What’s in a Name, or Le Prénom in French – which actually translates as “The Given Name” – is a comedy of French farce about a dinner party that goes awry, directed by well-known screenwriters Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière (Renaissance, The Prodigies). The duo adapted the screenplay from their original hit play, and with the exception of Charles Berling, the film stars all the original production’s cast members. From the opening scene there is a rhythmic structure to the story that hums along quite swimmingly with the help of sharp dialog, perfectly delivered by the theatrical cast, and subtle cinematic techniques employed by the film’s director of…
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G-S-T Review…The Great Beauty
Maybe the most impressive feat Paulo Sorrentino pulls off with The Great Beauty is one of restraint; in two hours and twenty minutes, not a single reference is made to the man whose actions most strongly inform the backdrop of the Italian filmmaker’s latest picture. That would be Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s erstwhile prime minister and unapologetic career scoundrel, whose bunga bunga stink wafts through every orgiastic party Sorrentino stages throughout his exquisitely crafted film. But that just speaks to the lasting impact Berlusconi’s negligence and corruption have had on Italian society since his resignation in 2011; no one need mention his name to invoke his presence. He’s a specter looming…
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G-S-T Review…Crystal Fairy
If you hate being the one guy at a party who doesn’t dig recreational drug use, you’re probably going to have a rough time with Crystal Fairy. Oscillating between road trip shenanigans and drug-induced catharsis, Chilean filmmaker Sebastian Silva has the makings of a good film lying right out in the open, but the film’s better elements -an absolutely fearless performance by former child actress Gabby Hoffman chief among them – never gel cohesively with the areas where Crystal Fairy ends up failing. For a story that hinges entirely on a journey of personal realization and cactus-derived hallucinogens, the film exhibits a shocking lack of profundity and doesn’t end up…
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Ohhh, Look…Behind the Scenes Photos For 'The Raid 2'
Gareth Evans has been planning his sequel to The Raid: Redemption for a while now, so here’s some good news: production on the film began just this week. I’m not sure if he’s sticking with The Raid 2: Berandal (which roughly translates to something like “bully” or “ruffian” in English) or if Sony will end up slapping Retaliation on it, but who cares? The Raid stands out as one of 2012’s best genre surprises and one of the tightest, most accomplished action films of the new decade. That we’re getting a sequel at all is nothing short of exciting, to say nothing of the fact that it’s already underway. To kick off shooting on the…
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G-S-T Review…The Taste of Money
Did you know about the corrupting influence money can have on a person, or several persons? Were you aware that the pleasures of the high life come at a dark price? The Taste of Money has both of these big, obvious questions on its mind among many others, and the film– the seventh to come from controversial South Korean filmmaker Sang-soo Im– tackles these ideas with melodramatic zeal, never once shooting for anything resembling graceful subtlety in its portrait of South Korea’s wealthy ruling class. Frankly, the film scarcely even seems interested in dealing with reality, instead engaging in brash, lurid mythmaking ripped straight from headlines chronicling the battle between…
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Sweet International Trailer…'Journey to the West'
AKA A Chinese Odyssey. AKA one of the Four Great Classical Novels. Full disclosure: I watched the trailer for Journey to the West at least a half a dozen times this morning and I’m still not totally sure what I saw with every repeat viewing. Somehow, Stephen Chow and timeless, massively influential Chinese literature seems like a really odd mix, but that’s exactly why I pay the price of admission to see his films in the first place. I’m sure this will make slightly more sense once I’ve actually seen the whole film, though I’m willing to pick up some supplemental reading if it’ll help me attain understanding of the…
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The Criterion Files: Rome, Open City
Rome, Open City: Directed by: Roberto Rossellini Written by: Federico Fellini, Sergio Amidei Starring: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero Cinematography by: Ubaldo Arata Music by: Renzo Rossellini Released: September 27th, 1945 Neorealist cinema has featured into the Criterion Files before– I wrote about Vittorio De Sica’s classic entry in the movement, Bicycle Thieves, much earlier this year (and followed that piece up with an examination of Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, arguably a contemporary neorealist effort despite valid arguments that neorealist cinema no longer exists)– but Rossellini’s landmark contribution to neorealism, Rome, Open City, represents a very different side of that Italian-born aesthetic. For all of its somber qualities, Bicycle Thieves…
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G-S-T Review…Pusher
After seeing Pusher, the British remake of G-S-T favorite Nicholas Winding Refn’s 1996 debut feature of the same name, I’m still struggling with questions about the cinematic space it ultimately occupies. None of them, mind you, are germane to discussions of the film’s quality which is respectable, so in the end I’m probably just navel gazing. But the concept of remaking a movie remains contentious even though filmmakers have been remaking movies for decades, so Pusher will inevitably be subjected to value tests based on its recycled nature, which leads me to the good news: Luis Prieto has made a strong, vibrant crime film. The bad news, though, is that…
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G-S-T Review…Oslo, August 31st
For most of us, a day out in the cities we live in doesn’t represent a strictly dangerous prospect. From street to street, familiarity engulfs us and fosters in us a sense of mundane security; the haunts and locales we visit and patronize become so commonplace that we could never construe them as harmful to our well-being. For Anders, the principal character of Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s sophomore effort, Oslo, August 31st, a single twenty four hour span of time is fraught with the perils of temptation, populated with ghosts from his past, and resonant with the echoes of his guilt and shame. Such are the circumstances of a recovering…
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G-S-T Review…Klown
Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen, the stars and writers of Denmark’s Klown, should find themselves in good company among the most prominent members of the raunchy comedy pantheon. Alternately, the remorselessly profane Danish duo might repulse their peers just as easily. Klown, the cinematic evolution of the television show Hvam and Christensen created and featured in together for four years, pushes every boundary of good taste with a smirk and a cackle; there’s gleeful deceit to how the film frequently builds toward redemptive kindness before pulling the rug out from under our feet. But if the film’s primary interest lies in taking the mickey out of Frank, Casper, and the audience, its…
