With The Wire finally out of the way — none of the screeners piling up by the door could possibly compete — I’ll try and quickly catch up with some of the bat-free movies I’ve seen over the last few weeks. Charlie BartlettWarm and funny coming-of-teenage tale about a wealthy kid (Anton Yelchin) who dispenses [...]
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"A fast, complex, exhilarating roadster ride through history and time.... Kino is an intoxicating Euro-brew, written with enormous skill and dedication." — Frederick Barthelme
"Jürgen Fauth's deft mashup of genre and historical period is both a full-throttle literary thriller of ideas and a contemplative examination of film and fascism. Kino is a debut of great intellectual force."– Teddy Wayne
"A surprising alternative history. Kino brings the golden age of German cinema to light with loving, sometimes gritty, detail and great precision." – Neal Pollack, author of Jewball.
"A delirious melange of conspiracy, magic, sex, history, bad behavior, and cinema, Kino is a stellar entertainment, and Jürgen Fauth is a writer of rare, sinister imagination." – Owen King, author of Reenactment
"A light-hearted romp that leads straight into darkness and back through the shadows on the wall."– Ben Loory, author of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day
"Movie nuts arise! A happy and felicitous debut."– Terese Svoboda
All posts tagged animation
Beowulf
Robert Zemeckis’ high-tech “performance capture” adaptation of the Old English poem turns actors–Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Robin Wright Penn, John Malkovich, Angelina Jolie–into rubbery action figures. Only Crispin Glover, covered in a disgusting, festering texture, manages to infuse some sort of twisted soul into his Grendel. I saw this in 3-D, which is sorta groovy [...]
Posted by Jürgen on November 14, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/11/14/beowulf/
Tales from Earthsea
Poor Goro. Could there be anything more thankless than taking over a project tailor-made for your genius father, a master of animation renowned for his grace and deep humanity, and attempt to match his best work? When it was announced that Goro Miyazaki, son of anime legend Hayao, was directing the adaptation of Ursula K. [...]
Posted by Jürgen on August 25, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/08/25/tales-from-earthsea/
Free Jimmy
A computer-animation from Norway featuring a junkie elephant, a gang of rabid animal rights activists, hapless stoners, and the Lappish mafia on choppers, with the voices of Simon Pegg, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton, and Kyle MacLachlan? Sure, I’ll go see that. Too bad that everything that’s even remotely funny or interesting about Free Jimmy was [...]
Posted by Jürgen on August 24, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/08/24/free-jimmy/
The Simpsons Movie
Just in case you somehow managed to avoid the longest-running TV sitcom in American history, do not worry: The Simpsons Movie is careful to include everybody in the fun. In the opening minutes, after Itchy and Scratchy have landed on the moon and everybody in the audience has been declared “a sucker” for paying good [...]
Posted by Jürgen on July 24, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/07/24/the-simpsons-movie/
Ratatouille
It’s a funny thing about reviewing film: ever since we started, Marcy and I barely go to the movies any more. We see screenings, watch screeners, attend festivals. We might go to a premiere, but hardly ever do we stand in line at the box office, ride the endless escalators up multiplex floors, buy soda [...]
Posted by Jürgen on July 2, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/07/02/ratatouille/
Appleseed
Slightly above-average sci-fi anime that, as usual, steals liberally from Star Wars, Akira, Blade Runner, and whoever first came up with BattleMechs. Pacing could be tighter but storytelling is solid enough, and the 3-D computer animation is first rate eye candy. You could do worse for genre entertainment with a Paul Oakenfold soundtrack. Appurushîdo. Shinji [...]
Posted by Jürgen on June 26, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/06/26/appleseed/
Tulpendiebe
