Wednesday 27 October 2010

It's a wonderful afterlife

The creators of the British Indian comedy genre return with another comedy about marriage, and life in English towns.

Until Pride and Prejudice and Zombies gets adapted for the screen, It’s a Wonderful Afterlife holds the crown for the romantic comedy/horror comedy mash-up madness.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 27 October 2010.

Last exorcism, The

A priest conducts exorcisms knowing from experience that there's no such thing as demons or demonic possession, only confused children in need of counselling and stressed parents in need of some reassurance a spectacle and ritual can offer.

The last exorcism may be the only decent film in the found footage horror genre precisely because its plot isn't bounded by the genre's premises itself.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 27 October 2010.

Social Network, The

The 'making of Facebook' movie is also a biopic of sorts of Mark Zuckerberg.

Here, the Time magazine's 2010 "Man of the Year" is cast as a modern day robber baron whose willingness to do very nasty, possibly unethical, and borderline illegal things is central to his success.

I suspect this might make a great double-bill with There will be blood.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 27 October 2010.

Wednesday 20 October 2010

The girl who kicked the hornet's nest (Luftslottet som sprängdes) (2009)

The victim who survives to enact unholy vengeance on her tormentors is the theme of the final film in the Millennium trilogy.

Yes, I'm saying this film is a well-disguised slasher flick where Lisbeth Salander is your Final Girl.

Shifting from murder mystery to conspiracy film to a slasher flick masquerading as a courtroom boiler, this is isn't just for the completists.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 20 October 2010.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

Bestseller (베스트셀러) (2010)

A disgraced author eager to make a comeback secludes herself and her troubled daughter in a creepy old house in a rural town, whereupon obviously Strange Things Happen.

The Korean psychological thriller and its trademarked Double Twist shows signs of being stretched beyond its creative limits in Bestseller.

Unintentionally campy in its first half and a showcase of everything wrong about the Double Twist, this is one to avoid.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 12 October 2010.

Wednesday 6 October 2010

I am love (Io sono l'amore) (2009)

Tilda Swinton is matriarch of a ridiculously wealthy family, The Woman behind The Man, and all-round successful mother - and all that will change when she falls in love.

A more mannered, deliberate reworking of Teorema and its critique of capitalism and the family, love is set loose and all that is solid melts into the air.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 6 October 2010.

Eat Pray Love (2010)

Snicker all you want but there's something to be said about the myth of travel - that it will change you forever, show you the meaning of life, the universe, and everything, and perhaps you will meet a tall, dark stranger...

Eat Pray Love is a well-executed entry in the genre of travel films where WASP Americans are schooled in the wisdom of good living and good loving by swarthy people.

Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 6 October 2010.

Dinner for Schmucks (2010)

Hollywood remakes Le diner de cons.

From a mean, social comedy of manners about a moron driving an average man mad, we now have a moralistic, sentimental comedy about an idiot savant who drives a type A yuppie mad.

May work if you're the sentimental type.


Read my full review at Fridae, first published on 6 October 2010.