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Nobody Else But You
Nobody Else But You is a light neo-noir French thriller about a celebrity model that hides behind her famous figure in public while her personal life is crumbing around her. Her sudden death inspires a writer to become a detective to try to solve the murder mystery. Aside from the dialog and the plentiful use of male nudity, the film felt more American than it did French. |
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Rapt
Rapt is, if anything, a timely film. It’s been over three years since it was released in France (it came out in theatres stateside last year) but it feels more relevant today. With the demonization of corporations and CEOs thanks to the financial crisis and the resulting backlash from the public, Rapt makes the ballsy move of making a selfish, rich chairman of a corporation a sympathetic character. Luckily, Rapt exudes so much confidence from its tight pacing, excellent cast and smooth direction that the gamble ends up paying off. |
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Sleepless Night
When I was 11 or 12 the local YMCA started hosting these overnight “lock-ins” where kids could go and do all kinds of things like swimming, and watching cartoons on a giant screen set up in one of the gyms. We played arcade games, billiards, darts, basketball and dodge ball. You name it, we did it. They served us as all the pizza and pop that we could handle. From 9pm until 3 or 4 in the morning (or for some of us whenever our bodies couldn’t take it anymore) we would just run around a 4 story building having the time of our lives. Sleepless Night reminded me of these lock-ins from my youth. |
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The Double Hour
Some call The Double Hour a foreign art house thriller while I would lean slightly more toward film nior, maybe it’s all of the above. I saw glimpses of Tell No One in this heart pounding Italian thriller from all of the twists and turns in the plot. One thing is for certain, the film begs to be watched more than once. |
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Marianne
It’s hard to criticize a movie like Marianne considering its ambitions. Aside from a few surprises over the years the horror genre has mostly been dead in the water, and Marianne has the balls to try and put more of an emphasis on its dramatic storyline instead of its intriguing horror elements. Despite the marketing and ghostly image on the DVD cover, the scares in Marianne are only a subplot. While it’s refreshing to see a genre film try and treat its characters other than victims and survivors, Marianne doesn’t succeed at what it wants to do and ends up feeling like two mediocre films being awkwardly shoved together. |
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Livide
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out if the new French film Livide is worth the time. I’ve seen the film twice now and my mind is still not made up. The first time I caught it I was sick with a bad case of Strep throat (though my symptoms felt more like the flu) and I was just in a terrible mood to begin with. My second viewing I was as normal as can be with my mind ready to absorb anything thrust in front of me. |
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Revanche
Revanche is a foreign thriller from director Gotz Spielmann which focuses heavily on the characters than it does with narrative. Unique circumstances bring two separate characters together that allows one to commit a sin and the other is setup for a sweet revenge. The film simmers rather than boils as shows that all actions create ripples in the water. |
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Volver
Volver could probably pass as a good Spanish soap opera. The film by talented director Pedro Almodóvar is about a predominantly female family and how they deal with situations that unfold. This melodrama contains all of Almodóvar’s trademarks; female focused, flawed human beings, consistent color palette, and plot twists. It just was not comprised together as well as his other films. |
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The Raid
The Raid: Redemption could be seen as a slaughterhouse more than an action movie. Calling the plot and characters paper-thin would be an understatement, and the body count only stops rising the moment the credits start rolling. Any other film might fail at taking such a basic approach but The Raid (the subtitle was only added for legal reasons) thrives on its simplistic structure. |
