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 crime
The Wire
We’re done! Getting through all five seasons of The Wire in one massive binge took weeks & weeks out of our usual movie-viewing schedule, but it couldn’t have been more worth it. Instead of yet another paean to “the best show on television” (which, in fact, isn’t praise enough), here’s a quote by David Simon [...]
Posted by Jürgen on July 27, 2008
http://jurgenfauth.com/2008/07/27/the-wire/
Run Lola Run
Ten years later, Tom Tykwer’s pop masterpiece still fascinates and exhilarates. It’s a film with a simple premise and complex philosophical implications, a movie that’s all about movement which nonetheless points to big questions best contemplated in complete repose. It’s a film about chance, second chances, repetition, and contingency. It’s Groundhog Day with a techno [...]
Posted by Jürgen on September 26, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/09/26/run-lola-run/
Eastern Promises
I’m behind the curve on David Cronenberg’s Russian mobster tale of sin and redemption, so I’ll make this short. At any rate, I can’t discuss the narrative slights-of-hand I admired most without spoiling the film — so let’s just say that the acting by Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, and Armin Mueller-Stahl is top [...]
Posted by Jürgen on September 26, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/09/26/eastern-promises/
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Veteran director Sidney Lumet sends Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke to Westchester for a botched robbery in this grim family crime drama scripted by playwright Kelly Masterson. “It’s a hell of story,” Lumet boasted at the press conference following the New York Film Festival screening, “it’s masterfully plotted.” The rest of my review of [...]
Posted by Jürgen on September 22, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/09/22/before-the-devil-knows-youre-dead/
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/
Sunset Blvd.
Billy Wilder’s timeless noir about the tragedy of fame attained and denied provides up-to-the-minute commentary on the Passion of Lindsay and her latest closeup, but that’s not the angle I’d like to pursue today. Instead, let me draw your attention to a connection that took me by complete surprise last night (yes, I screamed.) Compare [...]
Posted by Jürgen on July 26, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/07/26/sunset-blvd/
Tulpendiebe
