Our film critic makes the nominations for his own personal Oscars in a widely underrated year for film
December is the season of list-making and Top 10 compiling, but when I mention this to other critics, it's been getting winces and shrugs and mutterings that 2010 hasn't been a vintage year. I'm not so sure about that. It's true that the huge arthouse hits like The White Ribbon and A Prophet are now a very distant memory — A Prophet in fact was released at the very beginning of this year, but has been so extensively discussed, that I don't mention it below. Some huge crowd-pleasers, like Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, Tom Hooper's The King's Speech and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, haven't yet had a full release and neither has Kelly Reichardt's western, Meek's Cutoff. These things may combine to produce the impression that 2010 is in itself a thin year.
December is the season of list-making and Top 10 compiling, but when I mention this to other critics, it's been getting winces and shrugs and mutterings that 2010 hasn't been a vintage year. I'm not so sure about that. It's true that the huge arthouse hits like The White Ribbon and A Prophet are now a very distant memory — A Prophet in fact was released at the very beginning of this year, but has been so extensively discussed, that I don't mention it below. Some huge crowd-pleasers, like Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, Tom Hooper's The King's Speech and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, haven't yet had a full release and neither has Kelly Reichardt's western, Meek's Cutoff. These things may combine to produce the impression that 2010 is in itself a thin year.
- 12/1/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
This is an exclusive interview with Jez Lewis, director of Shed Your Tears And Walk Away on which Nick Broomfield (Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer, Biggie and Tupac, Kurt & Courtney) was an Executive Producer. Jez Lewis, first time director of the emotionally bruising, excellent new documentary Shed Your Tears and Walk Away, this week held a special preview screening at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts on The Mall. A selection of family, friends, esteemed filmmakers, theatre bigwigs and paying guests attended the evening with fine British actress Diana Quick chairing a Q&A session after. Having already seen the film, I was lucky enough to sit down and talk to Jez during the screening to begin to deconstruct this intensely personal film of which the director has so clearly invested so much of himself.
- 6/13/2010
- by Dan Hollis
- Pure Movies
This is the review for Shed Your Tears and Walk Away directed by Jez Lewis. For his first feature film, documentary filmmaker Jez Lewis has daringly chosen an intensely personal subject. At first glance, Shed Your Tears And Walk Away is a rather unpolished documentary, grainy, shakey, raw; a second, closer look reveals a human drama fraught with aching torment, regret and futility. But beyond these filmic tropes, what actually lies at the centre of this project is one man’s desperate bid to save his childhood friends from death.
- 6/13/2010
- by Dan Hollis
- Pure Movies
Greenberg (15)
(Noah Baumbach, 2010, Us) Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh. 107 mins
Usually Ben Stiller is the guy you like in the movie, and the guy you laugh at. Here he's bravely subdued and unsympathetic – a self-absorbed slacker with extreme empathy issues – but you can still laugh at him. After a while, you might even like him. Drifting back to La, he picks at old relationship wounds and opens up fresh ones (with the winningly pathetic Gerwig) in a charming character study with indie values (and soundtrack) that under-achievers of a certain age will relate to.
Brooklyn's Finest (18)
(Antoine Fuqua, 2009, Us) Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke. 132 mins
Breaking news: law enforcement in the sketchier areas of New York is sometimes quite difficult. This three-pronged assault hammers the cliches home relentlessly, self-importantly detailing the trials of its compromised lawmen as if it's saying something new. Or something at all.
(Noah Baumbach, 2010, Us) Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh. 107 mins
Usually Ben Stiller is the guy you like in the movie, and the guy you laugh at. Here he's bravely subdued and unsympathetic – a self-absorbed slacker with extreme empathy issues – but you can still laugh at him. After a while, you might even like him. Drifting back to La, he picks at old relationship wounds and opens up fresh ones (with the winningly pathetic Gerwig) in a charming character study with indie values (and soundtrack) that under-achievers of a certain age will relate to.
Brooklyn's Finest (18)
(Antoine Fuqua, 2009, Us) Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke. 132 mins
Breaking news: law enforcement in the sketchier areas of New York is sometimes quite difficult. This three-pronged assault hammers the cliches home relentlessly, self-importantly detailing the trials of its compromised lawmen as if it's saying something new. Or something at all.
- 6/11/2010
- by The guide
- The Guardian - Film News
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