I suppose it’s not considered in particularly good taste to watch school children killing each other off for entertainment, but the dexterity with which director Kinji Fukasaku milks the “murderous game” concept for drama and satire is remarkable. The setup could be described as Mean Girls with machine guns crossed with Lord of the Flies [...]
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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 kids
Flushed Away
Most of the recent computer-animated movies feel like endless remakes of Toy Story. This one, about the adventures of a bunch of mice in the London sewers, is produced by Aardman of Wallace & Gromit, and it’s more inventive and, for my money, funnier than your regular Pixar flick. We’ve all come to expect the [...]
Posted by Jürgen on March 12, 2007
http://jurgenfauth.com/2007/03/12/flushed-away/
Electric Shadows
They call it “the Chinese Cinema Paradiso,” and in a way, that’s all you need to know. Electric Shadows tells of two kids growing up during the Cultural Revolution, watching outdoor movies and hanging around the projectionist’s booth. Their scenes are well-handled and sweet, and the little girl’s mother is a lot easier on the [...]
Posted by Jürgen on December 14, 2006
http://jurgenfauth.com/2006/12/14/electric-shadows/
Notes on a Scandal
Drama about a teacher in a frustrated marriage (Cate Blanchett) who begins an affair with a 15-year-old student, and the bitter old spinster (Judi Dench) who develops an unhealthy crush on her. It’s all told in the voice of Dench’s journal entries, which provide a cynical counterpoint to the slightly pathetic front she puts on. [...]
Posted by Jürgen on December 9, 2006
http://jurgenfauth.com/2006/12/09/notes-on-a-scandal/
Sherrybaby
Marcy wrote: “The story of Sherrybaby is simple enough; Gyllenhaal’s moving performance offers enormous complexity” — and who am I to argue? Sherrybaby. Laurie Collyer, 2006. *** [tags]film, 3 stars, marcy, maggie gyllenhaal, kids, prison, drugs[/tags]
Posted by Jürgen on December 4, 2006
http://jurgenfauth.com/2006/12/04/sherrybaby/
Half Nelson
It was one thing to find this little indie gem and be surprised and charmed by it; to come back to it half a year later, when it’s been singled out for praise and awards, makes for a slightly different experience. I’m still blown away by Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps, but the storytelling doesn’t [...]
Posted by Jürgen on December 4, 2006
http://jurgenfauth.com/2006/12/04/half-nelson-2/
Lassie
Yeah, we’ll watch anything with Samantha Morton, even if she sells her son’s beloved collie to Peter O’Toole. What they call “quality family entertainment.” The Loch Ness monster makes a cameo. Lassie. Charles Sturridge, 2005. *** Lassie on Rotten Tomatoes [tags]pets, dogs, kids, film, 3 stars, lassie, samantha morton, peter o’toole[/tags]
Posted by Jürgen on November 28, 2006
http://jurgenfauth.com/2006/11/28/lassie/
Monster House
Here at Muckworld Headquarters, there’s a manhunt on for the sneaky hackers who put Monster House on top of the Netflix queue. Our account must have been compromised–how else to explain that this Spielberg-produced CGI kids movie arrived on our doorstep? I suspect the voices of Steve Buscemi and Maggie Gyllenhaal had something to do [...]
Posted by Jürgen on October 29, 2006
http://jurgenfauth.com/2006/10/29/monster-house/
Tulpendiebe
