Monthly Archives: March 2012 »
Intruders | Review
Won’t cause the distress the title suggests: Fresnadillo Can’t Hack it. Spanish filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s first film since his excellent 2007 28 Weeks Later is the English/Spanish hybrid, Intruders, an exploration of cross
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Melancholia | Blu-ray review
There are very few filmmakers that regard humanity with such disdain as Lars von Trier. With each of his films he finds a new way to bring out the worst in people, and his
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Domain | Review
A Walk to Remember: Beatrice Dalle is Shameless in Custom-designed Role Every once in a while, a young filmmaker creates a deliciously intelligent film that hits all the right notes. Director Patric Chiha has
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Bully | Review
Survival Games: Lee Hirsch Lands on Hot Topic Issue For today’s contemporary parents with means, there might not be a stronger argument for homeschooling available than Lee Hirsch’s latest documentary, Bully, to solidify its advent
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Hot Docs 2012 Lineup Drops with Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry as Fest’s Opener
Those that dwell near the shores of the Great Lakes really are quite lucky when it comes to film festivals. Not only is Toronto home to the the top tier Toronto International Film Fest
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Review: The Island President
Pragmatist’s Predicament: Putting Cap on Carbon No Easy Feat for Nasheed After 30 years of unjust rule by President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, in 2008, the citizens of Maldives elected Mohamed Nasheed as their young
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Criterion Collection’s Letter Never Sent | Blu-ray Review
Bergman and Nykvist, Bertolucci and Storaro, Welles and Toland; the history of cinema is replete with great partnerships between directors and cinematographers. Through potent mixtures of chemistry and vision, these collaborations created works of
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The Descendants | Blu-ray Review
Alexander Payne’s follow-up to Sideways, The Descendants, is a George Clooney vehicle set in the Aloha State that managed to nab a host of Oscar nominations this year. In line with his wryly humored
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House of Pleasures | DVD Review
Bertrand Bonello’s fifth feature depicts the lives of sex workers in a turn of the century Parisian brothel with elegant style, and a genuine sense of camaraderie and monotony, but there is something incredibly
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The Woman With The Five Elephants | DVD Review
Resting wearily atop a hunched over spine, the perspicacious mind of Svetlana Geier is continually cycling. Known as the greatest translator of Russian literature, the Ukrainian born German immigrant witnessed the her father’s tortured
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SXSW Interview: Adele Romanski (Leave Me Like You Found Me)
Starting off as an editor, Adele Romanski went on to produce a number of well-received indies, among them The Myth of the American Sleepover, and this year’s Sundance Film Fest preemed Black Rock. Now
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The Raid: Redemption | Review
Slaughterhouse Orchestra: Gareth Evans Offers Full Course Action Meal There’s nothing innately wrong with a one trick pony, and kudos to the film that knows how to play to its strengths, but even consumers
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The Deep Blue Sea | Review
Terence Davies’ post-war love affair just lies there Writer-director Terence Davies yearns to orchestrate a swelling reverie of doomed love in the post-war British romance ‘The Deep Blue Sea,’ but a rusty plot, overwrought
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Blancanieves | Review
Blanca Y Negro: Berger’s Sensational Snow White Adaptation May Be One of the Greatest Ever Don’t close the casket of Snow White’s coffin just yet, as Pablo Berger’s sophomore effort, Blancanieves, is a testament
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4:44 Last Day On Earth | Review
Forget the hype: Ferrara’s end-of-the-world reverie puts other apocalypse movies to shame The countdown to the apocalypse becomes a celebratory wake in Abel Ferrara’s transcendent 4:44: Last Day on Earth. Eschewing sci-fi escapism for
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IFC Tags Grand Jury Prize Winner ‘Gimme the Loot’
Hot off the heels of a huge SXSW premiere and with a Grand Jury Prize win to boot, Adam Leon’s feature debut has been picked up by the folks at IFC and keeping with
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The Kid With a Bike | Review
The Dardenne brothers’ neo-realist fable captivates The latest movie from Belgian co-directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne is a unique combination of ethnographic observation and allegorical fable. After 11-year-old problem child Cyril is coldly abandoned
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Two Shades of Blue; Music Box Makes Post Sundance-Berlin Pick-Up of ‘Keep the Lights On’
Contempo Queer cinema is alive and well. After showings at Sundance and in Berlin, Ira Sachs’ Keep the Lights On is following along in the footsteps of Weekend and Pariah towards a theatrical release
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Cannes’ L’Atelier 2012: Marco van Geffen and Mahmoud Al Massad Among 15 Selected
In the seven previous editions (with 2007 being the best crop of films with noteworthy titles such as Bertrand Bonello’s De La Guerre, Michelangelo Frammartino’s Le Quattro Volte, Semih Kaplanoglu’s Milk, Ciro Guerra’s The
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Criterion Collection: Letter Never Sent | Blu-ray Review
Bergman and Nykvist, Bertolucci and Storaro, Welles and Toland; the history of cinema is replete with great partnerships between directors and cinematographers. Through potent mixtures of chemistry and vision, these collaborations created works of
Read More
Crazy & Thief | Review
Watch My Home Movie: Cory McAbee’s Latest, Masturbation Or Art? You may not know exactly what to expect from a Cory McAbee film, a man, who, with only one feature length film to his
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Anchor Bay Handcuff Austin Chick’s SXSW Preemed Girls Against Boys
After dipping into romantic drama terrain with his debut film XX/XY and examining the dot-com bubble bursting a decade later in August, Austin Chick’s Thelma and Louise take Manhattan like thriller has found a
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Film in Pictures: Xavier Dolan’s Laurence Anyways
As we begin to prep our 2012 Cannes predictions list (scheduled for next week), we’ve come across some stills for Xavier Dolan’s Laurence Anyways. His third film, will likely be a strong contender for
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The ABCs of Death | Review
Sing ‘em With Me: Ambitious Horror Anthology Overreaches Itself Nearly every anthology film ever made suffers from the same predicament in that there are usually fewer standout segments than there are examples of bland
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This Month’s IONCINEPHILE: Athina Rachel Tsangari
IONCINEMA.com’s IONCINEPHILE of the Month feature focuses on an emerging filmmaker from the world of cinema. This March we feature Athina Rachel Tsangari, a filmmaker (and producer) whose sophomore film premiered at back to
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