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Tim Black
A Single Man: all style, no substance?
With its ruminations on death, modernity and sentiment, there is more to Tom Ford’s directorial debut than some critics suggest.
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| Friday 12 February 2010 |
Tim Black
Haneke: films for middle-class masochists
The director is popular with the arthouse crowd because he gives their prejudices a gloss of seriousness.
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| Thursday 11 February 2010 |
David Bowden
Raising awareness, denigrating the audience
Hollywood’s post-Philadelphia love-in with all things gay has less to do with equality than with feeling superior to the redneck masses.
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| Wednesday 10 February 2010 |
Sharmini Brookes
You need more than rugby to bury Apartheid
Clint Eastwood’s Invictus reproduces the euphoria of South Africa's 1995 Rugby World Cup win, and many of its illusions too.
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| Tuesday 9 February 2010 |
Mark Adnum
Get ready for the annual Meryl Weep
It is right and proper that Meryl Streep hasn’t won an Oscar since Sophie’s Choice in 1982. But just try telling her fans.
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| Monday 8 February 2010 |
Brendan O’Neill
Precious: a new kind of ‘blaxploitation’
It’s tipped to win Oscars, yet Precious is black-trash porn designed to titillate Oprahites and Hollywood liberals.
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| Thursday 21 January 2010 |
Rob Lyons
A romcom with an anti-capitalist touch
Yes, ‘money can’t buy you happiness’ is a cliché, but it’s made to feel fresh in the new George Clooney film Up in the Air.
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| Tuesday 5 January 2010 |
Steve Bremner
Avatar: misanthropy in three dimensions
James Cameron’s latest extravaganza is technically stunning yet promotes a bleak view of humanity.
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| Monday 30 November 2009 |
Nathalie Rothschild
The Coen brothers’ uncertainty principle
Featuring Jews in 1960s Minnesota struggling with the mystery of being, A Serious Man is a seriously good film.
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| Wednesday 4 November 2009 |
Brendan O’Neill
American hippies vs the evil Japanese
The pro-dolphin documentary The Cove exposes how warped are the misanthropic values of the animal-rights lobby.
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| Friday 18 September 2009 |
Sharmini Brookes
District 9: alien, yet all too familiar
A South African living in London finds Neill Blomkamp’s tale of an alien shanty town both compelling and uncomfortable.
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| Thursday 20 August 2009 |
Rob Lyons
‘We’re in the killing Nazis business’
Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is preposterous, frequently cartoonish and too long — but it’s still lots of fun.
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| Friday 14 August 2009 |
Delphine Chui
Coco Before Chanel: a rags-for-riches tale
Anne Fontaine’s biopic suggests the French fashion icon was as much a social climber as a trend-setting genius.
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| Friday 15 May 2009 |
Saga Lofgren
Star Trek: to boldy go and revive a franchise
JJ Abrams’ film looks fantastic thanks to modern special effects, while retaining the moral core of Gene Roddenberry’s original.
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