Hollywood has had a long love affair with the heist sub-genre. Dating as far back as the silent film era with 1928’s Alias Jimmy Valentine, and transcending various genres like westerns (The War Wagon), war (Kelly’s Heroes) and even animation (Toy Story 3), the heist has tantalized our fantasies and outsmarted our wits for decades. …
Zero Dark Thirty Directed by Kathryn Bigelow Director of Photography Greig Fraser USA, 2012 The first 30 seconds of Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty (2012) take place in darkness, with only brief time stamp and audio of some of the people who suffered on that day in September 2001. It’s a device meant to frame …
Over the course of reviewing hundreds of movies a year, a critic over-hypes at least one movie; it happens more times than one would like, but it happens. The main culprit is often red-carpet festival premieres that lead to a dizzying high that positively impacts a film’s reception. A plethora of four star reviews that …
What value does fiction have in the interpretation of a historical event? This question can become central to the reception and understanding of historical films and has taken on important resonance in past years in regards to films like Ben Affleck’s Argo or Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. These films are not documentaries; however they …
Zero Dark Thirty Directed by Kathryn Bigelow Written by Mark Boal USA, 2012 This years’ Academy Awards are surprisingly history-heavy. Lincoln and Argo are both period pieces telling true stories of widely-recognised and declassified events respectively; whilst Django Unchained is a very Tarantino take on Southern slavery-era America. Zero Dark Thirty is the most historically …
(In no particular order) 1: Zero Dark Thirty – The Opening Shot Zero Dark Thirty opens in darkness, with a montage of 911 calls from the victims in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks: A title fades in announcing the movie is “based on first-hand accounts of actual events.” From there the film cuts to …
#1: West of Memphis Directed by Amy Berg Written by Billy McMillin and Amy Berg 2012, USA Following from the original Paradise Lost film and its two sequels, West of Memphis follows the events of one of the most media-covered American crime stories of the last two decades: The West Memphis Three, a case in which three teenagers (Jessie …
Now that we are nearing the big awards of the season, it is time to revisit the nominations and predictions for the 2013 BAFTAs. Part 2 will cover the following categories: (see part one here) Best Film Best British Film Leading Actor Leading Actress Best Supporting Actor Best Supporting Actress Best Director The EE BAFTA …
Zero Dark Thirty Directed by Kathryn Bigelow Written by Mark Boal U.S.A., 2012 The fascinating directing and screenwriting duo of Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal have consciously taken an emotionally and intellectually provocative route in their collective filmmaking career in the past few years. Their interest with regards to telling rich, compelling stories on the …
Zero Dark Thirty Directed by Kathryn Bigelow Written by Mark Boal USA, 2012 So little in this world is tangibly right or wrong that when an opportunity to channel our innate desire to see good triumph over evil comes along, we grab at it with all our strength. Such a chance arose in the aftermath …
2012 will probably go down as one of the best years in cinema of this current decade. This was the hardest year for me to make a top ten list because there were too many great films that came out, especially in the fall. In fact every film on my top ten list was a …
#20: Cosmopolis (50 points) Directed by David Cronenberg Written by David Cronenberg Canada / France, 2012 Every time Cronenberg answers the prayers of his fans with a new movie, it seems that the first reflex is to attempt to categorize it. Is this new film more like the old Cronenberg, in which very strange, very …
I have to say that it’s been a particularly great year for film scores. Not only did we see the return of established staples such as John Williams, Danny Elfman, and Thomas Newman, but we were treated to some strong new talent like Dan Romer, Benh Zeitlin and Heather McIntosh. I had a difficult time …
