cinefile
Film
Shadow Dancer
The new film from James Marsh, whom most cinemagoers know as a documentary-maker, is a tightly packed and wonderfully shot espionage-thriller set in Belfast and London in the early 1990s. Continue reading
Entre les murs: Monsieur Lazhar
Set in Montréal, this story about children mourning the loss of their teacher has a remarkable tenderness and acuity to it, viewing the travails of her substitute through their eyes—and as a parallel for their own grief. Continue reading
Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel
Diana Vreeland was larger than life. She wouldn’t have approved of this small-time documentary, which shines only in fits and starts, never quite lighting up the screen the way Vreeland apparently lit up every room she entered. Continue reading
How To Meet Girls From A Distance
Dean Hewison and Richard Falkner’s impressively produced and tightly scripted film—the funniest Kiwi movie since Boy—deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. The micro-budget Wellington-set wonder premièred at the NZIFF and is opening small, on just 14 screens around the country. Continue reading
Show Me Shorts 2012
Now in its seventh year, the festival showcases a variety of short films from New Zealand and around the world. It also includes seminars from visiting filmmakers, and a Short Film Lab in partnership with Script-to-Screen. Continue reading
True Hollywood Story: Argo
Ben Affleck’s new film, which dramatises part of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, aims to be a send-up of Hollywood as well as an action-packed tale of true espionage; unfortunately, it takes liberties with the facts, and is bogged down by a commitment to period style. Continue reading
Beasts, Kingdoms, Holy Motors: The New Zealand International Film Festivals 2012
The 2012 festival lineup is spectacular, with yet another record-breaking number of films direct from Cannes, and the world premières of more than half a dozen locally-made features. Continue reading
The Man Who Fell To Earth: Brian Eno, 1971–1977
Though this seven-year stretch was a fruitful period, too much of this unofficial portrait is spent in redundant, repetitive conversation with collaborators—but even hard-core fans will enjoy its linking of Eno’s avant-garde and (contemporary) classical influences. Continue reading
Man on a Ledge
Directed seemingly only for the paycheck by Jørgen Leth’s son Asgar, and written by some hack called Pablo F. Fenjves, this is the kind of disposable Hollywood garbage that, once you start to think about its many faults, falls to pieces very quickly. Continue reading
Documentary Edge 2012
Now in its seventh year, the festival is committed to giving film-goers the opportunity to sample a wide range of documentaries from New Zealand and around the world. In that spirit, this year’s programme is appropriately massive, comprising 72 films. Continue reading
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