Reviews
2016
SCREENING: THE EDUCATION OF AUMA OBAMA
2015
TRUTH
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DYING TO KNOW
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STEVE JOBS: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE
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STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON
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MERU
CLOUDS OF SILS MARIE
2014
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
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AWAKE: THE LIFE OF YOGANANDA
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JERSEY BOYS
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THE TOP FIVE
2013
RACHID BOUCHAREB
2 DAYS IN NEW YORK AND HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI
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BILL W (THE FILM)
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BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
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THE AVENGERS
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BULLY
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CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY
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IN DARKNESS
Review by David Anthony
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TRAVELING LIGHT
Review by David Anthony
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TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY
Review by David Anthony
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2011
THE DEBT AND THE GUARD
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SARAH’S KEY, ANOTHER EARTH AND PROJECT NIM
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MAGIC TRIP
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HP7: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART TWO
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SUBMARINE BY RICHARD AYOADE
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MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, A FILM BY WOODY ALLEN
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CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS: A WERNER HERZOG FILM
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QUEEN TO PLAY
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IN A BETTER WORLD
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THE CONSPIRATOR
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MIRAL
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“TAMBIÉN LA LLUVIA (EVEN THE RAIN)”
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Review by David Anthony
As we approach the holiday season, there are few gifts more eagerly awaited than the increasingly precious “family film.” This season we are especially favored by the appearance of one such offering by a master craftsman for whom family filmmaking has not always appeared a priority. I speak of Martin Scorsese whose latest creation, Hugo, is a very different animal from what we may be used to from the auteur who gave us Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Gangs of New York and Goodfellas. To be sure, all of Scorsese’s movies explore relationships, frequently with men at the center, and, one could say, familial concerns, although these may be embedded within or submerged beneath other plot devices and so might not seem uppermost in our consciousness.Hugo is several tales woven into one. The main character is the eponymous young French orphan around whom action revolves who strives to subsist by flying under the radar, evading those seeking to take advantage of his perceived vulnerabilities. Among these are a mysterious owner of a curio shop, ostensibly an artisan with a dark secret, played by Ben Kingsley and the gendarme who would love to consign him to an orphanage, delineated with sinister glee by Sacha Baron Cohen. Hugo is Asa Butterfield, son of the dear departed father (Jude Law) who introduced him to the wonders of watchmaking and the captivating cosmos of clocks. Ironically this child who is destitute is tasked with maintaining time in a most important site, a Paris train station. That sense of orderly responsibility juxtaposed alongside the chaos of a life for which little else is predictable is the source of a large part of Hugo’s charm.But the other element that seizes viewers by their eyes and hearts is the world that is unleashed once we learn the secret of the other mechanic in this magical mélange, the man in the shop who is irked by the antics of Hugo and through whom we shall discover the marvel of yet another set of synchronized surprises, none other than one of the fathers of cinema itself, which then transforms the entire experience of seeing what unfolds on film into a love poem, an homage to cinema itself, in all its majesty.
To enjoy Hugo one must suspend disbelief and embrace that metaphorical inner child, recalling how it was the very first times we were exposed to the illusion of motion on screen, before we became skeptical and cynical, and heroes turned to anti-heroes and everything seemed empty, hollow and self serving; before remakes trumped imaginative and evocative images, provoking and prodding our senses and before we gave up on the prospect of spending ninety minutes escaping from reality.
If you can grant yourself permission to go with the flow, then Hugo should make this season an especially memorable one for you. Give it a chance. You richly deserve it.
MARGIN CALL
Review by David Anthony
No one needs to tell anyone living in the U.S., indeed anyone anywhere in the worldthat these are troubled financial times. But just in case you need reminding or if perchance you are a glutton for punishment, then there is Margin Call, a thriller more frightening than Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney and Vincent Price put together, complete with a Hitchcock ending. I had to summon some courage to watch this one.Written and directed by J. C. Chandor, Margin Call stars Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, John Tuld, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley and Stanley Tucci. in one very long day in an investment banking firm as the 2008 financial crisis unfolds. In some ways the tension builds reminiscent of 24, yet without the sound effects. Instead, viewers watch the faces of those dramatis personae who hold the cards or pretend to do so, as they alternately lie, cheat, steal and moralize about the measures they may feel they must take in order to ensure survival of their firm, their jobs and ultimately themselves at any and all costs. It is a familiar tale, ripped as they say from the headlines, but is no less horrifying when you know where it will lead, and from the shaky start there is absolutely no doubt about this. There is no way or nowhere to go but down, down, down.
What makes it worth watching is the acting. It seems unlikely that many minds may be changed by the level of detail and the technical proficiency of the explanations for the disaster, but 90 minutes in the presence of this cast, led by Spacey and Irons, with assists from Tucci and Moore and room for the newcomers Quinto and company are enough to justify the price of admission. Admittedly it is a bit like buying a ticket for a fight only to discover one is oneself in the ring, but then we should not be surprised about that, because it is the reality of life as we live it.
Writer-Director Chandor operates like a good bassist in a smooth quartet. If most of the time you don’t hear him, it is because he is doing his job. Our attention is fixed on story and its delineators, the ensemble of actors who walk us through this fiscal debacle so deftly and quickly that we barely notice how far we have gone until the final scene when Kevin Spacey digs a grave for a beloved trusted companion, one of the few pure friendships unsullied by greed, venality and the will to win at any cost.
Margin Call. See it if you dare.
For the KUSP FILM GANG, this is David Anthony.
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2008
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED
Review by David Anthony
If you had come of age during the 1970s and were in the habit of watching any of the many BBC miniseries offerings aired on Public Television during that time or if you are a fan of Evelyn Waugh, the title “Brideshead Revisited” should ring a bell. But if neither of these allusions resonates with you, do not worry because seeing it cold can be just as satisfying.
In truth, it would help if one were something of an Anglophile at the outset as this story is “veddy British.” It is about rank and faith, meaning ruling class Catholicism vs everything else, starting with Protestantism, the “right” families, the “correct” schools, “proper” deportment, patrician manners and manors and “the chaps” around whom everything revolves, or so it has always seemed to them. Enter plebeian Charles Ryder, played subtly by Matthew Goode, an upwardly mobile social climbing artist whose seeming guileless innocence and rugged good looks get him into an unimaginable set of adventures and a few forbidden places. Handsome Ryder attracts both men and women, and there’s the rub, so to speak.
But “Brideshead Revisited” is about much more than Charles, even though he is the guide through whose eyes and ears we enter the capacious and spacious estate of Brideshead and encounter its Lord and Lady Marchmain, its shames, scandals and secrets and its pain and suffering as it seeks to remain what it knows it must be and strive to do what its scions must do. There are love and loss here, and struggling stiff upper lips as well.
So there. What do you need to see this movie? An affection for England, an appreciation of the way the shadows of the past hang over the present, and a feeling for ancestry and family, whatever and whomever they were—and were not. It is also vital to be able to suspend disbelief, about not only class but religion as well; both are inextricably bound and are inescapable parts of the story. Even if you do not possess this peculiar potpourri of predilections, “Brideshead Revisited” is still worth watching, if only for its glimpses of Venice, Morocco and of course Brideshead itself, together with people, times and places that are no more, for good and for ill.
For the KUSP Film Gang, this is David Anthony.
MELANCHOLIA
Review by David Anthony
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BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST
Review by David Anthony
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PACIFIC RIM FILM FESTIVAL
Review by David Anthony
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01/18/2011
THE WAY BACK
Review by David Anthony
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TILMAN STORY
Review by David Anthony
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09/08/2010
ANIMAL KINGDOM
By David Anthony
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PRODUCER MARK SHELLY
By David Anthony
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08/10/2010
COUNTDOWN TO ZERO
Review by David Anthony
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JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK
Review by David Anthony
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07/14/2010
THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE
Review by David Anthony
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ON TEACHING AFRICAN CINEMA
By David Anthony
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Review by David Anthony
Review by David Anthony
FLAME AND CITRON
Review by David Anthony
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Review by David Anthony
BEAUTY IN TROUBLE