ISSN 1712-9559
Film Reviews
1.
Ryan Spence’s essay concentrates on Sissako’s formal interplay between varying forms of interogative discourse (trial process, question/answer, song) and narration, and how the differing power structures of communication in Africa and the West need to be addressed before the true collective voice of Africa can be heard and, in turn, true economic and social progress.
2.
An analysis of the film Thunderbolt, a representative of the hundreds of recent video works to be coming out of Nigeria in recent years (sometimes called Nollywood). Author Murphy places the film within the (hopefully) burgeoning desires and ambitions of this burgeoning commercial industry.
3.
Author Guan-Soon wrestles through the virutes and ambiguities of Zhang Yimou’s Hero, a film which, according to Guan-Soon, negotiates between a Hollywood style blockbuster and a culturally savvy Chinese martial arts epic.
4.
A review essay of one of the most intriguing low budget American horror films ever made, taking into account production history and how director Herk Harvey uses the film's technical limitations to its benefit.
5.
A tribute to the Hammer great Freddie Francis, cinematographer par excellence and director of countless horror films, including the film given extensive analysis here, The Creeping Flesh.
6.
A review of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain tracing the film's literary roots in Allegory, Romanticism and Epic poetry.
7.
An introspective analysis of what happens when aesthetization meets the politically volatile subject of global capitalism.
8.
An overview of the best seen (and not seen) on Montreal theatre screens.
9.
A report on the 2006 edition of the Festival of New Cinema in Montreal, with a preamble on the etiquette of big theatre experience in the era of the multiplex experience.
10.
A review essay of Dai Sijie's France-China production of Sijie's own novel, set during China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Author Garrett analyzes (among other elements) how, during one of the darkest periods in China's cultural history, great art (much of it destroyed as part of the 're-education' program) survived through the perseverance of the human spirit.
11.
A review of the final Merchant-Ivory film, The White Countess, “a high-brow romance drama without romantic love.”
12.
A review of François Miron's revisionist, Sapphic film noir, which imagines a world where women act like Humphrey Bogart and men are nervous, jittery and timid.
13.
A review of British documentarian James Marsh's excellent feature film debut The King, a haunting piece of Southern Gothic which has earned comparison to Terrence Malick, David Lynch, and David Cronenberg (A History of Violence.
15.
Costa–Gavras returns with an astute black comedy on the corporate mindset.
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