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The Lost City Of Z Review

Good

Based on a true story, it's the historical aspect of these events that holds the attention, even though the filmmakers kind of let the drama slip through their fingers. It's an impressively designed film, with vivid characters and some rather amazing situations. But the script's structure is too fragmented to build the story's momentum.

It opens in 1906 London, where Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) is assigned to accompany a geographical expedition to the jungles on the border of Bolivia and Brazil. While there accompanied by the intrepid Costin (Robert Pattinson), he discovers signs of a massive ancient city, which he names Z, the ultimate human achievement. Back in England, he reacquaints himself with his fiercely independent wife Nina (Sienna Miller) and plans a return trip with Costin and wealthy benefactor Murray (Angus Macfadyen) to find this lost pre-European civilisation. But Murray causes so many problems that they return empty-handed. The outbreak of the Great War delays Percy from going back to South America, so he heads off to the front to fight. Later, he organises a final expedition to find Z, accompanied by his now-adult son Jack (Tom Holland).

The screenplay has simplified Percy's attempts to find Z (he actually travelled to Brazil around 10 times). But the three trips depicted here begin to feel oddly repetitive, broken up by scenes of impatient domesticity in Britain. All of these sequences are sharply well shot and played, but the overall impact is lessened by all of the travelling back and forth. And many of the long sequences back in Europe feel like asides to the main story of Percy's all-consuming obsession with finding this ancient city, which we now know exists. Hunnam is terrific in the role, with his cut-glass accent and stiff upper lip even in the face of impending doom. He's likeable and passionate, and his scenes with the superb Miller sparkle. Patterson and Macfadyen add some texture as loyal and obnoxious colleagues, respectively. And Holland's quiet charisma very nearly steals the show.

Continue reading: The Lost City Of Z Review

The Lost City Of Z Trailer and Clip Trailer


Colonel Percy Fawcett is an ambitious British explorer who, come 1925, plans to take a long trip into the Amazon rainforest to uncover an ancient lost civilisation that he names 'Z'. He expects to find ruins and treasure, possibly even remnants from the legendary El Dorado, but it seems an impossible task to get the backing of the respected scientists of the day who can't possibly conceive that a civilisation perhaps more advanced than our own could exist amongst the native tribes they perceive as savages. His wife seems to be the only one who supports his mission, as well as his son Jack and another friend who agree to accompany him on the voyage. Unfortunately, this will be the trio's last trip, as they are subsequently never seen in England again.

Continue: The Lost City Of Z Trailer and Clip Trailer

Lost City Of Z - Teaser Trailer


In 1925, a British explorer named Colonel Percy Fawcett disappeared in the Amazon rainforest with his son Jack and one of Jack's friends. He was on the search for an ancient lost city he dubbed 'Z', rumoured to hold never before noted ruins and possibly the remains of El Dorado. He was also on the way to discover to another location in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, which was talked of in an old manuscript he found at a library in Rio de Janeiro. However, whether or not his journey was completed remains unknown, because neither he not his companions returned from the expedition. To this day, his death remains a mystery. Many have claimed that he was killed by tribal natives in the region, others that they died after falling ill, and one story even claims he spent the rest of his days as the leader of a tribe of cannibals.

Continue: Lost City Of Z - Teaser Trailer

Blood Ties Review


Good

While the story centres on twisted moral dilemmas, this 1970s-set thriller takes such a hesitant, internalised approach that if never lets viewers under the characters' skin. As a result, there's virtually no spark of real life here, despite the presence of several fine actors and a twisty plot that focusses on how decisions affect relationships. It's an oddly muted approach to events that really should have a much stronger emotional jolt.

It's 1974 Brooklyn, where Chris (Clive Owen) has just been released after 10 years in prison. His police detective brother Frank (Billy Crudup) offers help with finding a place to stay, getting a job and escaping his former life of crime, but the options are limited. While trying to reconnect with his junkie-prostitute ex Monica (Marion Cotillard), Chris also begins dating the younger Natalie (Mila Kunis). And he finds himself drifting back into his old gangster role. This causes a conflict of interest for Frank in his work as a cop, especially since he's further compromised by having an affair with Vanessa (Zoe Saldana), whose boyfriend (Matthias Schoenaerts) he's just put in jail.

Filmmaker Guillaume Canet is remaking the 2008 French thriller Rivals (in which he played the Frank character), and he recreates the period beautifully, shooting the film in a grainy 1970s style that emphasises character over action. So it's odd that the characters feel so thinly written, with most of the ambiguity drained from each moral issue they face. Much of this is because everyone is pushing their emotions away and internalising their thought processes so no one else can see them. But this leaves the audience out in the cold. And as a result, everything feels obvious and inevitable, which makes it impossible to get involved as events escalate. It's as if these people are tragic losers, so no amount of sympathy will save them.

Continue reading: Blood Ties Review

The Immigrant Trailer


Ewa Cybulski and her sister Magda are Polish immigrants in search of new lives in the prosperous New York City. However, no sooner have they arrived in the US than Magda is quarantined for a suspected illness and Ewa is forced to venture out into the strange new city alone. With nowhere to go and no friends to speak of, a desperate Ewa bumps into a charmingly dapper but dubious man named Bruno Weiss. He agrees to offer her a bed and money-earning prospects, but the job he wants her to do is far from what she was looking for. He enlists her as a prostitute at his entertainment establishment, and it's there Ewa meets his much more pleasant cousin Orlando the Magician who, stunned by her beauty, convinces her that she needs to be happy and helps her find the courage to escape her ordeal.

Continue: The Immigrant Trailer

James Gray - The 2013 New York Film Festival Presents The Centerpiece Gala Presentation of The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty at Alice Tully Hall NYC 10 5 13 - NYC, NY, United States - Sunday 6th October 2013

Too Early For Best Actress Punts? Marion Cotillard Stuns In 'The Immigrant'


Marion Cotillard James Gray Joaquin Phoenix

Marion Cotillard is the talk of the Cannes Film Festival for her stirring performance in The Immigrant, James Gray's sensitive movie about the immigration experience in New York, circa 1920. The movie sees Gray re-team with Joaquin Phoenix - after We Own The Night and Two Lovers - though all talk focuses on the French actress' performance as a young Polish woman trying to get a foothold in modern America.

The Immigrant plays a major role in several of the 'Oscars 2014 tips' articles on the internet, though the reception to the movie was a mixed bag. As Todd McCarthy at the Hollywood Reporter points out, The Weinstein Company are now likely to focus the spotlight on Cotillard's performance alone in the search for silverware from The Immigrant during awards season. In his review of the film, McCarthy wrote, "Speaking in a completely convincing Polish accent with a slight hint of German due to her character's origins in Silesia and at times speaking in Polish, Cotillard makes the movie, creating a haunted figure who may one day be able to go on to a new phase but is certainly permanently marked by her multiple harrowing ordeals." The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw - who offered up a five-star review for Ryan Gosling's Only God Forgives earlier in the week - gave The Immigrant short shrift, though agreed on Cotillard's performance, writing, "Cotillard herself is incapable of giving a bad performance and she certainly carries the movie's opening act, lining up with her ailing sister in Ellis Island, having tensely endured the unspeakable boat journey from the old country."

The Immigrant is in competition for the Palme d'Or at Cannes though bookmakers Paddy Power has the movie at 10/1 to win the prize. The lesbian romance movie Blue is the Warmest Colour is the current frontrunner after a wave of strong reviews.

Continue reading: Too Early For Best Actress Punts? Marion Cotillard Stuns In 'The Immigrant'

'The Great Gatsby' Opening Cannes Doesn't Seem Like Such A Good Idea Anymore


Cannes Film Festival Steven Spielberg Leonardo Dicaprio Michael Douglas Coen Brothers James Gray Joaquin Phoenix Alexander Payne

The 2013 Cannes Film Festival will open on Wednesday (May 15, 2013) with Baz Luhrmann's 3-D version of The Great Gatsby, a throwback to the roaring twenties adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic book of the same name. The announcement caused unrest earlier in the year given that Gatsby would already have been released in the U.S by the time Cannes came round (it was released last week) though there's a couple of other things to worry about.

The Great Gatsby opened in the United States to fairly lacklustre reviews, dampening the buzz surrounding the start of the 12 day Cannes Film Festival. The critics have already seen it. The critics didn't like it very much. "This dreadful film even derogates the artistry of Fitzgerald, who wrote "The Great Gatsby" while living on Long Island and in Europe," said the Wall Street Journal. It holds a score of 48% on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Nevertheless, champagne bottles will be popped, deals will be made and Harvey Weinstein will be wandering around deciding which movie to snap up as his next Oscar winner at this year's festival. Stars expected to attend include Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling, Emma Watson and the legendary Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachan. "This is the hardest 10 days of the year for me. There are always three or four movies that are exceptional and you have to find them so it is a detective job," said Tom Bernard, co-president and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics.

Continue reading: 'The Great Gatsby' Opening Cannes Doesn't Seem Like Such A Good Idea Anymore

Two Lovers Review


Excellent
Joaquin Phoenix has a reputation for diving heartily into roles, and his starring turn in James Gray's Two Lovers is no exception. In the film's first scene, Phoenix's dive is literal: A Brooklyn kid plunging into the bay in an arresting setup that rings of despair and confusion. It's an appropriate introduction to Phoenix's delicate character development, a performance that buoys an impressive romantic drama.

And that's a genre we don't see too often anymore: romantic drama. Today's cinematic romances are usually steeped in light comedy (even decent ones like Definitely, Maybe) or predictable form posing as drama. But Two Lovers is hardcore drama, with desire at its center. Or more accurately, two desires.

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We Own The Night Review


OK
James Gray has assembled what looks and sounds like a good, smart thriller with We Own the Night: a strong cast, serious aspirations, a specific time and place (Brooklyn, 1988). The story is shopworn, but not without dramatic potential: Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg play brothers on the opposite-ish sides of the law; Joseph (Wahlberg) has followed in the footsteps of their father (Robert Duvall) and joined the NYPD while Bobby (Phoenix) rebels by running a seedy nightclub. With a drug dealer inching into Bobby's territory, he's forced to reconsider his loyalties.

Meanwhile, the movie forces me to reconsider my own, because it spends a lot more time seeming like a good movie than actually being one. For a film with such an ominous, encompassing title, We Own the Night is content to skim the surface of the NYPD, lacking the obsessive attention to detail that distinguishes other crime-heavy glimpses into bygone American eras as diverse as Gangs of New York, Zodiac, or The Assassination of the Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Even Night's period details feel half-assed and incidental, like background songs that sound more like bits of '90s soundtracks to '80s-set movies instead of 1988 itself. In fact, though an early subtitle says so, the year doesn't even seem to be 1988 in particular but a vague, amorphous "eighties," Wedding Singer style.

Continue reading: We Own The Night Review

Little Odessa Review


Good
Little Odessa refers to an old Russian Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, along the lines of Little Italy or Chinatown. There, everyone speaks Russian, wanders through bleak snow-covered streets, drinks vodka, wears heavy wool coats...and most carry guns. This is the age of the "organizatsya," the Russian mafia, for whom Joshua (Tim Roth) is employed as a hit man.

Joshua, a long-time Little Odessa expatriate, is called back to the neighborhood to perform a hit on a big shot resident. When he arrives, he encounters his worshipful brother Reuben (Edward Furlong), former lover Alla (Moira Kelly), hateful father Arkady (Maximilian Schell), and dying mother Irina (Vanessa Redgrave). Together, the cast creates a highly dysfunctional family the likes of which you've probably never seen before.

Continue reading: Little Odessa Review

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James Gray Movies

The Lost City of Z Movie Review

The Lost City of Z Movie Review

Based on a true story, it's the historical aspect of these events that holds the...

The Lost City Of Z Trailer and Clip Trailer

The Lost City Of Z Trailer and Clip Trailer

Colonel Percy Fawcett is an ambitious British explorer who, come 1925, plans to take a...

Lost City Of Z - Teaser Trailer

Lost City Of Z - Teaser Trailer

In 1925, a British explorer named Colonel Percy Fawcett disappeared in the Amazon rainforest with...

Advertisement
Blood Ties Movie Review

Blood Ties Movie Review

While the story centres on twisted moral dilemmas, this 1970s-set thriller takes such a hesitant,...

The Immigrant Trailer

The Immigrant Trailer

Ewa Cybulski and her sister Magda are Polish immigrants in search of new lives in...

Two Lovers Movie Review

Two Lovers Movie Review

Joaquin Phoenix has a reputation for diving heartily into roles, and his starring turn in...

We Own the Night Movie Review

We Own the Night Movie Review

James Gray has assembled what looks and sounds like a good, smart thriller with We...

Little Odessa Movie Review

Little Odessa Movie Review

Little Odessa refers to an old Russian Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, along the...

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