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Princesas (2005)

Tough tricks

Writer-director Fernando León de Aranoa (Los lunes al sol (2002), Caminantes (2001)) here turns his gaze towards a world far removed from that of Pretty Woman (1990) – the grubby, frequently sickening lives inhabited by sex workers, where hope is a truly precious commodity, a different currency from the prices that women haggle for [...]

September 16th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: Spain, prostitution, social drama | Leave a comment

Stella (2008)

[photopress:Stella.jpg,thumb,alignleft]Stellar stuff

Gerald Loftus is back…

Before some genius PR person decides to package this as another ‘coming-of-age’ film, please note that, while Stella (2008), by writer-director Sylvie Verheyde, does have a few of the traditional elements that go into a typical ‘feel-good’ picture, this film is an original.

Yes, there is a little girl in the title [...]

February 21st, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: France, social drama | Leave a comment

Z odzysku (Retrieval) (2006)

[photopress:Retrieval.jpg,thumb,alignleft] Punchy

Polish debut director Slawomir Fabicki doesn’t pull punches with his debut feature Z odzysku (Retrieval) (2006), about a young boxer struggling to do the right thing but finding himself being dragged ever deeper into the criminal mire. While the story takes a little time to find its rhythm, once it’s ducking and diving, the [...]

January 26th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Category: Polish, boxing, character study, social drama | Leave a comment

Milk (2008)

[photopress:Milk.jpg,thumb,alignleft]Out, proud and fighting

Sean Penn’s at it again – as one of the premier actors of his generation, he has joined forces with American auteur Gus Van Sant in this affecting, impassioned tribute to California’s first openly gay public official, Harvey Bernard Milk (1930–1978).

A force for good and for change who, as is so often [...]

January 18th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: US, character study, drama, gay, social drama | Leave a comment

Ladrones (Thieves) (2007)

[photopress:Thieves.jpg,thumb,alignleft]Stolen chances

A slick, well-made effort from Spanish director Jaime Marques (El Paraíso perdido (1999)) – writers Juan Ibáñez and Enrique López Lavigne offer an insight into the life and mind of Álex (Juan José Ballesta), a child abandoned by his kleptomaniac mother after she’d taught him how to ‘lift’ from passers-by, and the relationship he [...]

December 2nd, 2008 | Tags: , , , , , , , | Category: Spain, romance, social drama | 2 comments

Entre les murs (The Class) (2008)

[photopress:entre_les_murs.jpg,thumb,alignleft] Learning curve

The clear favourite to take the top prize at Cannes (and it duly lived up to expectations, scooping the Palme D’Or), Laurent Cantet’s seminal study of ‘the blackboard jungle’ (which fully deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Richard’s Brooks 1955 work, Robert Mulligan’s Up the Down Staircase (1967) and James [...]

August 23rd, 2008 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Category: docu-drama, french, social drama | Leave a comment

Goodbye Bafana (2007)

[photopress:Bafana.jpg,thumb,alignleft] Too black and white
Bille August (Smilla’s Feeling for Snow (1997), Les Miserables (1998)) heads up this multi-European country co-production, but his take on the tale of the relationship between a white South African prison guard and Nelson Mandela is flawed from the outset.

Approaching the immensely marketable material (James Gregory’s autobiography, detailing how his life [...]

August 16th, 2008 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: South Africa, history, social drama | Leave a comment

Breakfast on Pluto (2006)

[photopress:breakfast_on_pluto_0.jpg,thumb,alignleft] Picturenose would take this opportunity to pay tribute to Hélène Noël, late of Brussels – a good friend of Colin’s and the love of James’s life, who was taken from us way too soon, at the age of 42, on 16 June 2008. Hélène was a woman of much love and many gifts and [...]

August 2nd, 2008 | Tags: , , , , , , | Category: Irish, comedy, social drama | Leave a comment

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

[photopress:brokeback_mountain.jpg,thumb,alignleft] Angst Lee

Well, this ever-so ‘umble critic is putting his reputation on the line – Brokeback Mountain (2005) really isn’t quite as good as everyone else seems to believe. There, I’ve said it. Accusations of hard-heartedness may follow, but that doesn’t change the fact that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) director Ang Lee’s simplistic, overindulgent [...]

June 30th, 2008 | Tags: , , , , , | Category: US, romance, social drama | 4 comments

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

Dench does demented
Guess what? Another film I enjoyed. The difference this time being that it was one of a collection that was recently purchased by my good lady. Our taste in films differs quite a bit from time to time and having seen the cover of the DVD and the dreaded words ‘Starring Dame Judi [...]

May 1st, 2008 | Tags: , , , , | Category: british, psychological, social drama | Leave a comment
 
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