AltWeeklies Wire
Meet Fatih Akin, the Most Exciting German (and Turkish) Director of His Timenew
Akin is the young director whose breakthrough film Head-On was an international hit three years ago.
INDY Week |
Godfrey Cheshire |
09-11-2008 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: The Edge of Heaven, Faith Akin
The Gritty Indie 'Frozen River' and a Post-Sept. 11 Thriller, 'Traitor'new
Both films feature formidable performances by their leads, Melissa Leo and Don Cheadle, respectively.
Jacques Rivette Adapts a Classic of French Realist Fictionnew
The Duchess of Langeais is a work of extraordinarily subtle beauty and concentrated meaning.
How to Stop Worrying and Love Lucas, Spielberg and 'Raiders'new
When I reviewed Raiders, I wrote not so much about its contents -- which struck me as aggressively inane -- but about the experience of seeing it at the Village Twin. To me, everything that night was of a piece, all of it depressing evidence of a tripartite decline.
Persepolis More Like a Non-Iranian Filmnew
Persepolis is confidently cosmopolitan in its outlook and resonances. Yet it's also an indirect reminder that Iranian culture has been strangely (and, one might add, tragically) bifurcated for going on three decades now.
The Year in Filmnew
Into the Wild is the year's best, and a Charlotte-based indie joins the list.
Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe Face Off -- Sort ofnew
Is it not unavoidably frustrating in a movie when the two main antagonists almost never see each other?
Tags: American Gangster, Ridley Scott
The Intricate Puzzles of 'Michael Clayton'new
Tony Gilroy's film may turn out to be the earliest major Oscar candidate out of the gate, but it's also a commendable rarity: a film of genuine artistic ambition that is also extravagantly entertaining.
Tags: Michael Clayton, Tony Gilroy
'In the Valley of Elah' Tries to Be a Mystery & an Iraq Filmnew
Unfortunately, Haggis doesn't have the stylistic chops to do "restrained" in the way that, say, Sidney Lumet can. His would-be restraint ends up committing the cardinal sin of being dull, dull, dull.
Alone With the Alonenew
Into Great Silence heralds the possibility of cinema as a sacramental art.
Tags: Into Great Silence, Philip Groning
'Away from Her': Twilight of the Goddessnew
If many arthouse films nowadays seem destined to divide audiences into generational camps, this absorbing Canadian drama has the welcome effect of bridging the age divide in several senses at once.
Tags: Away from Her, Sarah Polley
Bright Spot in Dismal Oscar Seasonnew
"Worst. Oscars. Ever." The admirably concise e-mail from a critic friend handily summed up my own reaction to last week's announcement of the Academy Award nominations.
Queens and Kingsnew
Ten minutes in to Blossoming, you've not only entered a story but a world of indelible images, rituals, textures, eccentricities.
The Dogs of Warnew
Letters From Iwo Jima and The Good German are both turkeys -- though of an interestingly similar sort.
Wild Turksnew
The gutter punk romance Head On reinvigorates European cinema.
Tags: Fatih Akin, Head-On
