Picturenose

It’s a hard life in the European Parliament, Brussels, enjoying the very reasonably priced bar and canteen, free access to internet/printer/phone/fax and, most important, the chance to watch the three contenders for the European Parliament LUX Cinema Prize 2008 in an auditorium specially constructed for that very purpose. Our man thinks he’s found the winner…

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Road to Hell

It would appear that the mud really does stick. Returning from the 2006 Berlinale Film Festival, at which The Road to Guantánamo won the Silver Bear award, two of the actors (Rizwan Ahmed and Farhad Harun) and two of the ex-detainees were temporarily detained and interrogated by UK police. According to BBC News, a Brit bobby asked Ahmed if he intended to make any more political films. The Thought Police are closing in…

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Butcher’s hands, gentle souls

Feeling slightly guilty about tearing into Steven Spielberg’s latest, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (not because I’ve changed my mind but because normally I love Spielberg’s work, it being one of the reasons why it’s great to critique film), it seemed an appropriate time to go back to his previous, Munich, a troubling work from a director (just about) at the top of his game.

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Moore’s medicine goes down great

The self-appointed scourge of misguided US values (Roger & Me (1989), Bowling For Columbine (2002), Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)) is back with a vengeance – watching Sicko, it’s impossible to shake Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s hilarious ‘marionette Michael Moore’ take in Team America: World Police (2005): “Bring it all down! Bring it all down!”

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