Do you hear the trumpet flourishes? The drum rolls? Yes, it is high time for the unveiling of my top 10 films for 2007. 1. THE AURA, 2. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, 3. INTO THE WILD, 4. THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, 5. JUNO, 6. THE EGOISTE (EGOЇSTE: LOTTI LATROUS), 7. EASTERN PROMISES, 8. LUST, CAUTION, 9. THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, 10. THE ITALIAN.
Welcome to Wolf Moon Journal -Movies. Look here for reviews of current Independent Films as well as film Festival news from Maine and beyond.
UNDER THE SAME MOON
Published in June 13th, 2008
I really wanted to like this film. It addresses the topical subject of illegal immigration, which tends to be treated with harsh rhetoric, ugly stereotypes, and a maddening portfolio of laws. Like the vast majority of illegal immigrants in the United States, the immigrants in this film are from Mexico.
MARRIED LIFE
Published in June 13th, 2008
MARRIED LIFE
Directed by Ira Sachs; written by Ira Sachs and Oren Moverman, based on the book Five Roundabouts to Heaven by John Bingham; director of photography, Peter Deming; edited by Affonso Gonçalves; music by Dickon Hinchliffe
With: Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson, and Rachel McAdams. Rated R. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Reviewed by Joel Johnson
Like The Bank Job, Ira Sachs’s Married Life has a challenge in finding an audience
THE BANK JOB
Published in June 13th, 2008
The film is based on a true story of a startling crime in Britain during the early 1970s. It is certainly not devoid of action, but Donaldson is much more interested in revealing a unique nexus of black power revolutionaries, organized crime, the police, national security agencies, and the pursuit of illicit pleasures by Britain’s rich, powerful, and titled.
THE BAND’S VISIT
Published in June 13th, 2008
This film is about what might be a fairly ordinary event-the stranding of a group of travelers in a town they hadn’t intended to visit. Typically, a film with this scenario would turn up the dramatic potency by either having the stranded be some group of criminals that ends up terrorizing an unsuspecting town or, conversely, having a group of stranded innocents suddenly stuck in the only town inhabited entirely by zombies or otherwise afflicted by unspeakable evil.
4 MONTHS 3 WEEKS 2 DAYS
Published in June 13th, 2008
The title of this film does not refer to the perfect honeymoon or a leisurely round-the-world cruise. It refers to the length of one pregnancy to its termination. Since Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) is the one who is pregnant, one might expect that she would be the lead character. Instead the main character is her roommate Otilia (Marinca), who loyally helps her friend get an illegal abortion.
THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL
Published in June 13th, 2008
The Other Boleyn Girl promises a lurid, hothouse view of the early sixteenth-century English court. It does deliver a new perspective on the machinations in Henry VIII’s court, but-for good or ill-a hothouse perspective it isn’t.
IN BRUGES
Published in June 13th, 2008
McDonagh clearly knows how to write dialogue exchanges that snap. It soon becomes clear that this is not just a pairing of guys with different ideas about how to spend leisure time, but that Ken and Ray are hit men chilling out from their latest job of eliminating problem individuals for their hot-tempered boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes).
MISS PETTIGREW LIVES FOR A DAY
Published in June 13th, 2008
This slight, but very satisfying period romantic farce is what my wife calls a perfect “Friday night” movie. By this, she means that it entertains without taxing the mind or heaping on much unpleasant emotional baggage. We meet Frances McDormand’s Guinevere Pettigrew just as she is getting the sack (Britspeak for being fired) from a governess position. The time is the late 1930s, and the place is London.
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING
Published in June 13th, 2008
This is a film that I know my editor will enjoy. I say this because we have had more than a few conversations over the years about films that focus on the lives of various artists and writers. The biggest problem with these films is that they often have difficulty in showing the person engaged in their art form.
