Category: Film review

By Robert Koehler

Jean-Luc Godard (and his Les Inrocks interview) marked the starting point for this year’s Cannes blogging, partly because I anticipated that his Film Socialisme would certainly be one of the major films at the festival. It is that, and more, since the film’s impact will long outlast the mere week and a half of Cannes. Godard retains his tendency to upset conservative-minded critics, such as the army of Anglo-Saxon writers (with the anticipated exceptions like the New York Times‘ Manohla Dargis) who continue to refuse to allow that the movies can be anything more than be …

The Southeast European Film Festival concludes tonight at UCLA. A highlight has been the US premiere of Goran Devic’s and Zvonimir Juric’s The Blacks, a trancelike, psychological thriller about a group of Croatian special forces during the Bosnian war. It’s being touted as the first Croat feature to address Croatian war crimes, but it’s not a message picture; it merely references Branimir Glavas‘ famed Garage Case as a backdrop for its existential drama.

Five armed men slink through a forest as they follow the tracks of a previous party; a shocking event twenty minutes into the picture triggers …

45-year-old Jo Van Fleet as octogenarian Ella Garth in Wild River.

The three-and-a-half-day TCM Classic Film Festival wraps up today with the North American premiere of the newly restored Metropolis (1927) tonight. The Festival has been somewhat of an experiment in its first year, screening good prints of well known films in the heart of Hollywood for a high fee ($20 per screening if seats are available, or $500 passes). Most Angelenos think the Festival is prohibitively expensive, but that may be because we can see titles like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Playtime in 70mm here on a regular …

The 2010 Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles debuted last night and will continue through Sunday, April 25th. It’s one of the better produced local festivals and takes place in Hollywood at the posh Arclight Cinema. It aims to strengthen ties between filmmakers of Indian descent, audiences, and industry people, so its line-up emphasizes popular hits and Bollywood films, but it also includes documentaries and the occasional art film.

A standout with elements of the latter category this year is The Man Beyond the Bridge (screening Sunday), Laxmikant Shetgaonkar’s FIPRESCI-award-winning drama, fresh from Berlinale’s Forum section. It’s a fascinating story …