http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/1-day-15-1815507.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/1-day-15-1815507.html <p>Penny Woolcock's Birmingham-set drama seeks to meld the black gangsta flick with a hip-hop musical, which some will find a challenge. </p> Reviews Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/a-christmas-carol-pg-1815511.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/a-christmas-carol-pg-1815511.html ]]> <p>Robert Zemeckis extends the performance-capture 3D technology he deployed on Beowulf to this version of the Dickens story, and if there's nothing here quite as eye-catching as Grendel's mum (Angelina Jolie in heels), it scores high on swooping visuals and meticulous draughtsmanship.</p> Reviews Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/henrigeorges-clouzots-inferno-15-1815523.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/henrigeorges-clouzots-inferno-15-1815523.html <p>Henri-Georges Clouzot's reputation is founded on The Wages of Fear (1953) and Les Diaboliques (1955), and it might have been enhanced if he had completed his 1964 project, Inferno, about a jealous husband driven towards insanity. </p> Reviews Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/bright-star-pg-1815516.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/bright-star-pg-1815516.html ]]> <p>Jane Campion's film Bright Star is a wistful and melancholic account of the unconsummated romance between the poet John Keats and his neighbour Fanny Brawne. It's poetic, too, though not in any precious, Fotherington-Tomas sort of way.</p> Reviews Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-men-who-stare-at-goats-15-1815533.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-men-who-stare-at-goats-15-1815533.html <p>Interesting title, promisingly quirky subject, top-drawer cast – such a duff movie. </p> Reviews Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/paper-heart-pg-1815529.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/paper-heart-pg-1815529.html <p>This indie squib wobbles briefly on a tightrope between sincerity and cuteness before plunging headlong to a death-by-whimsy.</p> Reviews Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/jennifers-body-15-1815524.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/jennifers-body-15-1815524.html ]]> <p>Diablo Cody sounds like someone with a devilish tongue – she wrote the super-sassy hit Juno – and it's at full stretch in this high-school horror. </p> Reviews Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/9-shane-acker-79-mins-12abrtales-from-the-golden-age-cristian-mungiu-ioana-uricaru-hanno-hofer-constantin-popescu-131-mins-12a-1812607.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/9-shane-acker-79-mins-12abrtales-from-the-golden-age-cristian-mungiu-ioana-uricaru-hanno-hofer-constantin-popescu-131-mins-12a-1812607.html <p> Considering the limitless visual splendours that digital animation can put on the big screen, it's about time there were some more cartoons that weren't intended to sell tie-in plastic toys to young children. That's why the bleak and eerie opening scenes of 9 are so refreshing. </p> Reviews Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/an-education-lone-scherfig-100-mins-12a-1812609.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/an-education-lone-scherfig-100-mins-12a-1812609.html ]]> <p> Based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, An Education is about a 16-year-old girl in 1961 falling for a suave man in his thirties. Nick Hornby, who wrote the screenplay, has invoked Philip Larkin's pinpointing of the discovery of sex in 1963, "Between the end of the Chatterley ban/And The Beatles' first LP". </p> Reviews Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-public-enemies-for-retail--rental-universal-1813039.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-public-enemies-for-retail--rental-universal-1813039.html ]]> <p>Johnny Depp and Christian Bale star in Michael Mann's gangster biopic as John Dillinger, the infamous bank-robber, and Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent assigned to bring him to justice.</p> Reviews Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-orphan-for-retail--rental-optimum-1813040.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-orphan-for-retail--rental-optimum-1813040.html ]]> <p> Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard adopt a nine-year-old girl from an orphanage, forgetting that it's always a mistake to choose a creepy, Russian-accented prodigy who insists on wearing Victorian dresses, and whose previous adoptive family was frazzled in a house fire. </p> Reviews Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/9-12a-1811462.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/9-12a-1811462.html <p>After an apocalyptic war with the robots all that remains of humanity is a tiny band of sentient dolls stitched from hessian sacking, struggling to survive in civilisation's ruins. </p> Reviews Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/an-american-werewolf-in-london-15-1811463.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/an-american-werewolf-in-london-15-1811463.html <p>An American Werewolf in London also does milieu well. When you think of the hamfisted way most American directors handle Englishness (anyone for Match Point?), Landis's sure sense of the social strata, from creepy Yorkshire pub to yuppie London mansion-flat, is remarkable.</p> Reviews Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/citizen-kane-u-1811466.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/citizen-kane-u-1811466.html <p>It would be nice to be able to buck the critical orthodoxy and say how tired and overrated Citizen Kane is; but the dulll truth is, it's still, indisputably, one of the great masterpieces of cinema – looking even better in this cleaned-up digital print, which shows off the wonderful clarity and detail of Gregg Toland's "deep focus" camerawork, bolstering the complexities of the story with new layers of feeling. </p> Reviews Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/animal-house-15-1811464.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/animal-house-15-1811464.html <p>John Landis's directing career tailed off in ignominy in the late Nineties, with flops such as The Stupids and Blues Brothers 2000; so it's nice to be reminded just how jauntily inventive he was to begin with.</p> Reviews Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/starsuckers-12a-1811470.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/starsuckers-12a-1811470.html <p>For the first hour or so, this documentary about the damaging power of celebrity culture is a shambling mix of strained metaphor and truism in the service of a silly conspiracy theory: that somehow celebrity culture helps the media achieve their aim of "control". </p> Reviews Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dead-man-walking-15-1811476.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dead-man-walking-15-1811476.html <p>Is there any way of stemming the flow of post-Guy Ritchie cockney crime comedies? Would, say, sticking Danny Dyer's head on a pike somewhere in Bethnal Green be enough of a deterrent? Because I for one would be willing to pay that price. </p> Reviews Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/tales-from-the-golden-age-12a-1811484.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/tales-from-the-golden-age-12a-1811484.html <p>Given what we know of Ceausescu's Romania, the Orwellian penetration of the state into every corner of daily life, the mildly comic, wistful tone of this portmanteau of short dramas seems puzzling. </p> Reviews Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/first-night-nowhere-boy-london-film-festival-1811705.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/first-night-nowhere-boy-london-film-festival-1811705.html ]]> <p>You wouldn't expect a film about the young John Lennon to be a full-blown, Douglas Sirk-style weepie but that is what Sam Taylor-Wood delivers in her remarkably assured debut feature, Nowhere Boy – the closing film at the London Film Festival. Her achievement is to have made an emotionally charged family melodrama without blunting the edge and sarcasm that inevitably come when Lennon is your subject.</p> Reviews Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-horseman-18-1811477.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-horseman-18-1811477.html <p>A grieving father discovers that the drugs that killed his daughter were given to her during the shooting of a low-budget porn video, and sets out to wreak vengeance on the men involved, befriending a pregnant teenager along the way.</p> Reviews Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/an-education-12a-1811472.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/an-education-12a-1811472.html <p>Of all literary genres, memoir is surely the most resistant to cinematic treatment: the point of view of a memoir is, however hard the memoirist struggles for objectivity, on the inside looking out. </p> Reviews Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/this-is-it-odeon-leicester-square-london-1811070.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/this-is-it-odeon-leicester-square-london-1811070.html <p>The unprecedented 1am start to this London premiere was timed to ensure Michael Jackson's This is It could land in 20 countries simultaneously. It was rather fitting that when the cameras broadcasting footage to the hordes of fans in Leicester Square broke down, shots from the red carpet in Los Angeles were shown instead, connecting the place that Michael Jackson died with the British capital where the This Is It concerts were due to take place from July of this year.</p> Reviews Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/glorious-39-london-film-festival-1809851.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/glorious-39-london-film-festival-1809851.html ]]> <p>Stephen Poliakoff's Glorious 39 (a British premiere at the London Film Festival) is a far more subversive film than its Brideshead Revisited-style patina of nostalgia first suggests. In spite of all the lovingly filmed footage of aristocratic types enjoying country house living in late 30s England, the mood here is closer to that of The Aerodrome, Rex Warner's allegorical novel about fascism in England, than it is to Evelyn Waugh.</p> Reviews Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/johnny-mad-dog-jeanstphane-sauvaire-97-mins-15-1808813.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/johnny-mad-dog-jeanstphane-sauvaire-97-mins-15-1808813.html ]]> <p> Many films can justifiably claim to have captured the horror of war, but few have done so as mesmerisingly as Johnny Mad Dog. </p> Reviews Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/fantastic-mr-fox-wes-anderson-87-mins-pgbrcirque-du-freak-the-vampires-assistant-paul-weitz-103-mins-12a-1808814.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/fantastic-mr-fox-wes-anderson-87-mins-pgbrcirque-du-freak-the-vampires-assistant-paul-weitz-103-mins-12a-1808814.html ]]> <p> A word of caution if you're planning to take your young to see Fantastic Mr Fox over the half-term holiday. </p> Reviews Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-monsters-vs-aliens-for-retail-amp-rental-paramount-1809315.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-monsters-vs-aliens-for-retail-amp-rental-paramount-1809315.html ]]> <p> Barnstorming title, shame about the slick but empty cartoon that goes with it. Its heroine is a 50ft woman (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) who is recruited by the US government to repel an alien invasion, alongside a few other classic movie monsters. </p> Reviews Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-under-the-mud-for-retail-hurricane-films-1809316.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-under-the-mud-for-retail-hurricane-films-1809316.html ]]> <p> A non-genre film without any big names – it's understandable why distributors might have been scared off by Under the Mud. </p> Reviews Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-drag-me-to-hell-for-retail--rental-lions-gate-1809314.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-drag-me-to-hell-for-retail--rental-lions-gate-1809314.html ]]> <p> Sam Raimi returns to his Evil Dead roots with Alison Lohman as a loans officer who's harassed by a demon. </p> Reviews Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-crooked-house-15-1807204.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-crooked-house-15-1807204.html ]]> <p>Written by and starring Mark Gatiss (of The League of Gentlemen fame), Crooked House is infused with such enthusiasm for the good old-fashioned ghost story that its charm is hard to resist.</p> Reviews Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-drag-me-to-hell-15-1807205.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-drag-me-to-hell-15-1807205.html ]]> <p>Sam Raimi returns to shock (and schlock) tactics with Drag Me to Hell – a jumpy journey so saturated in sputum and gore that it's fitting the film's antagonist should have the ability to transmutate into a grubby handkerchief. </p> Reviews Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-trick-rsquor-treat-15-1807207.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-trick-rsquor-treat-15-1807207.html ]]> <p>As Hallowe'en approaches, Warner Home Video has released the seasonal tie-in in the hope a few unsuspecting souls may be tricked into buying it.</p> Reviews Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-true-blood-season-one-18-1807224.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-true-blood-season-one-18-1807224.html ]]> <p>Alan Ball's gleefully mischievous vampire/murder-mystery saga, set in Louisiana, gets off to a perky start with a giant dollop of slayings, sex and saucy dialogue. </p> Reviews Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-lost-ndash-season-five-15-1807214.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-lost-ndash-season-five-15-1807214.html ]]> <p>It may be indecipherable to newcomers, but those that have managed to stick with Lost will know that it continues to be the most addictive programme currently on television. </p> Reviews Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/an-education-london-film-festival-1806118.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/an-education-london-film-festival-1806118.html ]]> <p>An Education arrives at the London Film Festival almost a year after its Sundance premiere. Given that this is a London-set film showcasing the best of British talent (Lynn Barber, whose childhood memoirs inspired it, screenwriter Nick Hornby, rising young star Carey Mulligan, Emma Thompson, Alfred Molina and others), it's perverse that UK audiences have had to wait so long to see it.</p> Reviews Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/thirst-park-chanwook-133-mins-18br-pontypool-bruce-mcdonald-96-mins-15-1804621.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/thirst-park-chanwook-133-mins-18br-pontypool-bruce-mcdonald-96-mins-15-1804621.html ]]> <p> Horror films, common wisdom has it, exist so that we can confront taboos, contemplate the horrors that we fear and yet strangely desire. </p> Reviews Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:43 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-imaginarium-of-dr-parnassus-terry-gilliam-123-mins-12a-1804628.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-imaginarium-of-dr-parnassus-terry-gilliam-123-mins-12a-1804628.html <p> Terry Gilliam's new film, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, may not be one of his best, but it's certainly one of his most Gilliamesque. Overflowing with puppet theatres and conjuring tricks, ball-gowned beauties and very short men, fabulous myth and sordid reality, it's like a bulging scrapbook of the director's pre-occupations: it's very Terry, even if it's not very good. </p> Reviews Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-mommas-man-for-retail--rental-diffusion-1805042.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-mommas-man-for-retail--rental-diffusion-1805042.html ]]> <p>This piquant American indie comedy-drama zeroes in on the adult male urge to regress to the comforting cocoon of childhood. </p> Reviews Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-x-men-origins-wolverine-for-retail--rental-20th-century-fox-1805041.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-x-men-origins-wolverine-for-retail--rental-20th-century-fox-1805041.html ]]> <p>Gavin Hood, the director of <I>Tsotsi</I>, revives Marvel Comics' <I>X-Men</I> franchise with this handsome yet redundant prequel. </p> Reviews Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-katyn-for-retail--rental-artificial-eye-1805043.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-katyn-for-retail--rental-artificial-eye-1805043.html ]]> <p>Andrzej Wajda's Oscar-nominated feature takes its core from one of the most shocking massacres of the Second World War, when, in March 1940, 22,000 Poles were executed by the Soviets in Katyn forest, including 8,000 military officers. </p> Reviews Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-imaginarium-of-doctor-panassus-terry-gilliam-122-mins-12a-1803293.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/the-imaginarium-of-doctor-panassus-terry-gilliam-122-mins-12a-1803293.html ]]> <p> There are moments in the new Terry Gilliam movie when his florid animations burst out of nowhere, reminding you of those giant trompe l'oeils he famously conjured for Monty Python. </p> Reviews Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:56 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/couples-retreat-peter-billingsley-107-mins-15-1803294.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/couples-retreat-peter-billingsley-107-mins-15-1803294.html <p> Oh my, the smell coming off this thing. </p> Reviews Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:53 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-coraline-henry-selick-101-mins-pg-1803369.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-coraline-henry-selick-101-mins-pg-1803369.html <p> Eleven-year-old Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) is dismayed and lonely after being forced to move to Oregon, and wishes her parents had more time to spend with her. </p> Reviews Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:42 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-xmen-origins-wolverine-gavin-hood-107-mins-12-1803367.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-xmen-origins-wolverine-gavin-hood-107-mins-12-1803367.html <p> Young Logan (Hugh Jackman) claws his old man to death and goes on the run with his similarly clawed brother, Victor (Liev Schreiber – what in hell's teeth is he doing in this rot?). </p> Reviews Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:41 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-my-name-is-earl-season-4-various-directors-761-mins-pg-1803370.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-my-name-is-earl-season-4-various-directors-761-mins-pg-1803370.html <p> It is always a big blow when one of your favourite shows is cancelled, and even more so when the makers are not even given the chance to film a proper ending. </p> Reviews Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:15 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-katyn-andrzej-wajda-121-mins-15-1803371.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-review-katyn-andrzej-wajda-121-mins-15-1803371.html <p> In Katyñ veteran Polish director Andrzej Wajda tackles a terrible war crime carried out against the Polish people early in the Second World War. </p> Reviews Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:13:20 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/pontypool-bruce-mcdonald-93-mins-15-1803303.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/pontypool-bruce-mcdonald-93-mins-15-1803303.html <p> Another zombie movie? Hold that sigh of exasperation, this is different. </p> Reviews Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:20:10 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/ong-bak-the-beginning-tony-jaa-panna-rittikrai-98-mins-15-1803302.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/ong-bak-the-beginning-tony-jaa-panna-rittikrai-98-mins-15-1803302.html <p> The gymnastic flips and feints of leading man Tony Jaa are the reason, actually the only reason, to see this Thai revenge epic. </p> Reviews Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:18:54 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/triangle-christopher-smith-99-mins-15-1803301.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/triangle-christopher-smith-99-mins-15-1803301.html <p> For a while this seaborne psycho-thriller has an unusual creepiness about it. A troubled young mother, Jess (Melissa George), accepts an invitation to a yachting trip with friends off the Florida Coast. </p> Reviews Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:17:32 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/thirst-park-chonwook-133-mins-18-1803295.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/thirst-park-chonwook-133-mins-18-1803295.html <p> Like the Swedish curio Let the Right One In, Park Chan-Wook's take on the vampire thriller heads off in weird and quite unexpected directions. </p> Reviews Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:12:47 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/fantastic-not-quite--mr-fox-misses-the-dahl-menace-1802592.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/fantastic-not-quite--mr-fox-misses-the-dahl-menace-1802592.html ]]> <p> More star wattage is what the London Film Festival (which opens tonight) has been promising us. Given the added emphasis on red carpet events, opening the LFF with an animated feature was clearly a risk. </p> Reviews Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:22:19 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/paranormal-activity-a-visceral-sense-of-dread-1801229.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/paranormal-activity-a-visceral-sense-of-dread-1801229.html <p> People screamed. They hugged each other. Popcorn went everywhere. At least half a dozen punters walked out, and when lights finally went up, a shell-shocked auditorium reverberated with a collective sigh of relief. </p> Reviews Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:17:00 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/up-pete-docter-bob-peterson-96-mins-ubrzombieland-ruben-fleischer-80-mins-15-1800769.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/up-pete-docter-bob-peterson-96-mins-ubrzombieland-ruben-fleischer-80-mins-15-1800769.html <p> Pixar has built its glittering reputation on cartoons that no other studio would countenance and no focus group would recommend. </p> Reviews Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/katalin-varga-peter-strickland-82-mins-15-1800771.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/katalin-varga-peter-strickland-82-mins-15-1800771.html <p> Peter Strickland's Katalin Varga is a powerful, unsettling film. It's also, as we journos say, a good story. </p> Reviews Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-synecdoche-new-york-for-retail--rental-revolver-1801185.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-synecdoche-new-york-for-retail--rental-revolver-1801185.html ]]> <p>Charlie Kaufman's first film as both writer and director is so bizarre that it makes his screenplays for Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine... look like Richard Curtis rom coms.</p> Reviews Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-35-shots-of-rum-for-retail--rental-drakes-ave-1801186.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-35-shots-of-rum-for-retail--rental-drakes-ave-1801186.html ]]> <p>A gentle, family drama is an unexpected move for Claire Denis, the French director who brought us Vincent Gallo as a vampire (Trouble Every Day).</p> Reviews Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-coraline-for-retail-and-rental-universal-1801187.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-coraline-for-retail-and-rental-universal-1801187.html ]]> <p>Adapted from Neil Gaiman’s novel, and directed by Henry Selick, the maker of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline is a stop-motion animation about a bluehaired 11-year-old who finds a doorway to another world.</p> Reviews Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/le-donk-and-scorzayzee-15-1799614.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/le-donk-and-scorzayzee-15-1799614.html Reviews Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:32:09 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-looking-for-eric-15-1799708.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-looking-for-eric-15-1799708.html ]]> <p> It might not have won at Cannes this year, but no one would have been too surprised if it had. </p> Reviews Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:59 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/up-u-1799623.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/up-u-1799623.html ]]> <p> Usually I think of "family entertainment" as a term of abuse. But the digimations created by the House of Pixar have provided a consistent – and consistently astonishing – exception to this rule. </p> Reviews Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:59 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-just-another-love-story-18-1799710.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-just-another-love-story-18-1799710.html <p> Jonas (Anders W Berthelsen) is stuck in a mid-life crisis; bored with the monotonous dinner parties, the claustrophobia of Denmark and the pressures of his home life. </p> Reviews Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:45 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/love-happens-12a-1799616.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/love-happens-12a-1799616.html <p> What a title. Not that this crybaby romantic drama deserves much better. </p> Reviews Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:35 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-anything-for-her-lsquopour-ellersquo-15-1799707.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/dvd-anything-for-her-lsquopour-ellersquo-15-1799707.html <p> Julien (Vincent Lindon) is a decent family man whose marriage remains passionate – perhaps because his wife, Lisa, is played by Diane Kruger. </p> Reviews Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:33 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/goodbye-solo-15-1799619.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/goodbye-solo-15-1799619.html <p> Writer-director Ramin Bahrani's odd-couple drama brings optimism and resignation together in a fight to the death. </p> Reviews Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:24 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/zombieland-15-1799615.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/zombieland-15-1799615.html <p> A zombie comedy funnier than Shaun of the Dead? They said it couldn't be done, but here it is. </p> Reviews Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:12 +0100