RSS

Review: Neomanila

— by RON WILKINSON —

Teen Toto shuffles to the crowded, seething Manila jail to see his brother. He is met with routine slurs and insults by the police and grudgingly offered a chance to see his Kiko who is imprisoned for criminal gang crimes. Whispering the latest news of disappeared friends, Toto hands Kiko the object of his visit, a rusty razor that could spell the difference between Kiko getting out alive to go home, or carried on a board to a pauper’s grave.

This sets the tone for writer/director Mikhail Red’s gritty noir set in the blackest of asphalt jungles, the gangland slums of inner city Manila. The New York premier of this swaggering motorcycle mounted revenge thriller is presented by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema as part of the 17th New York Asian Film Festival. (CONTINUED)


Review: Dynamite Graffiti

— by RON WILKINSON — A woman walks on hesitant feet to a secret appointment at a humble shed in a dark forest. She is lightly dressed, the clothes she wears functional more than cosmetic. She is pretty, and her lover waits for her with great anticipation. When she arrives, several pounds of high explosives […][...]


Review: The Blood of Wolves

— by RON WILKINSON — There is hot water in Hiroshima as maverick cop Ogami does it his way. A firm believer in tit for tat, Ogami has seen the “Dirty Harry” movies and knows how to handle punks. Too bad for his young sidekick Hioka, he handles college grad rookies the same way. Set […][...]


Review: Beautiful Things

— by RON WILKINSON — As the chicken embryo consumes the food inside the egg, so do we consume the world’s resources. Consumption threatens to become more than a means to an end. It threatens to become an end unto itself. The beautiful things in this movie are not the priceless things we live for, […][...]


Review: Boys Cry

— by RON WILKINSON — Two teens slamming down pizza from their bottom rung jobs radiate their lust for life. Sprung from work and cruising home they hit and kill a pedestrian on a dark street. They did not see the victim, because he did not want to be seen. Terror stricken, they flee the […][...]


Review: The Testament

— by BEV QUESTAD — Yoel Halberstam has seven days to find a mass grave in Austria before construction starts. But where exactly is it, why won’t people talk and does it actually exist? Halberstam is an historian, an orthodox Jew, and a devout seeker of the truth. His crucial work is hindered by Holocaust […][...]


Review: Naples in Veils (aka Napoli velata)

— by RON WILKINSON — The camera spins around a dizzying spiral staircase as shots ring out. Cut to an obscure, abstract play being performed in the apartment of a member of the ensconced elite. A stunningly sexy Adriana (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) is swept off her feet by the equally sensual Andrea (Alessandro Borghi). The sweeping […][...]


Review: Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts

— by RON WILKINSON — Whatever acts of bloody violence Marlina may be guilty of, her crimes are nothing compared to the delightful twist director Mouly Surya has put in the neck of the spaghetti western. The lone cowboy, modestly dealing with laughably outrageous fortune with simple, terminal solutions, has nothing on this Indonesian widow. […][...]


Review: Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf

— by BEV QUESTAD — Brimming with beauty, Thomas Piper’s sensitive presentation of “The Gardens of Piet Oudolf” is a soft poem of life. Already known as an art photographer, capturing the gardens of Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf in all of the seasons is truly a project supreme. Presented with delicate piano accompaniment, never […][...]



← Previous Entries