Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet Aren’t Joking Around in Funny Games by Brad Balfour Ten years ago, German director Michael Haneke created a harrowing, near-psychotic film, Funny Games, about two young men – Paul and Peter – who force a couple and their son in their vacation cabin to play sadistic “games” with fatal results. A critique … Continue reading
EASTERN PROMISES (2007) Starring Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armen Mueller-Stahl, Sinaed Cusack, Donald Sumter, Jerzy Skolimowski, Yousef Altin, Andrej Borkowski, Gergo Danka, Faton Gerbeshi, Raza Jaffrey and Sarah-Jeanne LaBrosse. Screenplay by Steve Knight. Directed by David Cronenberg. Distributed by Focus Features. 101 minutes. Rated R. Director David Cronenberg basically resurrected his career with … Continue reading
VIGGO MORTENSEN MAKES HIS EASTERN PROMISES by Brad Balfour It’s entirely understandable why director David Cronenberg has recently cast Viggo Mortensen as his lead in two complementary but very different films (2005’s excellent A History of Violence and the new Eastern Promises). Mortensen inhabits these characters and the characters inhabit him. It is said that when he played Aragorn in Lord … Continue reading
Edward Norton Lifting the Veil by Jay S. Jacobs When you think of actor Edward Norton, chances are you think of gritty modern urban dramas – like Fight Club, American History X, The 25th Hour, The Italian Job, The People vs. Larry Flynt or Primal Fear. The always interesting actor has been looking backwards in 2006, though, doing two straight … Continue reading
THE PAINTED VEIL (2006) Starring Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Toby Jones, Diana Rigg, Anthony Wong, Hélène Cardona, Sally Hawkins, Linda Sans, Zoe Telford, Yu Xia and Lu Yin. Screenplay by Ron Nyswaner. Directed by John Curran. Distributed by Warner Independent Pictures. 128 minutes. Rated PG-13. They say true love never runs smooth, but … Continue reading
KING KONG (2005) Starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Andy Serkis, Jamie Bell, Kyle Chandler, Lobo Chan, Thomas Kretschmann, Evan Parke, Colin Hanks, John Sumner, David Dengelo, Stephen Hall, Richard Kavanaugh, Louis Sutherland, Ray Woolf, Geraldine Brophy, Joe Folau, John Clarke and William Wallace. Screenplay by Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh. Directed … Continue reading
NAOMI WATTS TAKES ON KONG by Brad Balfour For Australian-raised Naomi Watts, taking on the challenge of playing Ann Darrow – the role made famous by Fay Wray in the original King Kong – was both daunting and a career move as well. Having been known as industrious actress willing to do anything from the sexually provocative Mullholland … Continue reading
Mark Ruffalo, Peter Krause, Laura Dern and John Curran Adultery Education by Jay S. Jacobs We Don’t Live Here Anymore is a haunting, sometimes even devastating, look at modern marriage. Based on two short stories by Andre Dubus (“We Don’t Live Here Anymore” and “Adultery”), the movie focuses on two couples. The film chronicles the casually cruel … Continue reading
WE DON’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (2004) Starring Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern, Peter Krause, Naomi Watts, Sam Charles, Haili Page, Jennifer Bishop, Jennifer Mawhinney, Amber Rothwell, Meg Roe, Jim Francis, Marc Baur, Marcel Maillard and Patrick Early. Screenplay by Larry Gross. Directed by John Curran. Distributed by Warner Independent Pictures. 104 minutes. Rated R. Marriage may … Continue reading
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