good-Looking But Unadventurous Period Drama Elevated By Fine Performances

  • By Jessica Kiang
  • |
  • February 17, 2012 7:12 AM
  • |
  • 2 Comments
Festivals
Considering how very few people on earth we would rather watch on a movie screen than Mads Mikkelsen, colour us baffled to find ourselves slightly out of step with the rapturous reception accorded his latest film, the Danish-language period drama "A Royal Affair." Premiering tonight in Berlin, the film apparently drew cheers from press (though not in our auditorium), and has, in the few hours since, been hailed by some as the saviour of the competition. The film we saw, however, was a perfectly decent, lavishly mounted costume drama, probably above average for this sort of thing, but hardly earth-shattering and certainly not the best film we've seen so far.
Read More »
More: Review, Berlin International Film Festival, Mads Mikkelsen, A Royal Affair

Berlinale 2012 Review: Try As it Might, 'Cherry' Fails To Convince Us That A Career In Porn Is The Best Idea Ever

  • By Jessica Kiang
  • |
  • February 16, 2012 3:32 PM
  • |
  • 3 Comments
Reviews
That the film is co-written from the sympathetic point of view of porn actress Lorelei Lee (who also takes a small cameo role) couldn’t be clearer in co-writer/director Stephen Elliott’s debut feature “Cherry.” Ostensibly a fairly familiar tale of a good girl getting slowly pulled into the seamy world of pornography, its unusual tack (that this is, in fact, a good thing) may sound intriguing but it gets wearing pronto; some decent performances cannot clear the air of the musky odor of porn apologism. The industry depicted here is one of clean surfaces, make up room camaraderie, and a startling lack of seediness, and Cherry/Angelina’s choice to join it is presented as an empowered, sensible decision.
Read More »
More: About Cherry, Review, Berlin International Film Festival

"For Me, There Was No Character": Isabelle Huppert Discusses The Making Of Brillante Mendoza's 'Captive'

  • By Jessica Kiang
  • |
  • February 16, 2012 2:06 PM
  • |
  • 1 Comment
Features
Few actresses are quite as fearless as Isabelle Huppert. She's been a near-legend for going on forty years, but has never taken a paycheck job, preferring to seek out challenging work with some of international cinema's most uncompromising auteurs. And that's embodied neatly in "Captive," her collaboration with Filipino filmmaker Brillante Mendoza, which just premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.
Read More »
More: Berlin International Film Festival, Interviews, Isabelle Huppert, Captive, Brillante Mendoza

Berlinale 2012 Review: Keanu Reeves Doc 'Side By Side' A Treat For Cinephiles On All Sides Of The Digital Debate

  • By Jessica Kiang
  • |
  • February 15, 2012 3:42 PM
  • |
  • 9 Comments
Festivals
Doing an impressive job of tracing the evolution of filmmaking technology (not just the cameras but the editing, post-production, distribution, exhibition, even the archiving aspects of it) from 1895 to the present day, “Side by Side” is an old school talking-head documentary on the subject of digital filmmaking vs. photochemical filmmaking. It sounds pretty dull as a logline, but stacked with gossipy, informal anecdotes and opinions from many of the most respected directors, cinematographers, editors, execs, VFX artists and digital wizards in the industry, it proves instead to be highly entertaining and informative, and by its close has presented a thoroughly diverting overview of the debate. Then again, we are massive geeks about this sort of thing.
Read More »
More: Side By Side, Keanu Reeves, Berlin International Film Festival, Review

Berlinale 2012 Review: Brillante Mendoza Takes Us All 'Captive' In Vital, Bruising Kidnap Tale

  • By Jessica Kiang
  • |
  • February 15, 2012 11:04 AM
  • |
  • 2 Comments
Festivals
Recipient of one of the more controversial Cannes Best Director awards of recent memory (for "Kinatay," a film we found problematic, to say the least) Filipino director Brillante Mendoza returns to screens and to the festival circuit with "Captive," which marks, if not a departure from his previous style, then a welcome evolution of it. Based on real events, it is an account, by turns thrilling, moving, and harrowing, of the kidnapping ordeal of a group of holidaymakers from a resort in the Philippines; an ordeal which lasts over a year for some.
Read More »
More: Brillante Mendoza, Captive, Berlin International Film Festival, Review, Isabelle Huppert

Berlinale 2012 Review: 'Farewell, My Queen' Introduces Lesbianism Into The Marie Antoinette Story To No Great Effect

  • By Jessica Kiang
  • |
  • February 15, 2012 9:56 AM
  • |
  • 0 Comments
Festivals
In the land of the costume drama, truly, films about Marie Antoinette are Queen, promising lavish sets, romantic intrigue and shocking decadence -- but they don't always deliver. Director Benoit Jacquot's uninspiring take on the period opened the Berlin Film Festival days ago, but something about the film's lack of urgency must be contagious, and we're only getting around to reviewing it now. While the movie does boast admirable elements (more on those below) overall, despite some showy trappings it is a frustratingly empty experience, built around a character whose blankness is supposed to be a virtue, but ends up costing the film dearly in terms of identification and interest.
Read More »
More: Berlin International Film Festival, Review, Léa Seydoux, Diane Kruger, Farewell, My Queen, Benoît Jacquot

Billy Bob Thornton Says 'Bad Santa 2' Will Shoot This Fall For Christmas 2013 Release; 'And Then We Drove' Will Lens This Summer

  • By Kevin Jagernauth
  • |
  • February 14, 2012 1:32 PM
  • |
  • 1 Comment
News
It has been a while since we heard anything about the long developing "Bad Santa 2," the sequel to the hit R-rated comedy that has yet to be topped for holiday raunch. Nearly a year ago it was confirmed that Billy Bob Thornton would be returning to reprise the role of Willie, while over the summer it was revealed that Dimension Films had hired two writers -- Johnny Rosenthal and John Phillips -- to each write separate scripts with the winning screenplay getting the thumbs up to go into production. Well, things have been quiet for a while but it looks like "Bad Santa 2" may finally be going in front of cameras.
Read More »
More: Bad Santa 2, Billy Bob Thornton, And Then We Drove, Berlin International Film Festival

Berlinale 2012 Review: 'Jayne Mansfield's Car' Finds A Solid Cast At The Wheel, But Not A Whole Lot Of Gas In The Tank

  • By Jessica Kiang
  • |
  • February 14, 2012 10:04 AM
  • |
  • 1 Comment
Festivals
A distinctly American, humanist drama, one that somewhat makes up in performances of warmth and generosity what it may lack in originality, "Jayne Mansfield's Car," which just enjoyed its World Premiere at the 2012 Berlinale, finds director and star Billy Bob Thornton showing a certain spiritual kinship with fellow director/actors Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford. Off-key directorial choices, and a frustrating lack of narrative and characterisation consistency prevent the film from ever coalescing into something as satisfying as Clint is able to deliver, at his best, and for better or worse, it doesn't have the grander ambitions of a Redford effort, but the films of all three, are to a certain degree built as temples to the performances, sometimes to a fault.
Read More »
More: Jayne Mansfield's Car, Berlin International Film Festival, Review

Follow Us

Email Updates

What's Poppin'

Latest Tweets

Follow us

Recent Comments

Blog Roll

Around The Network

the network

indiewire

categories