Movie Reviews

'In Darkness': a harrowing subterranean tale of Nazi-occupied Poland

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published by Barry Paris on April 20, 2012 - 12:00am

Anne Frank's Secret Annex in Amsterdam was luxurious compared with the Chigar family's hiding place in Lvov. Comparisons of relative degrees of horror during the Holocaust -- "Which was worse, the Dutch or Polish experience?" -- are odious but inevitable on viewing Agnieszka Holland's "In Darkness."

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`Five Broken Cameras' documents Palestinian resistance

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published by Barry Paris on April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

Americans currently divided over the (dubious) theory and (problematic) practice of "Stand your ground" in Florida should sympathize with a painfully similar concept---and rallying cry---in the West Bank, and elsewhere. Be it Trayvon vs. Zimmerman or Palestinian villagers vs. Israeli settlers, the question is always the same: Who's standing whose ground against whom?

There's no doubt where director Emad Burnat's sympathies lie in "Five Broken Cameras," a joint Dutch-French-Palestinian-Israeli documentary being screened as part of the Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival.

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Carnegie Mellon Film Festival goes Distinctly Dutch

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published by Barry Paris on March 30, 2012 - 12:00am

Two "Distinctively Dutch" -- and diametrically different -- documentaries give deeper definition this weekend to the Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival's "Faces of Others" theme and to the powerful symbiosis of directors who are viscerally tied to their subjects.

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`Girl With Black Balloons': Portrait of an artist in disorder at the Chelsea

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published by Barry Paris on March 29, 2012 - 12:00am

Take a cue from your tulips and get into Netherlands mode for the "Distinctively Dutch" component of this year's Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival, starting tonight with a beautiful 60-minute documentary "Girl With Black Balloons."

First-time director Corinne van der Borch is Dutch but the subject and venue are quintessentially American: She was initially drawn to New York's legendary Chelsea Hotel for its architecture and history but, once there, stumbled upon a greater human fascination in the form of Bettina Grossman.

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Carnegie Mellon Filmfest: Enter `The Suicide Room' at your own risk

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published by Barry Paris on March 22, 2012 - 12:00am

This isn't just the best foreign film I've seen this year, it's the best film, period -- a cutting-edge visual and emotional powerhouse. Its central figure is Dominik, a spoiled-brat high school senior whose permissive father and mother (a government minister and famous costume designer) are too busy with their careers to notice his "issues" -- including the gay inclinations that lead to his outing and humiliation on the Internet. In loco parentis, Dominik seeks love/support online in The Suicide Room.

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Nude, erotic `Crazy Horse Paris': Gypsy Rose Lee meets Bob Fosse and Cirque du Soleil

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published by Barry Paris on March 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Talk about eye candy. For voyeuristic visuals, Frederick Wiseman's "Crazy Horse" documentary is breakfast, lunch and dinner -- plus a midnight snack.

Not least of Mr. Wiseman's virtues is productivity. Since his debut film "Titicut Follies" (1967), the terrifying expose of a Massachusetts hospital for the criminally insane, he has directed no fewer than three dozen subsequent documentaries about the agony and ecstasy of human activity in institutional settings.

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`Friends with Kids': Raunchy fun with a few emotional benefits

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published by Barry Paris on March 9, 2012 - 12:00am

Julie and Jason are just the opposite of "friends with benefits" -- best buds of many years, who live in the same building, hang out together and call each other constantly at all hours to confide their deepest secrets. But it's strictly platonic. They're not attracted to each other "that way."

Both of these successful happy New Yorkers really want a child, just not with each other -- or any formal "spouse." They want to stay attractive and available. Don't we all? What they never want is to subject their hypothetical kids to the inevitably "tragic marriage."

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'Chico & Rita': an animated abundance of Cuban jazz charms

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published by Barry Paris on March 1, 2012 - 12:00am

You can see (and hear) why Chico is so in love with Rita, and why everyone is so in love with 1948 Cuba in the animated love story that bears their names: She's a sexy, dreamily beautiful singer with a seductive, smoky voice to match. And they inhabit a musically magical time and place -- before You-Know-Who took it over.

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Oscar-nominated `A Separation' probes social and religious oppression in Iran

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published by Barry Paris on February 24, 2012 - 12:00am

Now that American and Israeli hawks are prepping us for a new war, against Iran, it might be a good time to gain a little insight into the people they want us to attack -- however Satanic we think their religious verses are.

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'This Means War': A covert battle for Reese's pieces

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published by Barry Paris on February 17, 2012 - 12:00am

It's hard to think outside the box -- the box being television -- when you've made hundreds of millions of dollars inside it.

That is the financial subtext of today's homily and of director McG's approach to making movies like "This Means War," a romcom hybrid starring Chris Pine and Tom Hardy. Mr. Pine plays Franklin Delano Roosevelt Foster -- naturally aka FDR -- a "cruise ship captain." Mr. Hardy plays Tuck, a "travel agent."

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