Tag: 2014
Review: JOY OF MAN'S DESIRING, An Unusually Mature And Assured Feature Debut
First-time helmer Sugita Masakazu made a splash at the Berlin International Film Festival last year with Joy of Man's Desiring, a quietly devastating and deeply lyrical picture paying tribute to all the children who have lost loved ones as a...
Review: Johnnie To Hits The Mark Once Again With DON'T GO BREAKING MY HEART 2
Veteran producer and filmmaker Johnnie To is back to his old tricks with Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2, a thoroughly watchable, stylishly lensed, beautifully unconventional, and often just plain hilarious follow-up to his hit 2011 rom-com about a trio...
Review: Delightful Performances Make TEMPORARY FAMILY An Above Average Real Estate Comedy
Speculate on property. This is HK lifestyle!To speculate on property amid Hong Kong's rapidly changing real estate market conditions is to speculate on emotions, according to Cheuk Wan Chi's (aka Vincci/GC Goo Bi) Temporary Family, a simple but perfectly enjoyable...
Black Bear Filmfest 2014: ScreenAnarchy's Top 5 Picks
Black Bear Filmfest is about to begin and we can't be more excited! In its second edition after a triumphant debut in 2013, Black Bear Filmfest returns as Poland's only genre film festival specializing in horror, action, fantasy, sleaze, and independent...
Five Flavours 2014 Preview: ScreenAnarchy's Top 5 Picks
Voted as one of the best international film festivals in the 2013 ScreenAnarchy writers poll, Five Flavours is a showcase of East and South-East Asian films focusing on particular countries, genres, directors, and themes. Given that even the most popular and...
Vancouver 2014 Review: MAN ON HIGH HEELS, Crime Genre As Transgender Study
Man On High Heels, a Korean gangster-cop flick of another color, navigates gender politics as shakily as its strangely-worded (or translated) title would suggest. Cha Seung-won stars as Ji-wook, the eponymous man: a specimen of ideal masculinity who spends his...
Vancouver 2014 Review: EXIT Feels Pretty But Shallow
Chienn Hsiang's second feature, Exit, is lovely to look at, and pleasant enough to watch, but ultimately feels inconsequential. Chen Shiang-chyi stars as Lingzi, a childlike middle-aged woman finds herself alone for a few weeks while her teenaged daughter visits...
Vancouver 2014 Review: WELCOME TO ME Stokes The Fires Of Disability Discourse
Kristen Wiig has been enjoying a lengthy run of success since leaving Saturday Night Live in 2012. Her humor is punctuated by awkward, uncomfortable stares, or lines delivered with more weight -- loneliness, sadness, regret -- than they seem to...
Vancouver 2014 Review: THE GOLDEN ERA Hits All Of Its Marks
The Golden Era follows the (tragically short) life of one of China's most celebrated female writers, Xiao Hong (portrayed by Tang Wei), in typically lavish period-biopic fashion. On an aesthetic level, the film is gorgeously realized by director Ann Hui,...
Busan 2014 Review: WILD FLOWERS Wilts After A Bristling Start
The lives of aimless youths at the bottom of the social ladder are the focus of Wild Flowers, a bleak look into teenage destitution in the streets and back alleys of Seoul. Uncompromising in its focus and brisk in its...
Busan 2014 Review: HAN RIVER Ponders Urban Malaise in Contemporary Korea
With black and white lensing, cheerful yet destitute protagonists and the absence of a clear narrative, the philosophical vagabond film Han River, benefits from a style and focus that sets it apart from the bulk of recent Korean indie fare,...
Busan 2014 Review: DAUGHTER Explores The Ills Of Modern Korean Parenting
Following a pair of indulgent films that awkwardly straddled the balance between fantasy and reality, the multi-hyphenate Ku Hye-sun, a well known actress, singer and artist as well as director, returns with Daughter, her most mature work to date. An...
Busan 2014 Review: WE WILL BE OK Hits Its Stride Too Late In The Game
Writers are told to write about what they know, so it stands to reason that the same rule should apply to filmmakers. As a result, many films take place within the film world and in the Korean industry this proves...
Busan 2014 Review: ENTANGLED Gets Caught Up In Its Own Depressing Narrative
Following the blistering debut Fatal, a gritty rape-revenge thriller that bowed at the Busan Film Festival in 2012, Lee Don-ku returns to Busan with the disappointing family drama Entangled. Though it seeks to inspire a similar sense of shock and...
Vancouver 2014 Review: WHITE BIRD IN A BLIZZARD, Gregg Araki's Nostalgic, Seductive Puzzle
Gregg Araki's latest offering, White Bird In A Blizzard, is set during the time period when Araki first began making films (1988-1991). Because of this, the sets and costumes are rendered with a loving nostalgia that never feels overly novel....
Melbourne 2014 Review: LIFE AFTER BETH, A Tame Zom-Com
The ever sardonic Aubrey Plaza stars as Beth, alongside Dane DeHaan's Zach, in this frequently odd but half-cooked zombie comedy from the writer of the excellent I Heart Huckabees. Director Jeff Baena only lends some of his brain to...
Melbourne 2014 Review: GOD HELP THE GIRL, A Twee Little Mess
Coming from Belle & Sebastian front-man Stuart Murdoch, God Help The Girl is a directorial debut disaster. The film is stung by lashes of awkward editing, a sloppy screenplay, and a cloying suffocation of artificial, twee characters.Our 'girl' in this modern...
Melbourne 2014 Review: In TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT, The Dardennes Eschew Nothing
Why did Two Days, One Night work so well for me? It's not easy to explain. This is especially the case, considering this is my first experience watching a film by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and the fact I know nothing about...
Melbourne 2014 Review: HAPPY CHRISTMAS Boosted By Its Characters
Joe Swanberg directs and stars in an 'indie' family drama that is as equally generic as the non-descript title suggests. The free-formed plot involves a couple with a child; Jeff (Swanberg) and author Kelly (Melanie Lynskey) and the slight stress...
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Melbourne 2014 Review: CATCH ME DADDY Imbues Stunning Tension And Displays Confident Direction
Director Daniel Wolfe came into recognition with his awesome music video Time To Dance for the band The Shoes. The clip featured a disturbed psychopath, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who, essentially, murdered hipsters who could not dance. This tongue-in-cheek idea...
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