REVIEW: A Life Less Ordinary [1997]

“I thought we agreed there’d be no cliches” I had always heard good things about this film, but never had the chance to check it out despite being a fan of Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting and 28 Days Later. A Life Less Ordinary has a lot of aspects that Boyle later used in his child fairy-tale Millions from inventive camera tricks to a melding of fantasy sequences with reality. The main thing taken from this viewing however is the tragedy that Ewan McGregor and Boyle may never work together again. Ewan…

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REVIEW: Shortbus [2006]

“The Jamies told me to come” I will start out by saying if you have any reservations about seeing explicit sex depicted on screen, or if you want to watch the explicit sex on display for arousal, don’t see this film. Director John Cameron Mitchell has woven together a tapestry set to the “language of sex” (as stated by actor Peter Stickles during a short Q&A which occurred after the screening at the Dipson Amherst Theatre) that shows a frankness of sexuality with all its inhibitions, awkwardness, and truth. These…

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REVIEW: Marie Antoinette [2006]

“Let them eat cake” Sofia Coppola has risen in Hollywood to A-list status after her magnificent debut, The Virgin Suicides, and the over-long, funny at times, critical darling Lost in Translation. Due to the enormous success of Translation, she was able to rework the production, with a bigger budget, on her passion project Marie Antoinette. While trying to stick to historical accuracies when able, she crafted a loose interpretation of the young Queen’s life from leaving Austria for marriage until the fateful storming of the Bastille. Coppola’s father had success…

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REVIEW: The United States of Leland [2003]

“How much time is wasted by crying and prayer?” Maybe people do like having the devil around more than God. Maybe we like that safety net of a reason; making a mistake only to blame the devil for the pain and suffering in the world. There is so much hardship, spilling out into the masses, that it is difficult to not see the sadness on the faces of all you pass. Leland P. Fitzgerald understands all of this; he knows that maybe everything won’t be ok, and maybe helping someone…

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REVIEW: The Prestige [2006]

“Are you watching closely?” Well it appears Oscar season is upon us. The release of all the films studios have been hiding from projectors until they can be freshly ingrained in voters’ minds has commenced. We had the obligatory Scorsese film a couple weeks ago and now we have the return of one of Hollywood’s new favorite sons (who also began with intelligent and original indie visions like Marty) with Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige. Known for uniquely dark and smart suspense thrillers, Nolan has crafted a tale of mysterious intrigue…

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REVIEW: 無間道 [Infernal Affairs] vs. The Departed [2002 & 2006]

“I can’t finish the novel, I don’t know whether he’s good or bad” This is a question posed to Andy Lau’s character, by his live-in girlfriend, in the brilliant Cantonese film 無間道 [Infernal Affairs]. She is a writer plodding through the plot of her new novel, which eerily mirrors the double life lived by her significant other. A small detail like this helped create characters that live and breathe with a history behind them. Unfortunately, while adding almost an hour of length, Martin Scorsese’s new remake, The Departed, fails to…

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