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No Country for Old Men (Coen Bros, USA)
I usually don’t see films I know will be opening widely in Columbus, but I couldn’t resist seeing this one, with the rave reviews it has been receiving. I’m not sure I have much to add to the accolades the film has already garnered, but Javier Bardem is quite possibly the best heavy in a film in the past ten years and brings to mind Jack Palance in Shane. The story? A man stumbles on a drug deal gone bad, finds a suitcase stuffed with cash, and spends the rest of the film in a battle of wits with the killing machine on his trail. I would be shocked if Bardem isn’t one of the nominees for best supporting actor at next year’s Oscars. Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson also appear, and it’s based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy (with a Coen bros. twist). (Celebrity sighting: Michael Moore was escorted/inserted in line right in front of me as the line for the screening was about as long as they get. He was very nice and almost apologetic for the VIP treatment and chatted with all around him.)
Source: WexBlog
No Country For Old Men (dir. Joel & Ethan Coen): I actually liked Intolerable Cruelty and thought The Ladykillers had its redeeming qualities, but neither film felt completely on-point. Taking a few years off seems to have done the Coen brothers a world of good. Here, the familiar Coen signifiers are well-deployed, from the seedy motels to the barren landscapes to the slow dollies in to people not quite able to sleep. But No Country For Old Men is also graver than any other Coen brothers movie, despite their trademark deadpan humor and flavorful dialogue (a lot of which is lifted from Cormac McCarthy’s novel). The theme of unstoppable evil and the lengths we’ll go to avoid confronting it seems to have provoked a steely purpose from our Coens. No Country is quiet for long stretches, and the story perversely withholds some major characters (and the stars who play them) until they’re absolutely needed; but nothing about the movie is in the least saggy or superfluous. It’s a fine-tuned anxiety-delivery device, with a menacing jack-in-the box lurking inside.(A)
Source: A.V. Club
See the Trailer
| Film Title |
Director |
DAINIPPONJIN 
(official website)
Friday September 14
Middle-aged slacker Daisato (played by director Hitoshi Matsumoto, one of Japan’s famous comedians) seems an unlikely subject for a documentary crew following his banal daily routine; that is, until he transforms into a giant superhero with tight purple briefs, tattoos and a crazy hairdo to battle outlandish villains and revolting monsters. But with the superhero’s falling TV ratings, noise complaints from citizens, blame for destruction of public property and family problems, he has become the scapegoat of New Japan. A wickedly deadpan spin on Japanese pop-culture and traditions, DAINIPPONJIN is an outrageous comedy destined for cult status. Also starring Riki Takeuchi, UA, Ryunosuke Kamiki and Itsuji Itao. |
Hitoshi Matsumoto |
| THE DEVIL’S CHAIR
(official website)
Quicktime Trailer
Tuesday September 11
Director Adam Mason’s sharp supernatural rollercoaster follows Nick West (Andrew Howard), who has spent years in incarceration for the alleged brutal murder of his girlfriend. Released into the care of a noted psychologist and his students, hell-bent on exposing the truth behind the killing, they return together to the scene of the crime, an abandoned asylum, where a blood-drenched secret is revealed. With the team in mortal danger, the criminally insane Nick is their only hope for survival. Also starring Elize du Toit, Matt Berry, David Gant and Louise Griffiths. |
Adam Mason |
| FLASH POINT
(official website)
Wednesday September 12
After the success of SPL in Midnight Madness in 2005, director Wilson Yip and actor and fight choreographer Donnie Yen (IRON MONKEY and HERO) hit back with another two-fisted cinematic powder keg. Hot-headed cop Jun (Yen) is after a gang of drug-dealing brothers. His undercover colleague, Wilson (Louis Koo), infiltrates the gang but has his cover blown, which lands one of the brothers in jail. The other members vow to wipe out Wilson, the only witness, and set off a series of high-octane chases and bone-cracking fisticuffs. Also starring Collin Chou, Lui Leung-wai and Fan Bing-bing and Xing Yu. |
Wilson Yip |
| FRONTIÈRES
Quicktime Trailer
Friday September 07
The debut feature of Xavier Gens (HITMAN) is a bloody head butt into the stiff face of French cinema. Paris’ projects burn where protesters riot against a newly elected extreme right-wing party. Among the chaos, a gang of youths flee with stolen money towards the Luxembourg border. They reconvene at an inn and encounter their hosts, a motley clan of neo-Nazi fanatics only too keen to invite them into their twisted Gothic household. Starring Karina Testa, Samuel le Bihan, Estelle Lefébure, Aurélien Wiik and David Saracino. |
Xavier Gens |
| GEORGE A. ROMERO’S DIARY OF THE DEAD
Saturday September 08
In his first independently produced zombie film in over two decades, George A. Romero returns to ground zero in the history of the living dead. When a group of film students making a horror movie in the woods discover that the dead have begun to revive, they turn their cameras on the real-life horrors that suddenly confront them, creating a first person diary of their bloody encounters and the disintegration of everything they hold dear. Told with Romero’s pitch-black humor and an unflinching eye on our post-Katrina world, GEORGE A. ROMERO’S DIARY OF THE DEAD marks the noted filmmaker’s return to his roots. Starring Michelle Morgan, Josh Close, Shawn Roberts, Scott Wentworth, Amy Lalonde and Joe Dinicol. |
George A. Romero |
| À L’INTÉRIEUR
(official website)
Quicktime Trailer
Saturday September 15
Four months after the tragic accident that claimed her husband’s life, a pregnant widow, Sarah (Alysson Paradis, sister of Vanessa Paradis), receives an unexpected knock on her door on Christmas Eve. A stranger (Béatrice Dalle) asks to use her phone, which raises Sarah’s suspicions and she immediately calls the police. They find no trace of the woman. Locking her door after the police leave her home, Sarah unwittingly traps herself in a terrifying, jealous maternal struggle for the life of her baby in this nail-bitting French thriller. |
Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury |
| STUCK
Monday September 10
Brandi (Mena Suvari) hits Tom (Stephen Rea) with her car on her way home from a night of partying. With Tom still alive but lodged through her windshield, she promises to go a hospital but then decides to leave Tom to die in her garage as she realizes that her future is inextricably tied to her victim. Realizing this plan, Tom knows escape is his only chance for survival. Based on a true incident, director Stuart Gordon (THE RE-ANIMATOR) has made an urban chiller with a jagged edge of black humour. |
Stuart Gordon |
| VEXILLE
(official website)
Sunday September 09
Dive into the ground-breaking, animated futuristic odyssey of VEXILLE, surface in Tokyo Bay and discover a country sealed off from the rest of humanity. In 2077, Japan has isolated itself from the rest of the world, opposing a United Nations treaty restricting areas of advanced research in biotechnology. Vexille, a female commander in charge of a U.S. Special Forces unit that polices treaty violations, is sent to infiltrate Japan. The revelation of the country’s new reality shakes her when she witnesses the destruction of both land and citizenry by a Japanese mega-corporation and monstrous, android worms. Starring the voices of Meisa Kuroki, Shosuke Tanihara, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Takahiro Sakurai and Romi Pak. |
Fumihiko Sori |
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