ChrisKnipp @Filmaster

PRECIOUS is the best movie I've seen this year (JeffreyVC)

PRECIOUS won the audience and grand jury prizes at Sundance but it was not a "huge winner at Cannes." It didn't win anything there. It was well received but got no prize.

Wajda's "Katyń": A Missed Chance (michuk)

Since you're incorporated our discussion into your review and give a link to my double review, I don't really have anything much to add. I don't feel that there are too many characters. I think the main characters are kept clear and central anyway. I agree on the memorable sequences. The final one of the killings and burials is the most visceral and vivid of them all, and will stay in my memory. It may be true that older directors of international reputation like Wajda do come to be making films

Grizzly Man (michuk)

Please tell about the David Letterman joke.

Ekstrakt (2009)

http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/extract-reviews.jpg Working class meets sleazy This is a comedy centered on a factory, not a common setting in Hollywood or in America for that matter, where

Taking Woodstock finds magic behind the spectacle (JeffreyVC)

Jeffrey, I agree with you. This is a little movie (without the pretensions of most of Ang Lee's other ones) but it is charming and enjoyable and I don't know why US critics have mostly been so lukewarm about it. You're good at titles, and "finding the magic behind the spectacle" puts your finger on the best of the film. Teichberg/Tiber was actually 34 at this time and Demetri Martin is now 36. I guess Eliott managed to spend well more than 18 years with his loony mother, except that he had a

Cary Fukunaga's SIN NOMBRE: Vicoria para nadie (ChrisKnipp)

You are absolutely right. Though it is well meaning and achieves a certain authenticity, it seems to me to be less than the sum of its parts. By the way, my title is spelled wrong, but I don't know how to correct it. It should be "Victoria [with a T] para nadie" (victory for no one).

In the Loop (michuk)

"I read your discussion with Oscar Jubis from Filmleaf and I have to say I agree with him pretty much - it was missing a few pauses. Even Mark Twain was promoting a pause as the best way to gain respect of the audience." Personally I am much in favor of pauses, or letting a film "breathe." I think that's necessary and often missing, including in this film, but Oscar Jubis seemed to have disagreed strongly with my review, though he described weakness of the film himself. Anyway thanks for the

In the Loop (michuk)

It has been heralded as brilliant in the US (Metacritic rating 83, very high). And is only now showing here. I reviewed it on Filmleaf: http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2611. I agree with the assessment that the focus is on "blabbing and insulting one another for the hour and a half; it's a showpiece for Peter Capaldi and is an offshoot I understand of his BBC show "The Thick of It."I have a feeling that may be better, that the riffs Capaldi does work better in short segments,

Shocking, Controversial, A Must-See: Tarantinto's 'Inglourious Basterds' (ChrisKnipp)

It depends what you mean by "complex," I guess. In his interview last night with Charlie Rose http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/1523 on the film's US opening day August 21, 2009, QT is very articulate about his method, and mentions how at the Sundance workshop for Reservoir Dogs he was pushed into working out the "subtext" or "meta-story" elements for a scene, and found a lot going on there, but then said, okay, I never have to do that again. He doesn't want to analyze, just work on the surface;

Bękarty wojny (2009)

With its wealth of almost-themes and lush production values, amazing cast, stomach-turning spectacles, and morally dubious Jewish revenge theme, Quentin Tarantino’s movie about movies about World War II

Julie i Julia (2009)

http://z.about.com/d/movies/1/0/9/g/S/julieandjuliapic3.jpg Better at the first blush than in the long follow-through The only trouble with the otherwise charming and very well acted new Nora Epron

Ucieczka z piekła (2009)

In Sin Nombre ("Nameless"), Cary Joji Fukunaga's first film, which he both wrote and directed, a doomed, romantic relationship develops between a boy who has broken away from an evil Mexican gang in Chiapas

Dystrykt 9 (2009)

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/3432/1885858.jpg Cat food for the "prawns" and caviar to the general How odd to set a sci-fi horror movie in and around Johannesburg, South Africa. That's where a

500 Days of Summer starts where most romantic comedies end (JeffreyVC)

I don't want to rain on your parade, but I can't wholeheartedly agree with you. It's an enjoyable movie with a couple of cute and appealing actors in the lead roles. But it's also a bit of a fake because its offbeat surface hides underlying conceptions that are quite ordinary when you look into them. The scrambled chronology and calendar-date-clicker (which turn into annoying mannerisms) cover a story that's new only in avoiding a happy ending. Though I would not rate (500) Days of Summer as low

"Moon": a Big Disappointment (michuk)

This is a nice little film and I think you're too hard on it. One of the nice features is the non-CGI exterior monscape, a rarity today. Another is Sam Rockwell's harassed everyman quality, a fresh outlook on the usually flashy sci-fi image of space travel. I wrote a complete review of the film and here it is: [on my website http://www.chrisknipp.com at http://www.chrisknipp.com/writing/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1291]. A sci-fi film where it's the acting that counts Directed by David Bowie's

Les plages d'Agnès (guybellinger)

I agree it's a superb piece of work and transcends the autobiographical form. I saw it at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center, NYC Feb. 2009 and here is a review I published: http://www.cinescene.com/knipp/beachesofagnes.htm.