Stylish Norwegian thriller, remade last year by Christopher Nolan, whose version is almost eerily faithful to the original. Nolan had the powerhouse cast—Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank—but this probably has the sharper atmospheric edge, and director Erik Skjoldbjærg builds the tension expertly.
John Sayles scripted this Jaws-onland rip-off, with Robert Forster as the cop chasing a giant man-eating monster down in the sewers. Forster's dogged, and some of the set pieces are pretty nifty, but the plot's farcical, and this isn't strong on intellectual content despite its obligatory eco-message. The sequel is a made-for-TV retread, of practically zero interest.
Oblique, arcane and infuriatingly sluggish, even by Tarkovsky's standards (makes Andrei Rublyov look like Moulin Rouge), Nostalgia is the litmus test for arthouse cinephiles. The 'story' of a Russian poet locked in existential agony while researching an obscure 18th-century composer is brimful of breathtaking tableaux, portentous dialogue and primal symbolism (flickering flame as human soul). But is it enough?
Run-of-the-mill contemporary Bollywood fare—a riot of colour, violence, heavy-duty tearjerking and song. But its tale of a beautiful young girl, Nandini (Karishma Kapoor), whose marriage sees her uprooted from a comfortable life in Canada back to the poverty of India, is a cut above. There she confronts her tyrannical father-in-law, striking as feminist a blow as Bollywood allows.
Bryan Singer's faithful take on Marvel's merry mutants is probably the best superhero movie to date, due primarily to Hugh Jackman's grumpy Wolverine, Anna Paquin's fragile Rogue, a couple of class-act Shakespearean luvvies (Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen), some great SFX and David Hayter's fine script. Roll on the sequel!
Magisterial, tough-hearted 1967 western from writer/director Tom Gries. Charlton Heston is a revelation as the eponymous ageing cowhand, a lonesome, unemployed illiterate, bushwhacked by deranged preacher Donald Pleasence and his boys. While recovering, he encounters Joan Hackett, who, although travelling through the wilderness to join her husband, offers the chance of a life he's never known.
If Easy Rider spelled the end of the hippie dream, then Chainsaw provided the full-blown nightmare. A camper van full of paisley-shirted, astrology-obsessed kids pulls up in rural Texas only to discover Leatherface and his family only too willing to show them some local hospitality. The opening half-hour still remains the most unnerving in horror history.
Audrey Tautou's wide-eyed, innocent expressions are subverted cleverly in this Gallic romance-mystery. Hints of Hitchcock, but a mention of Memento's inevitable, as we see the story first through her eyes, then through those of the object of her amour fou, Samuel Le Bihan. Doesn't soar, but studded with scenes both picturesque and psychologically taut.
