REVIEW: Restrepo

Restrepo

Director: Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington

Year: 2010

Plot Summary: Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's year dug in with the Second Platoon in one of Afghanistan's most strategically crucial valleys reveals extraordinary insight into the surreal combination of back breaking labor, deadly firefights, and camaraderie as the soldiers painfully push back the Taliban.

Winner of this year's documentary award at Sundance and tipped for an Oscar nomination, Restrepo is a documentary that follows a group of soldiers positioned in the most dangerous area of Afghanistan for just over a year.

By Daniel Sarath with 1 comment

REVIEW: Monsters

Monsters

Director: Gareth Edwards

Year: 2010

Plot Summary: Six years after Earth has suffered an alien invasion a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.

Monsters has been causing some giant waves within the film industry. Made on only £500,000, shot by only two people and pieced together by a minuscule crew, it's a testament to the power of low budget film making during a period when everyone is keeping an eye on their wallets. Director Gareth Edwards proudly uses his talent for visual effects and expert eye for cutting corners here to create this science fiction movie that proves you can still achieve stunning visuals with just a handful of cash. All you need is a good imagination.

By Daniel Sarath with No comments

EDITORIAL: Analysing the Golden Globe nominations

The Golden Globes leave me disappointed year after year.

While the Oscars, though admittedly not perfect, have had a fairly good history of choosing nominees who truly deserve to be recognised, the Golden Globes instead seem to get it all wrong.

By Daniel Sarath with No comments

REVIEW: Somewhere

Somewhere

Director: Sofia Coppola

Year: 2010

Plot Summary: A hard living Hollywood star is forced to re-examine his life when his 11 year old daughter turns up on his doorstep.

Sofia Coppola's movie is one that causes a strange response in the viewer; it is both wonderful and disappointing at exactly the same time. After all, it's hard to deny that Somewhere is a work of high-art that confirms Coppola as a master behind the camera, but it's also something of low entertainment leaving you cold, emotionless and frankly a little bored.

By Daniel Sarath with No comments

REVIEW: Of Gods And Men

Of Gods And Men

Director: Xavier Beauvois

Year: 2010

Plot Summary: Eight Cistercian monks come under attack in their Algerian monastery forcing them to question both their faith and their mission in the country.

France’s submission for the Best Foreign Film award at the Oscars is one of the finest works of world cinema so far this year. Telling the story of 8 Cistercian monks who came under attack in their Algerian monastery in 1996, Of Gods And Men is an engrossing and moving tale of spirituality.

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FILM CHALLENGE: 192) Easy A

192) Easy A

Director: Will Gluck

Year: 2010

Plot Summary: After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean cut high school girl sees her life paralleling Hester Prynne's in "The Scarlet Letter," which she is currently studying in school - until she decides to use the rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.

It's hard to deny that Easy A, an American comedy about a clean-cut high school girl who uses the school's rumour mill to advance her popularity, is a well-written comedy. With an off-beat and original narrative alongside some fast, witty dialogue it will leave you wondering where the 90 minutes went and smiling from start to finish.

However, that doesn't necessarily make Easy A fantastic by any means.

By Daniel Sarath with No comments

REVIEW: Skeletons

Skeletons

Director: Nick Whitfield

Year: 2010

Plot Summary: Two exorcists literally remove the skeletons from the cupboards from people's homes.

Falling somewhere between Being John Malkovich, Donnie Darko and Inception, the winner of this year’s Best British Film at the Edinburgh Film Festival has all the right ingredients to be a cult classic. Its concept – two men who specialise in finding, as the saying goes, the skeletons inside people’s closets - promises to make for a smart, funny and enjoyably bizarre hour and half of entertainment. However, for a number of reasons, it just doesn’t work.

By Daniel Sarath with No comments